(oral recitation of Isaiah 65:17-25)<\/em>
In these verses, the prophet Isaiah reveals to us God\u2019s promise and desire to create new heavens and a new earth.
The poetry, symbols and images of Isaiah give us an important glimpse into God\u2019s desires and dream for humanity.
And this dream or vision that God promises to create or bring into being can be found not only here but also in several other places in our scriptures.<\/p>\nWe hear words very similar to these in Isaiah 11, and again in Revelation 21.\u00a0 If we check the theme of God\u2019s creative desire, of course we go back to the very beginning.
God created the world and all that is in it.
God creates and calls into being a chosen people.
God continues to create a story of redemption and reconciliation of all people.
And God promises to create a future material reality that will look different than the world in which we currently live.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
I love to study the story of God\u2019s creation, especially the first creation as recorded in the Hebrew Bible.\u00a0 I love to discover what is meant in those words, order out of chaos, light in the darkness, a God whose breath and words bring about land and sea, plankton and stars in all their infinite variety and interconnection.\u00a0 I love that these symbols and images and poetry reveal to me a God who is author of both a vast universe and in the broad scheme of things fairly tiny insignificant human beings.\u00a0 And I delight in discovering that God formed these humans intimately with hands and gave them life with breath.\u00a0 These images and this poetry reveal to us that our world was created for and out of love and relationship and not for or out of destruction and violence and dominance as several of the other creation myths born at the same time as this one depict.<\/p>\n
I also love all the parts of the story where God is depicted as One who continually creates and is intimately involved in an ongoing story of redemption and reconciliation.\u00a0 God called a people to know and respond to him and God called that relationship with the people a covenant.\u00a0 For Christians that covenant extends through the story of Jesus and beyond and we are invited to be part of that story.\u00a0 In this way, the creation story continues and we are invited to be co-creators.
In the words of Isaiah 58:6ff that Sue read, our task as co-creators is clearly defined.
\u201cRemove the chains of injustice!
Undo the ropes of the yoke
Let those who are oppressed go free,
And break every yoke you encounter!
Share your bread with those who are hungry,
And shelter homeless poor people!
Clothe those who are naked,
And don\u2019t hide from the needs of your own flesh and Blood!
Do this and your light will shine like the dawn
And your healing will break forth like lightning
Your integrity will go before you
And the glory of YHWH will be your rearguard.
\u00a0
In other words, if we do all of these things we will be participating in the creation of the justice and righteousness that will be part of the new heavens and the new earth that God intends.<\/p>\n
As I\u2019ve said, I love to discover what is revealed in the creation story.\u00a0 I love what that reveals to us about God. I\u2019m convinced that we need to know about and be invited to participate in our role in the ongoing creative work of God.
But I find I shy away from trying to understand, name and proclaim God\u2019s promises to create a future material reality that will look different than the world in which we currently live.\u00a0
Partly, this reluctance simply reveals that I am a child of my own age and generation.\u00a0 I have what I consider a natural skepticism about what it is truly possible to know about the eschaton, the end of this present world as we know it.<\/p>\n
And yet, recently someone said something that has challenged my reluctance to name and proclaim what the Scriptures in their symbols and poetry, proclamation and promise, reveal to us about the future.<\/p>\n
And I quote:
\u201cThe older I get the more important it is to know there is a destination.
Most of my life, I’ve been told that it’s the journey that is important,
\u2018enjoy the journey,\u2019
But this journey has to be going somewhere.\u201d <\/p>\n
This journey has to be going somewhere.
And there is no lack of speculation in our world about where we are headed.
From Mayan astrological predictions about the end of the age that will occur in the year 2012, to Margaret Atwood\u2019s futuristic novels, and pre-millennial and post-millennial debates, humanity is fascinated with questions of prediction and destination.
And specifically related to our scriptures, for all time, people have tried to name and pin down exactly what the new heavens, new earth and future reign and judgment of God will look like.
We want to know where we are going.
And that\u2019s important.
