The Isaiah passage seems so
cheerful, but it is actually a tough one.  It asks people to let go
of the faith of the past to pay attention to what God is doing in the
present.  And while that sounds great and all, for most of us, our
faith is pretty deeply rooted in the past, for good reasons, and
we’re not that interested in letting go of it.

That’s the always reason.  The
2022 reason builds on it.  A lot of us are rather sick and tired of
new things, and would rather be able to settle into some of the old
things we miss a lot.

Please count me among those who
are struggling with this.  This week a small group of us met with a
team to talk about the technology we’ll need to move towards
livestreaming our service.  They asked great questions, and I found
that I kept answering with, “well, before the pandemic…., right
now…., but I don’t know what the answer is in 2 years.”  I miss
being able to answer simple questions with simple answers!

When I think about what our
church life looked like in February of 2020, I’m astounded at the
changes.  I can barely remember the simplicity of ONE worship
service, and I didn’t adequately appreciate the wonder that was
people being able to be together in a room, safely.  I sort of
remember church night, a time with 4 or 5 meetings, and having to
figure out who met in what room – instead of which zoom account to
use for which meeting.  I remember children’s times on the steps of
the sanctuary when I got to talk to kids, and we could see each
other’s faces, a time I miss deeply.  I remember seeing people’s
faces when I was preaching, and getting a sense of what made worked
and what didn’t, and being able to adapt.  I miss that.  I miss
parking lot conversations (am I allowed to admit that), and the
church office being loud when people ran into each other, and I
really really miss SUSTAIN ministry.  I miss choir anthems, and the
sound I heard behind me during worship when I erred in following the
bulletin and choir members were trying to figure out if it was
important enough to tell me.  I miss greeting our breakfast guests at
the door, and watching people chit chat with each other.  Oh my, do I
miss communion after church, and also rushing to finish it so we
could get to a 2^nd hour!

When I hear, “do not remember
the former things, or consider the things of old,” that’s a hard
line to take in.  Those things were sacred.  They helped me know my
place in the world.  They were important, and meaningful, and lovely,
and I struggle to let them go.  

I invite you to think about, and
even name those things you miss.  (in comments / outloud)  

There is a power in naming those
things, in acknowledging what we’ve lost, and how hard it is to have
lost it.

There is something of a
scholarly debate over which “things of old” the Exiles were being
invited to forget.  The way I hear it, they’re all a bit
controversial, because ours is a faith that REMEMBERS.  Yet, “for
everything there is a season,” so… this is a different sort of
call.  #newthing.  

Some say that what the Exiles
are being invited to forget – so that they can see what God is up
to in the present – is the Exodus itself.  God who made a way
through the sea, God who saved them from chariot and horse, God who
got them free from slavery – they’re being told FORGET THAT, and
watch what God is up to NOW.  That’s a pretty big ask, huh?

Others say it is BIGGER.

Others say it is creation itself
the Exiles are being asked to forget, so they can see what God is up
to in the present.  That the references to water reflect the acts of
creation of separating the waters, and the land from the water, and
instead of remembering CREATION, the Exiles are asked to forget that,
and pay attention to the present to see what God is up to NOW.
That’s a pretty big ask, huh?

Still others say it isn’t the
two biggest foundations of their faith that people are being asked to
forget, but instead it is the destruction and fear of the Exile
itself – which was what most of Isaiah 1-39 was predicting.  The
Exiles are being asked to forget the circumstances by which they came
to be exiles in Babylon, and focus instead of what God is up to in
the NOW.  So – that may well be the biggest ask of all.

These are some rather enormous
things to be asked to forget, in order to pay attention to the
present, and that rather suggests that we are not exempted from this
because of a world-changing pandemic either.  So, the past being let
go of, even at rather exceptional cost, lets us continue in this
passage.

And now we hear, “I am about
to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you do you not perceive
it? 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 so that they
might declare my praise”  (43:19-21)

The premise of this passage,
that holding on to the past can distract us from the ways God is at
work in the present – that’s true.  I don’t want us to go overboard
and throw out the past, which probably isn’t possible anyway.  But, I
do want to enter into this idea.

