© Rev. Lance Carrithers, all rights reserved.  Permission required to copy any portion of this message by any means. Email for permission: lance@firstchurchdc.com

"What's New?"

Isaiah 43:16-21

The prophet is addressing a people who have been living in exile for as long as 45 to 47 years.    Perhaps they barely remember the stories their parents and grandparents told about old Jerusalem and the Temple there.  These are a generation who were born and raised in Exile.  It is all they know.   They are comfortable, content, and are not necessarily looking for a way “home,” for Babylon is now their home, they are strangers to Jerusalem and the promised land.

The prophet communicates the words and thoughts of God Almighty.   First, they are reminded of their ancestors who were imprisoned in a foreign land and how God had delivered them. The Lord God who addresses them through the prophet is the same God who made a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, for their ancestors when they fled Egypt.

The same God who brought out chariot and horse, army and warrior; only to extinguish the threat of Pharaoh's army under  the sea like a wick is snuffed out.

But quickly, the prophet changes tone.   Yes, this is the same God who delivered the slaves out of Egypt and into the promised land.  

It is important to remember the power and strength of God, but it would be a mistake to think God will act in the present situation exactly in the same way God acted in the past.  Do not remember and hold onto the past, the prophet tells them.   This new day is not the exodus, and God promises to do a new thing for a new day.

“I am about to do a new thing;” God tells them through the prophet.  “Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” 

Do you hear?   God will do a new thing.   That’s a given.   God will act in a new and fresh way for a new situation, and new day.

The only question that remains is “as it occurs, as it springs forth, will the people perceive it?”  Will they recognize God’s hand in the circumstances, and understand?

“I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself.” God tells them.  Those who are comfortable in Exile must hear God’s plan.  Yes, there will be a wilderness ahead, the desert that separates them from the land of their ancestors.   But in that wilderness, God will provide.  God will lead them out, but will care for their needs as they go.

And there is a purpose in this plan of God.   That the people may be filled with praise, and know that God is their deliverer, their redeemer.  They are asked to trust, and to give God praise.

Later in Isaiah, we will learn why this is so important.   That this praise-filled people might become a light for the nations.  That they might, through their praise, declare to the rest of the world the mighty power and yet tender mercy of their God.

Isaiah proclaims these words of God with a passion.  Standing before him  is the remnant of the once prolific nation of Israel, the people of God.   Many of them are content for things to continue just as they are, just as they always have been in their limited memories.   Perhaps there are a few who are waiting for God to defeat their captors, just as he did for their ancestors who  escaped from Egypt.  God should act as God acted so long ago.  How many people are disappointed to learn that renewal or restoration will not look like the past?  

             Rachel McIver Morey is a probationary elder in our conference who eloquently compares the problems of living in memory

with Alzheimer’s disease. 

“The cruelty of Alzheimer's disease and dementia” Rachel writes, “is that they place people we love in the ultimately inaccessible

 place: the remembered past.  We can't go there and spend an afternoon with them on their grandparents' farm… We can't sit with

 them at their childhood dinner table.  It exists only in memory and faded photos. Memory, in this sense, can be an enemy of vision:

a diseased trap which keeps us forever looking back… perhaps fighting some vague sense of regret.”

We’ve talked about Lent as a time for pause and reflection.  Time to examine the present, to understand where one is so that one is able to more accurately turn in such a way that our lives align with God’s purposes and plan.  That is what repentance is about.  A surrender of one’s self so that one can “turn” toward God.   And if one turns toward God, then that means that one turns toward the “new thing” God is about to do in every new day and situation, turn toward perceiving the new thing God is about to do. 

I believe there are many who believe in their hearts that they are turned toward God, yet cannot begin to perceive God’s new direction, God’s new plan according to God’s purposes.   These lament the changes that our present day have brought us, and long for a return to the old, the comfortable. 

Lent can become a time for our congregation as a whole to examine and reflect upon the present, and name those things that are oh so comfortable and familiar, but which keeps us from perceiving the new direction God may going?

Bishop Jones is fond of saying “The United Methodist Church is perfectly poised for vital ministry and great expansion…if

the 1950’s ever return!”   His point?   We cannot be who we have been, for this is a new day, and God is asking us to be faithful to God’s new vision for our communities and the world.