Ideas and imaginings and at least some knowledge about where we are going provide hope which is one of the most important ingredients in a healthy and meaningful life.<\/p>\n
Ultimately our knowledge about where we are going must be guided first and foremost by what we already know even if what we know is limited by our human finitude.
Our scriptures provide us with many different ways of telling us a story that reveals to us a creating God of promise.
This God created us for and out of love and relationship.
This God continues that creative work and power among all people.
At times, God invites and at other times God demands or commands that we be part of that creativity.\u00a0 Recalling again the verses in Isaiah 58.\u00a0 They are imperatives.
Remove the chains.
Shelter the homeless.
Share your bread.
As the church of Jesus Christ, we are part of the covenant relationship with God and therefore inheritors of the covenant claim of God on our lives as well as the promises of God.
The promises of God repeatedly remind us that we are headed towards new heavens and a new earth.\u00a0 And these promises are never divorced from concrete situations.\u00a0 Not in Isaiah and not in Revelation.\u00a0
The Word of God in Isaiah 65 about the creation of new heavens and a new earth was initially spoken into the concrete experience of Israelite post-exilic context.\u00a0 Israelite history to that point had included; (and I summarize briefly) slavery and escape from slavery, a brief period of self-determination and governance under judges and then a monarchy, followed by exploitation, marginalization, deportation to Babylon, oppression and persecution, occasional famines, refugee status and when these words of God in the latter part of Isaiah broke into their existence they were at a precarious stage of rebuilding their society.\u00a0 In light of this context, I can\u2019t help but think about the Haitian experience and context.\u00a0\u00a0 Just over 200 years ago, Haitians were slaves to the French.\u00a0 A revolution by the slaves achieved freedom from slavery in 1804.\u00a0 However, the French demanded that the people of Haiti pay reparations for the sugar plantations and factories they, the French, lost in the revolution and subsequent emancipation of the slaves. These demands kept the Haitians in poverty for decades.\u00a0\u00a0 Other global sanctions and economic policies of exploitation have also worked against Haitian economic and social health.
In an MCC video I watched this week two comments stood out for me.
One gentleman connects the past with the current situation, when
\nhe says,
\u201cThere are a lot of people who say we can\u2019t let them build shanty towns anymore. That is theoretical because the construction of shantytowns
responds to a historical reality, a social reality and an economic reality
that have developed over the last 200 years.\u00a0 So we have to attack the structural problems that are social inequality, exploitation, exclusion and the marginalization of the people in the rest of the country.\u201d
And then another gentleman in the film shares his own dream and hope for a better future.
He says, \u201cAll people in the Americas, all people on the earth need to come together to help the Haitian people resolve this crises.\u00a0 It\u2019s when we resolve a crisis like in Haiti that we will demonstrate the capacity we have for another world; a world of Solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Into this concrete world and context let us hear the text from Isaiah.
God is about to create new heavens and a new earth (everything will be involved)
We are invited to be glad and rejoice in what is being created.
The city of God will be a joy and delight.
It is a place where those who have wept and cried and had their lives cut short will no longer experience that distress.
It is a place and a time where people will enjoy the fruits of their labour, not have the fruits of their labour exploited by another.
It will be a place and time where God\u2019s blessing will rest on all people.\u00a0 God will respond to the people before they call out.
Traditional enemies will co-exist in peace and there will be no violence.
This is the kind of world that provides the Haitians with the hope that will give them the energy to do what they need to do to rebuild their future and it gives us, outside of Haiti, a vision for how we might also be involved in that rebuilding.
Hope in this kind of world depends ultimately on God\u2019s promises but does not ignore the importance of living in the world as co-creators of God.
Ultimately we are invited to know that
God created the past, is creating in the present and will create the future.
We have been created by and for love and relationship with God and others in the world. God is transforming and will transform these relationships into new heavens and new earth.\u00a0 The exact particulars of all this are unknown.\u00a0 But a future with a creating God is certain. This is the future, our destination; it is where the journey is taking us. <\/font><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n\u00a0
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