Plan for Renewal Texts: Isaiah 65:17-25 Preached: 11/13/16 Revelation 21:1-6 We have a clear plan for renewal but it has nothing to do with the results of the election. If you think our country was a disaster and needed a big change consider the people of ancient Jerusalem, during the days of the Prophet Isaiah 500 years before the birth of Christ. As bad as you imagine our economy, our employment situation, our crumbling infrastructure these ones had it much worse. Two generations had passed since their ancestors, with much rejoicing, had set out from Babylon, freed from exile, to repopulate the city of David. Those were exciting days yet frightening. Their prophets had sung of how God would lead the people home as all creation rejoiced. They embraced visions of a glorious new Temple set within a sparkling city. But reality was: Jerusalem remained a ruined city. The vision was only that reality was nothing to celebrate. That was nearly 50 years in the past, yet still, the brick and mortar Jerusalem was little changed. Even though there was a refurbished Temple, built on the same spot as the old one it was shabby compared with the great edifice of Solomon, destroyed by the Babylonians. The great walls of Jerusalem remained little more than rubble. Houses and markets, which once teemed with people, were broken eyesores. Those who despaired that the grand promises of yesteryear would ever be achieved could hardly be blamed.
The political situation was bleak, many despaired. Yet, certain individuals began to raise their heads and lift their voices and sing the old songs of joy and hope, if in a new key. The ancient promises had been true all along, they insisted, but in a far greater way than anyone had realized. Women and men had thought about the new Jerusalem in all too-tangible terms, relying too much on their flawed leaders. They had focused too much on the city of bricks and stones their ancestors had inhabited since the days of David. They began to understand that the new Jerusalem God had in mind far transcended the old city of merchants and traders, bustling markets and Temple festivities. That Jerusalem had been somewhat restored, true. But God s eye was on another Jerusalem not built with bricks and mortar, but the new Jerusalem of the human heart! We re not just talking about a new city, it s much broader in scope, we re talking about new heavens and a new earth. The very order of existence is about to be turned on its ear. Isaiah is well-aware of the perennial problems that plague humankind and foster sorrow and despair infant mortality and premature death among them. Such causes for distress will be banished forever from the new creation It would perhaps be tempting to say that Isaiah simply realized that the Jerusalem of his day would never fulfill the promise. If one wished to avoid despair, you might say, these promises will only be fulfilled at some unspecified point in the future. You could dismiss the poetry ignore God s promise, as little more than pie-in-the-sky utopianism.
But this skepticism cannot be the stance of the faithful it misses the point and fails to account for the joy that courses through God s Word. Isaiah is convinced, and we are invited to be, also, that God remains invested in creation. All things will achieve the ultimate destiny which God intends, despite any setbacks. We live with that vision and have the courage to trust that God is, right now, making all things new. The process has already begun. Christ was and is and is to come As this long year draws to a close, a long election season is over, the hope of another Advent is nearly upon us even with so many challenges yet unmet God s promise even now is about to dawn upon us. The promise of a new heaven and a new earth casts all earthly politics into perspective. We hold onto this promise God s people always have. John s remarkable Revelation, which brings the New Testament to conclusion, also addresses a country and a capital in political and social despair. Jerusalem now lay in ruins again this time the result of the ravages of the Roman army. There will be no need for a restored Temple in John s vision, for God will live among God s own people: See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God. It s important for us to keep God s intention for the future in front of us. Of course we understand there is a long way to go. Yes, it seems hardly possible that the world we know will ever get there. Yes, we have lots of reasons for pessimism. But holding on to the vision prompts us to action in the here and now. We celebrate God and God s Kingdom, we live AS IF the new heaven and new earth were already here. We cannot live up to it perfectly, but the church must be an outpost of the kingdom...
...where the needs of each member are the concerns of all, where widows and orphans are protected, where the hungry are fed and the thirsty are given drink where prisoners are visited, where the refugee is welcomed, where the despairing are given hope, where the homeless are given a place to stay, where children know they are important and worship always leads to action in the every day. The presidential election produced a result that was startling. Everyone agrees the outcome was nothing short of an amazing political upset. Half the country is elated; the other half discouraged. We have people on both sides in our own congregation. You might be ecstatic at the outcome, others are mortified, some may be ambivalent about the whole thing. It doesn t matter. In God s vision, not only does the lion lay down with the lamb, but also the elephant with the donkey that is the republican with the democrat. What matters is that we're citizens of another country, with a different agenda and different mission. We are ultimately ambassadors for no earthly political leader, but for Jesus Christ. The change to which we commit ourselves is nothing short of new heavens and a new earth.
Our duty now is the same as it has been during the previous Administration; it is the vision articulated by the prophet Micah: To do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). As we do our part, God works in us and through us, bringing about the newness of the kingdom. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.