Where is God present NOW, among
us, in new ways?  Are we looking?  Are we paying attention?  Have we
freed our spirits and our focus to see what God is up to NOW, by
letting go of what we perceived God to be up to in the past??

God, as we know, is ALWAYS
pushing past the status quo.  God isn’t going to let up seeking
justice for all of God’s beloveds, until there is JUSTICE and PEACE
and COMPASSION and WHOLENESS for ALLLLLLLLLL of God’s beloveds.  

Which can mean that when the
world changes directions, the way God’s moves among us changes too.

The Exiles in Isaiah 43 were in
a new place.  God’s advocacy for quite a while had been for them to
attend to their own teachings, to create a society with equity, to
care for the impoverished and vulnerable, to dismantle the power
structures, to provide justice within the justice system, and to
disentangle themselves from external empires who would do them harm.

But then the Exile happened,
and the external empire did them harm, and they no longer had the
power to enact God’s vision in the land – as the Exiles weren’t
even IN the land.

So God’s movement among them was
going to be different.  God was now planting seeds of hope, God was
replanting dreams of a just society, God was helping them in the
midst of despair, and maybe most of all, God was inviting them into
their present – to BE WHERE THEY WERE instead of JUST grieving
where they were no longer.

It is, of course, notable, that
God dreams a future for them, in order to help them move from the
past to the present, but perhaps that’s part of what is needed.  We
need to know where we’re going.

And that, dear ones, is a part
of what is hard right now.  So much remains in flux, and it is far
from easy to see where we are going to land.

In fact, I think this has been a
struggle in this community for a rather long time.  Going back for
decades, there have been various ways of trying to vision the future,
all of which petered out with some form of “but there are too many
variables,” only to have the process repeated a few years later.

Ok.  So.  There are too many
variables to know the future.  That’s TRUE.  That’s always been true,
but my goodness things change fast these days, and faster now than
ever.  I’m aware of this, I’ve been the one updating the post on the
church’s facebook page telling people what worship looks like in our
community, and I’ve LOST COUNT of how many updates I’ve had to make
over the past 2 years.  

Perhaps it might be of use to
think about what we do know, about the present as well as the future:

God is with us.

God is faithful.

God’s steadfast love endures
forever.

God dreams of goodness, joy,
peace, healing, wholeness, justice, and equity for all of creation.

We are on God’s team to make
that dream a reality.

I don’t know much more than
that.  I don’t know what worship will look like in a year or two, or
what ministry may emerge out of the communities need and the energy
we once placed in Sustain.  I don’t know how many “access points”
we will have for people to be part of this community, or when we’ll
get to livestreaming, when we can finally hear from Bishop Karen
Oliveto.  Right now I don’t know when we might get an applicant for
our Sexton position, or put together the job description for a new
permanent musician, just have church council in person.  (Come on
Moderna application for young kids to be vaccinated, I’m rooting for
you SO HARD.)

There is so much we don’t know,
and that’s hard.  I think that’s part of why it is so easy to focus
on the past, which at least we knew and understood.  But the past can
hold us hostage, particularly in moments like this when we run to it
out of discomfort in the present.

God IS up to new things today.
God isn’t happy with letting the unjust practices and lack of
compassion stand.  And I know that we want to be attentive to God in
this time.  So, I’m going back that list of what we know.

God is with us.

God is faithful.

God’s steadfast love endures
forever.

God dreams of goodness, joy,
peace, healing, wholeness, justice, and equity for all of creation.
(Shorter version: God is working for the kindom.)

We are on God’s team to make
that dream a reality.

I invite us all to center
ourselves on those truths.  

Perhaps you will find that there
are a few more we can add, and I’d be delighted to hear them.
Perhaps you are one of the ones you can see what God is up to right
now, and I invite to share right now (comments/ out loud.)

This I know: God is up to new
things.

This I wonder: Are we on board?

Amen