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Something Old, Something New A Timely Sermon Before Holy Week on Isaiah 43.16-21 by David C. Mauldin Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama The past is a good place to visit, but a bad place to live. Without the past, we do not know who we are. In fact, without the past we have no identity. We know both God and ourselves because we know the mighty things God has done. He created us. He revealed his will to us. He showed us who he is. Above all, he sent us Jesus. Unless we know these things, we cannot be God’s people. At the same time, we exist in the present. If God were not at work among us now, what good would it do to know what he did once upon a time? The cross has power because Jesus died for you, and he forgives you in the present. His resurrection has power because he lives and reigns today and always. Today’s scripture reading offers us a timely word of warning against living in the past. “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” God said this to his people of old, and now he says it to us. In a way it is highly ironic. Right before these words, God is described using images from the Exodus. Right after them, we find more Exodus imagery and a reference to something the prophet Isaiah had spoken a long time back. So even as it tells us not to remember former things, this passage is almost nothing but former things. We will figure out what is going on with that when we work through the passage, but it is not what I want to emphasize. The message this passage has for us is a warning against focusing so much on what God has done in the past that we miss what God is doing right now. The past should illuminate the present work of God and help us to recognize it. We can, however, pay all our attention to the past and fail to see God in the present. God is revealed in his mighty deeds of old, but he is not limited to them. He is God, eternal and timeless—no less real and powerful now than in the days of the Exodus or the events of Holy Week. I consider this a timely word precisely because Holy Week is just one week away. When you remember Jesus’ triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, do not forget that he is present here and now. As important as how the people of Jerusalem received him two thousand years ago is how you receive him today. When you remember his last Supper with his disciples, join with him at his table here. Through his Holy Spirit he is present with us as surely as with them. When you remember his agony in the garden and how his disciples fell asleep, know that his command to “watch and pray” is for you. Are you the kind of disciple who pays superficial attention to spiritual things, content to drift along after Jesus? Or will you watch and pray with him, following him with diligence? When you remember his death on the cross, understand that he did it for you. What does it say about your need that God’s solution had to be so radical and costly? He died for you on Good Friday, but his love for you is eternal. When you remember his glorious resurrection on the third day—especially when you remember that—do not fail to see resurrection as both a present reality and as your future. It means even more than just “Jesus is alive today.” As I say every week: “The power of God that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you.” Do not just believe in the resurrection. Live it! Now! Today! Every day. In short, do not limit God, in your mind, to the past. See how he is at work even now. He is about to do a new thing. Do you not perceive it? This passage is worth a close look. If you know the Bible well, it is a beautiful picture rendered in color and three dimensions. If you do not, it can appear in stark black and white with only a flat two dimensions. The context gives it depth, and echoes of other parts of scripture give it color. Perhaps I can help you see them. First, the context: If you were here two weeks ago for our sermon on Isaiah 55, you may recall that the Book of Isaiah contains three writings from three different times. Chapters 1-39 go back to the prophet Isaiah himself, who lived about 700 years before Christ. His basic theological vision was simple but powerful: God is in control. God has a purpose. God has a people. God’s people have a mission. I told you how later God’s people were taken into captivity by the Babylonians. Chapters 40-55 of Isaiah were written because that same simple message took on a whole new meaning when God promised to rescue his people and bring them back to the Promised Land. Today’s reading is part of this message. To understand this passage, you have to know this is what it is talking about: the return of God’s people from Babylon to the Promised Land. Now all three dimensions begin to stand out, let’s see what we can do about the color. Second, the echoes of other parts of the Bible: This passage draws on at least two other parts of the Bible as it promises a new beginning to God’s people. One is the Exodus. The other is the first part of the Book of Isaiah. The Exodus, of course, is when God rescued the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt and led them under Moses to the Promised Land. Our passage says, “Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters …” Who is God? Who is making these promises? It is the Lord, who when the