November 17, 2019 – Isaiah 65:17-25
Isaiah 65:17-25
Stewards of God’s Future
Lectionary 33C – November 17, 2019
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
We have become very familiar in the last few months with the story of the Israelites
who were taken into exile by the Babylonians.
They became refugees – taken from their homes while their city Jerusalem was devastated.
For 70 years they languished far from home and traumatized.
When they finally are able to return to their homes, they rejoice –
but life is much more difficult than they expected and despair soon sets in.
The thing they had hoped for . . . is hard.
The task of re-building their lives and rebuilding their homes and
rebuilding their economy is very difficult.
They begin to lose hope.
Along the way, there are those who offer support.
Community leaders like Ezra and Nehemiah offer encouragement to the people in their task.
Prophets like Haggai urge them on in the task of re-building their lives:
“take courage . . . and work! For God is with you” we heard him say last week.
And today, Isaiah holds out one of the most inspiring and beautiful visions in all scripture to
energize the people, to inspire them, and to give them something to work towards.
The community leaders and the prophets repeatedly tell the people to look forward and
to move forward.
It’s very easy for the people to dwell in the past.
On all the hurts done to them.
And on all the mistakes they made that got them into trouble in the first place.
But today comes the most ringing declaration possible from God:
Remember not the former things!
Forget about the past!
Well, we can all relate to how the people were feeling, right?
We are conditioned to let the past shape us.
It a powerful idea in our world that it is our past that shapes us above all.
That all our experiences – good and bad – are what shape us.
That the things that have happened to us determine our future.
Sometimes we dwell in the past and wonder how things would have turned out if
that thing had not happened to us, or if we had made a different decision.
Or what about the news?
The news that is given us is often bad news.
We open our browsers or turn on the tv or look at the news feed on twitter.
What is often reported is very negative and it’s easy to lose hope in the thought that
all the bad things can only and inevitably lead to a bad future.
But Isaiah – Isaiah has a very different idea of what it is that determines us.
In Isaiah’s way of thinking,
it is not what human beings have done that ultimately determines the future.
And it is certainly not some notion of fate or destiny.
Rather, what determines our future is the presence – right here and right now –
of a very caring and compassionate God.
Do not remember the former things! Forget about the past! says God.
And why does God say that?
Because our God, the God of all being, the God who formed the mountains and seas and lands,
the God who formed each of us in our mother’s wombs – our God is a God who loves to
create new things.
Our God is always always always creating new things:
new life, new situations, new relationships – a whole new world out of the old one.
I am about to create a new heavens and a new earth! Says God.
Be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating! Says God.
Live forward into the new day!
Don’t live backward any more!
Don’t be shaped by the past – be shaped by the future!
I am the Creator God – I create new futures that you will find hard to imagine!
To the people of Israel God says:
Yes: I know in your difficult situation both the young and the old are dying prematurely.
But in the renewed earth I am creating all will live their lives to the fullest extent!
Yes: I know that you have been refugees, torn from your land, unable to live in the homes
you built and eat from the land you farmed.
But in the renewed earth I am creating you will live in the homes you build and
eat the produce you farm.
Do not remember the former things – forget about the past!
Life can only be lived forward, not backward.
And you can live forward with hope because I am with you and
I am creating a new future for you.
So live into that future – be determined by the good future I have in mind for you.
Take courage – and work towards that future I have promised you.
And then, as Isaiah’s vision of God’s future finds its greatest expression,
we hear one of the most beautiful promises in all future:
when God speaks of a day when you become friends with the unlikeliest people.
When there is peace between the unlikeliest people.
Between people who were conditioned to be enemies, or foreigners, or different, or whatever.
But guess what? God doesn’t care about past prejudices.
God wants us to be conditioned by a future in which very diverse peoples live together in peace.
In the way we are conditioned to think, wolves and lambs do not live together very long.
But in God’s way of thinking, all creatures are made to live together in harmony and respect.
The question the prophet puts before us this morning is this: what will we let shape our lives?
What will you allow to shape the kind of person you are?
Apparently we have a choice in the matter – which is great news.
And so the prophet is urging you to let the past go wherever the past is holding back
the best that is within you.
The prophet is gently encouraging you to let go of disappointment and hurt.
Instead, the prophet encourages you to move forward – into a future shaped by God.
Into a future where you find peace with unlikely friends.
Into a future where you can find hope – hope for life and good relationships.
Into a future of peace where you and everyone around you will have enough.
Be shaped, the prophet urges us, be shaped by a future of peace and well-being.
Let all your actions be shaped and guided by that.
Do not let the bitterness of the past determine your future.
Let God’s promised future of good determine your future.
Take a step into tomorrow – trusting that God is creating things you cannot yet imagine.
Take courage – and work.
We sometimes imagine our roles as religious people to be caretakers or stewards of the past.
Certainly the saints have given us gifts that we treasure and honour.
But even more important – the prophet urges us this morning –
is to be caretakers of God’s future.
Be a steward of God’s promised future.
When you hold weekly food banks, you are taking good care of
God’s future vision of plenty for all.
When you host community meals, you are taking good care of
God’s future vision of hospitality among all peoples.
When you welcome every single person who walks through our doors you are helping create
a diverse and strong community of peace and harmony.
When you help and host refugees among us you are making God’s hope come true:
you are creating something new, you are creating a new future of possibility
out of an old story of war and violence.
Through you, God is doing a new thing right here at Sargent and Victor.
Through you, God is creating something right here that did not exist before.
Isn’t that empowering? You are caretakers of God’s future.
So keep going.
Keep giving generously – you are changing many lives with you offerings.
Keep volunteering – you are making a difference in this world one person at a time.
Keep taking courage and keep working – God is with you and God is working through you.
God is very close to us here.
This God raised Jesus from death – God is not conditioned by the past of violence and hurt.
And so neither are you.
So keep taking courage – and keep working.
When you do these things you are living into God’s future – and bringing it closer.
When you do these things you are bringing heaven to earth.
Live forward together, create a new future together with God, and together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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