{"id":4527,"date":"2022-04-03T16:00:47","date_gmt":"2022-04-03T16:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/03\/forgetting-based-on-psalm-126-and-isaiah\/"},"modified":"2022-04-03T16:00:47","modified_gmt":"2022-04-03T16:00:47","slug":"forgetting-based-on-psalm-126-and-isaiah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/03\/forgetting-based-on-psalm-126-and-isaiah\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cForgetting\u201d based on\u00a0\tPsalm 126 and Isaiah 43:16-21"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

The Isaiah passage seems so
\ncheerful, but it is actually a tough one. \u00a0It asks people to let go
\nof the faith of the past to pay attention to what God is doing in the
\npresent. \u00a0And while that sounds great and all, for most of us, our
\nfaith is pretty deeply rooted in the past, for good reasons, and
\nwe’re not that interested in letting go of it.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThat’s the always reason. \u00a0The
\n2022 reason builds on it. \u00a0A lot of us are rather sick and tired of
\nnew things, and would rather be able to settle into some of the old
\nthings we miss a lot.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nPlease count me among those who
\nare struggling with this. \u00a0This week a small group of us met with a
\nteam to talk about the technology we’ll need to move towards
\nlivestreaming our service. \u00a0They asked great questions, and I found
\nthat I kept answering with, \u201cwell, before the pandemic…., right
\nnow…., but I don’t know what the answer is in 2 years.\u201d \u00a0I miss
\nbeing able to answer simple questions with simple answers!<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nWhen I think about what our
\nchurch life looked like in February of 2020, I’m astounded at the
\nchanges. \u00a0I can barely remember the simplicity of ONE worship
\nservice, and I didn’t adequately appreciate the wonder that was
\npeople being able to be together in a room, safely. \u00a0I sort of
\nremember church night, a time with 4 or 5 meetings, and having to
\nfigure out who met in what room \u2013 instead of which zoom account to
\nuse for which meeting. \u00a0I remember children’s times on the steps of
\nthe sanctuary when I got to talk to kids, and we could see each
\nother’s faces, a time I miss deeply. \u00a0I remember seeing people’s
\nfaces when I was preaching, and getting a sense of what made worked
\nand what didn’t, and being able to adapt. \u00a0I miss that. \u00a0I miss
\nparking lot conversations (am I allowed to admit that), and the
\nchurch office being loud when people ran into each other, and I
\nreally really miss SUSTAIN ministry. \u00a0I miss choir anthems, and the
\nsound I heard behind me during worship when I erred in following the
\nbulletin and choir members were trying to figure out if it was
\nimportant enough to tell me. \u00a0I miss greeting our breakfast guests at
\nthe door, and watching people chit chat with each other. \u00a0Oh my, do I
\nmiss communion after church, and also rushing to finish it so we
\ncould get to a 2nd<\/sup> hour!<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nWhen I hear, \u201cdo not remember
\nthe former things, or consider the things of old,\u201d that’s a hard
\nline to take in. \u00a0Those things were sacred. \u00a0They helped me know my
\nplace in the world. \u00a0They were important, and meaningful, and lovely,
\nand I struggle to let them go. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nI invite you to think about, and
\neven name those things you miss. \u00a0(in comments \/ outloud) \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThere is a power in naming those
\nthings, in acknowledging what we’ve lost, and how hard it is to have
\nlost it.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThere is something of a
\nscholarly debate over which \u201cthings of old\u201d the Exiles were being
\ninvited to forget. \u00a0The way I hear it, they’re all a bit
\ncontroversial, because ours is a faith that REMEMBERS. \u00a0Yet, \u201cfor
\neverything there is a season,\u201d so… this is a different sort of
\ncall. \u00a0#newthing. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nSome say that what the Exiles
\nare being invited to forget \u2013 so that they can see what God is up
\nto in the present \u2013 is the Exodus itself. \u00a0God who made a way
\nthrough the sea, God who saved them from chariot and horse, God who
\ngot them free from slavery \u2013 they’re being told FORGET THAT, and
\nwatch what God is up to NOW. \u00a0That’s a pretty big ask, huh?<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nOthers say it is BIGGER.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nOthers say it is creation itself
\nthe Exiles are being asked to forget, so they can see what God is up
\nto in the present. \u00a0That the references to water reflect the acts of
\ncreation of separating the waters, and the land from the water, and
\ninstead of remembering CREATION, the Exiles are asked to forget that,
\nand pay attention to the present to see what God is up to NOW.