Israelites were trapped between the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army, made a way where there was no way. Why point back to that? Because although exile had been traumatic, it also lasted 70 years. By the end, many of God’s people had settled down to a relatively comfortable existence in Babylon. Some of them even gave up the God of Israel for some of the Babylonian gods. Now some prophets were promising a new act of God, a return to the Promised Land—a place they had only heard about. On one hand, why would they want to go back? On the other, even those who did want to go back realized there was simply no way. Even if they tried to go back, what would they go back to? Jerusalem and its temple and all the other towns of Judah had been destroyed. They didn’t have the power to go back and rebuild. There was no way. But, the prophets reminded them: God makes a way where there is no way. We do well to remember that. How often in our lives do we face a hopeless situation? Once in a while, anyway. Our society has needs that we have no idea even where to begin. Our church faces challenges to which we lack answers. Not to mention our families and our personal lives. Our passage reminds us: If God can make a way through the sea for Israel … well, you get the idea. It continues in verse 17: “who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior, they lie down, they cannot rise.” Is it talking about the army of Egypt a long time ago or the army of Babylon still standing when the prophet spoke? Yes. Both. That is the genius of the passage and how it works. Return from exile is no different from the Exodus. God did one; he will do the other. What we learn from the past is the character of God, but we must look for his work in the present. Having told us about God, the passage now warns us not to remember former things. You need to know that the Hebrew mind meant something different by remembering than we usually do. When we remember, we think about something. We are in the present. Whatever we remember is in the past. There is not necessarily a connection between the two. It was different for God’s Old Testament people. For them, remembering meant the past gave shape to the present. Victor Shepherd expresses it well in the little paragraph on the front of your bulletin: “To remember, Hebraically, is to bring a past event up into the present so that what happened back then continues to happen right now—and is therefore the operative reality of our existence.” Ask one of the exiles living in Babylon, “Who are you?” What would he say? He would likely say, “I am one of God’s people. Long ago he rescued my ancestors from slavery in Egypt and made us his people.” The Exodus, you see, defined God’s people. Look at their version of the Apostle’s Creed, found in Deuteronomy 26.5-10. The heart of it says: “When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders.” Notice all the first person pronouns. God didn’t rescue our ancestors, the ancient Hebrew would say, he rescued us! That is what it means to remember. When our passage says, “Do not remember,” it means they need to change that answer. “Who are you?” “I am one of God’s people. We were in exile, but God brought us out of Babylon with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders.” You see the difference. God is the same, but this new thing he is doing is so spectacular, it will change what it means to be God’s people. Of course, the Exodus was still important. But the generation that left Babylon would not have to remember it. They would live it for themselves. The last couple of verses in the passage echo other parts of scripture, and the point they make is this: The return from exile will be even better than the Exodus. Jackals and ostriches were symbols of judgment. They had been ever since Isaiah had threatened such destruction that cities would be inhabited by nothing but jackals and ostriches (Isa 34.13). If God wanted to do something good, he could get rid of the jackals and populate the Promised Land with people. But God doesn’t want to do something good, he plans to do something great. Instead of getting rid of the jackals and ostriches, he transforms them so that they honor him. No longer are they symbols of judgment. Now they become symbols of creation restored to harmony with God and giving him praise. God promises rivers in the desert to give drink to his people. If you remember the Exodus story, you know Moses struck a rock and water came out. God provided for his people. It was not an abundance, but it was enough. The return from exile will be better than that. Forget about providing just what his people need. God will provide more than enough, whole rivers in the desert. This is figurative language, but its meaning is clear. What God is doing today is even greater than what he did in the past. In the Exodus, God made a way through the sea. In the return from exile, God will make a way through the wilderness. In the Exodus, water from a rock. In the return from exile, whole rivers. In the Exodus, God’s people grumbled and complained the whole way. When they return from exile, they will sing praises. In the Exodus, they were sojourners through alien lands. In the return from exile, God will give them home-field advantage. That is what our passage was about in its original context. What does God say to through it now? At