This got me to thinking.   The 1950’s and early 60’s were the hey day for most mainline protestant churches, including the United Methodist Church.   Our buildings were full to overflowing.  Second World War families were filling the churches with children.  The churches were the social, cultural, and spiritual centers of our lives and our communities.  Who can remember those days?

And who wouldn’t want to return?   God was good.   God filled the churches then.   God was important to most everyone then.   Why can’t we just go back?

The answer?  Because it’s not 1950 anymore.    The way forward is not the way back.   Memory can be the enemy of vision.   God is assessing the things as they are in a new day, and is doing a new thing.   “Can we not perceive it?”

Our community in 1955 enjoyed a certain homogeneity—the majority fell within a fairly narrow social, educational, racial, economical and political band.  There were simply “more people like us” around.    Back the, blue laws controlled shopping, entertainment and other opportunities on Sundays so that churches were the “only game in town.”  Cultural mores chastised those who did not go to church.

All we need to do is to force a return to the good old days.  Pass and enforce blue laws.  Cut out the Sunday youth sports organizations and for that matter, Sunday professional sports.  Women will have to leave the workforce and return home.  Allow the church to once again have a monopoly on the market so that it will no longer have to compete for people’s time and attention.  Drive out those who are not like the rest of us so that we don’t have to deal with the messiness of diversity.  And while you are at it, bring back the old Methodist hymnal, the one with all the “Amen’s” at the end of the hymns.   And the King James Bible. 

Ah—but the 1950’s will not return.  We live in a day and time and place where the church is just one of a plethora of social, recreational and entertaining opportunities.   Yet, because of this, people are more prone to participate in the life of a church for spiritual reasons, rather than social ones.  Mothers are primarily working, out of the home, and are looking forward to “down-time” on weekends, not opportunities to socialize.  Yet, because they are busy they are perhaps more now, than ever, looking for help in raising their children with the values and beliefs they know will enable them to be better citizens. 

Yes, our community is far more racially, economically, educationally, and socially diverse than it was 50 years ago.  But perhaps this means the church in Dodge City might more closely resemble the Kingdom of God which includes all people of every nation who worship Jesus as savior and Lord. 

And while it is true that cultural mores no longer shame people into going to church, I’d like to think that it is a good thing that people come to churches like ours hoping to find meaning and purpose for their lives in Christ, rather than attending only because they worry how others might judge them. 

God tells the people, “I am about to do a new thing.  Do you not perceive it?  And perhaps no words in the Bible are more pointedly directed at the United Methodist Church in this day and time.

In fact, God is doing a new thing.  Globally, the United Methodist Church is exploding in Korea and parts of Africa.   New emergent church groups are growing with 20 and 30 year olds who want less to go to church as they do “be the church.”   Old United Methodist congregations are finding rebirth and new life as they change to reflect more accurately the community around them.   An example of this in our own conference is the revitalization of Dellrose United Methodist Church in Wichita.   When Rev. Kevass Harding was appointed there in 1998, it was a tiny remnant congregation of 25 inhabiting a building they could no longer keep up or afford.  The church and the annual conference believed that the church might find new life by being better able to connect to the community around them, a community that had increasingly changed in its socio-economic and racial makeup.   The result is that today, Dellrose is one of our fastest growing United Methodist Churches in our conference, a multi-racial church now averaging nearly 400 in worship on Sunday mornings where the average age is under 35 years of age! 

God says, “I am about to do a new thing, do you not perceive it?”

            What do you suppose the implications are for us?   God will find a way to nourish the spiritual needs of young adults, busy working families, and Hispanic immigrants in Dodge City.  God will do a new thing!   The question remains, “do we not perceive it?”

God will find a way to meet the needs of those who are injured and disappointed with life.  Who have not found meaning or purpose in a consumer culture.  Who seek assistance to help raise their children and provide them with the tools to help guide their children into adulthood with success.   The question remains, “do we not perceive it?”

God will find a way.   In this day.   At this time.   In this place.   A new way.   The only question that remains is this:  “do we not perceive it?”   If the answer is no, we will remain in our comfortable and familiar setting.  God will go forward into a new day. 

If the answer is yes, that we DO perceive God is doing a new thing, then we might be willing to risk the uncomfortability and put energy into turning toward God, moving in God’s direction.   What’s new?   Everything.   Where do we go?  Where God leads us.  How do we do it?  In trust…in trust…in God.  Thanks be to God.