\nThat’s a pretty big ask, huh?<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nStill others say it isn’t the
\ntwo biggest foundations of their faith that people are being asked to
\nforget, but instead it is the destruction and fear of the Exile
\nitself \u2013 which was what most of Isaiah 1-39 was predicting. \u00a0The
\nExiles are being asked to forget the circumstances by which they came
\nto be exiles in Babylon, and focus instead of what God is up to in
\nthe NOW. \u00a0So \u2013 that may well be the biggest ask of all.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThese are some rather enormous
\nthings to be asked to forget, in order to pay attention to the
\npresent, and that rather suggests that we are not exempted from this
\nbecause of a world-changing pandemic either. \u00a0So, the past being let
\ngo of, even at rather exceptional cost, lets us continue in this
\npassage.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd now we hear, \u201cI am about
\nto do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you do you not perceive
\nit? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
\nThe wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I
\ngive water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to
\nmy chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they
\nmight declare my praise\u201d \u00a0(43:19-21)<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThe premise of this passage,
\nthat holding on to the past can distract us from the ways God is at
\nwork in the present \u2013 that’s true. \u00a0I don’t want us to go overboard
\nand throw out the past, which probably isn’t possible anyway. \u00a0But, I
\ndo want to enter into this idea.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nWhere is God present NOW, among
\nus, in new ways? \u00a0Are we looking? \u00a0Are we paying attention? \u00a0Have we
\nfreed our spirits and our focus to see what God is up to NOW, by
\nletting go of what we perceived God to be up to in the past??<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nGod, as we know, is ALWAYS
\npushing past the status quo. \u00a0God isn’t going to let up seeking
\njustice for all of God’s beloveds, until there is JUSTICE and PEACE
\nand COMPASSION and WHOLENESS for ALLLLLLLLLL of God’s beloveds. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nWhich can mean that when the
\nworld changes directions, the way God’s moves among us changes too.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Exiles in Isaiah 43 were in
\na new place. \u00a0God’s advocacy for quite a while had been for them to
\nattend to their own teachings, to create a society with equity, to
\ncare for the impoverished and vulnerable, to dismantle the power
\nstructures, to provide justice within the justice system, and to
\ndisentangle themselves from external empires who would do them harm.<\/p>\n

\n
But then the Exile happened,
\nand the external empire did them harm, and they no longer had the
\npower to enact God’s vision in the land \u2013 as the Exiles weren’t
\neven IN the land.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nSo God’s movement among them was
\ngoing to be different. \u00a0God was now planting seeds of hope, God was
\nreplanting dreams of a just society, God was helping them in the
\nmidst of despair, and maybe most of all, God was inviting them into
\ntheir present \u2013 to BE WHERE THEY WERE instead of JUST grieving
\nwhere they were no longer.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nIt is, of course, notable, that
\nGod dreams a future for them, in order to help them move from the
\npast to the present, but perhaps that’s part of what is needed. \u00a0We
\nneed to know where we’re going.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd that, dear ones, is a part
\nof what is hard right now. \u00a0So much remains in flux, and it is far
\nfrom easy to see where we are going to land.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nIn fact, I think this has been a
\nstruggle in this community for a rather long time. \u00a0Going back for
\ndecades, there have been various ways of trying to vision the future,
\nall of which petered out with some form of \u201cbut there are too many
\nvariables,\u201d only to have the process repeated a few years later.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nOk. \u00a0So. \u00a0There are too many
\nvariables to know the future. \u00a0That’s TRUE. \u00a0That’s always been true,
\nbut my goodness things change fast these days, and faster now than
\never. \u00a0I’m aware of this, I’ve been the one updating the post on the
\nchurch’s facebook page telling people what worship looks like in our
\ncommunity, and I’ve LOST COUNT of how many updates I’ve had to make
\nover the past 2 years. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nPerhaps it might be of use to
\nthink about what we do know, about the present as well as the future:<\/p>\n