least two things. One is about Jesus; the other is about us. When Jesus came out of the Judean wilderness preaching about the kingdom of God, God was again doing a new thing. If the prophet expected the return from exile to be even better than the Exodus, Jesus was better than both. In fact, Jesus was the heart of God’s eternal plan, the greatest of all the exciting new things God had in store. In the case of Jesus’ ministry and his death and resurrection, we see a familiar pattern. Just as in Isaiah, God’s character is the same; God’s purpose is the same; but God does something new and so unexpected that his people are not ready for it and they stumble to understand. God’s character is the same. God loves his people. He knows their need. He acts with power to save them. He provides for them. And by his grace he makes them his people. We see God’s character in the Exodus, the return from exile, and in Jesus. If we have eyes to see, we can still see it today. We should, for God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Although God’s character is constant, his works are usually new and surprising. You just never know what he will do or how he will make a way or whose life he will change next. God’s purpose is also the same. Verse 21, the last verse in our passage, talks about “the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.” This is God’s unchanging purpose. Why did God bring Israel out of Egypt? So they could be his people, declare his praise, and point the whole world toward God. He brought his people back from exile for the same reason. He sent Jesus for the same reason. He sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and started the church for the same reason. He has brought you and me to this very place for the same reason. He has told us to teach our children and to invite our friends and neighbors for the same reason. When we are long gone from this earth, he will still be changing lives and doing amazing things in order to make this purpose a reality. This leads to what God wants to say to us now about us. Figuring out what God is up to is notoriously difficult. But although we do not always know how he is moving, at least we know what his purpose is: He is creating a people for himself to declare his praise. That’s us. Through Jesus Christ, he has made us his people. However else God uses us, we know he wants us to declare his praise. We do that in worship, and also in proclaiming the Good News about Jesus. Ever since the beginning, God has wanted his people to give him their heartfelt love and devotion. And he has expected them to point the rest of the world toward him, both with their witness and the quality of their lives. When we declare God’s praise in these ways, we can be confident that we are furthering God’s purpose. And we can expect God to do new and exciting things. In case you hadn’t noticed, these are exciting times to be a Christian. Christianity is growing faster today than ever before. If you wonder how that can be with churches getting older and emptier, the answer is simple: Christianity is growing in Africa and Asia. In Europe the churches are barely shadows of their former selves. Even there, though, Christ is not without a witness, and there are faithful Christians and churches—once a majority, now a minority—who are seeing God do new things. As for America … Christians are not a minority, but the churches do not have the influence they once did. About 50 years ago, America was a Christian nation, culturally speaking. The Constitution says government has to stay out of religion, so America was not by law a Christian nation, but Christianity was so powerful in the culture that it hardly mattered. Things have changed. Our culture is not Christian anymore. Many of you who knew the old days better than I did are sorry to see the change, but I invite you to look on the positive side. Did power, prestige, wealth, and all the other benefits the church once enjoyed make it more faithful? Not necessarily, and in many cases it seems to have made it less faithful. Might God be doing a new thing? Maybe God has taken us out of a comfortable place and sent us into a situation like the New Testament church faced. Whether God is doing it or not, this new American culture will be a pruning for the church. People are not going to come because it is the thing to do. They will come and get involved and become leaders because God has changed their lives and they cannot deny his power. However God is working, whatever new thing he has in mind, we need not be afraid. God’s people never have to be afraid, because he is the one who makes a way when there is no way. All we have to do is be his people and declare his praise. Holy Week is one week away. We will do a lot of remembering. We will not do any living in the past. Those dramatic events in Jesus’ life reveal to us who God is. If we have faith, they also make us who we are. Because the same God who led his people out of Egypt and out of Babylon, and raised Jesus from the dead, is our God too. His grace and love and power and care can be seen in our lives, if we dare to see them. He has made us his people, so that we might rejoice and worship him, as well as share his love with the world. So let us rejoice: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning” [Lam 3.22-23]. Amen. rev_mauldin@yahoo.com March 25, 2007