5th Sunday in Lent
March 13, 2016
Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John
12:1-8
(Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uExMkoAP7JY&feature=em-upload_owner )
(Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uExMkoAP7JY&feature=em-upload_owner )
I’ve shared a little bit before about my call to serve
God in Nicaragua and how from there God called me back to the States and to
seminary and to become a pastor. There’s
one part of that story that I rarely tell, because I tend to think it’s not as
directly relevant, and I try to keep my story as short and brief as I can. When I got sick, when the rheumatoid
arthritis had inflamed so many of my joints that I was put on bedrest, my
country director, Kim, was out of the country.
I’d shared with her, as had my colleagues, about how bad it was and how
many people, both Nicaraguans and Americans, were advising me to return to the
U.S. But Kim hadn’t seen me or talked
with me in person yet. And it wasn’t
that she was doubting the severity of the disease, it was that simply having an
illness doesn’t necessarily mean you pack your bags up and move. Many missionaries stay in the mission field
with a variety of diseases. The
difference for me was that through the arthritis, God was calling me to leave
Nicaragua and return home. The
difference was God speaking this verse we read in Isaiah to me, “Look! I’m doing a new thing!”[1] Before
approving my early departure, Kim asked me to meet with Joel, a fellow American
missionary, although serving with a different mission agency. Joel had also developed a chronic disease, something
similar to my arthritis, I think, during his time in Nicaragua, and had stayed
on and worked through it and figured out how to treat it there. We shared our stories, and I had one question
for Joel, which was to ask if in the onset of his disease God had told him he
was about to do a new thing. Joel said
no. And that was the difference for
me. I didn’t end my time in Nicaragua
early because folks advised me to, or because I could get better health care in
the U.S. I left before my contract ended
because God said he was about to do a new thing, and when I asked God, are you
sure, and I set out three fleece tests, just like Gideon did in the Old Testament
book of Judges, God answered all three of them.
The scariest one, in hindsight, was probably the day that I prayed that
if I was supposed to return to the U.S. and go to seminary, for God to make the
arthritis so bad that I could hardly walk.
The very next day, the arthritis flared up in my knees so bad that it
seriously hurt to walk and I spent most of the day sitting with my legs propped
up and pillows under my knees. I suppose
it’s kind of a ‘be careful what you ask God for,’ but I wanted to make
certain. And when God says, “Look, I’m
about to do a new thing,” he makes sure he has your attention and when you ask
for assurance, he will give it to you.
When God originally spoke this word through Isaiah, he
spoke it to a people who were being carried into exile, people being carried away
from their homes by a conquering army. God
spoke this word to them to assure them that he would not forget them, that, to
quote the New Testament, God would work
through this awful thing for good,[2] and
that a wonderful new thing was about to happen. That verse from Romans actually
says, “God makes all things work together for good for those who love
him.” Even things like exile, even
things like disease, even things like death, “in all things God works for good
with those who love him.” God reminds his people that he is the one who can
make a way in the sea, a reference to the parting of the Red Sea when the
Israelites escaped Egypt. He reminds his
people that he is the one who can make a way in the desert and the wilderness,
providing food, manna, and water for their survival. He reminds his people that he made us, and he
will not forsake us. Remembering these
things, God tells us, “Look, I’m doing a new thing! Now it sprouts up, don’t you recognize
it?”
And that’s one of the interesting things about this new
thing, it’s already started. In
the Good News Bible, God says, “Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is
happening already – you can see it now!”
It is happening already, you can see it now. There are at least a few new things happening
in our midst. If we were in a classroom
instead of a sanctuary during Sunday worship, I’d probably pull out a marker
and ask for examples and write them on a whiteboard. New things are already happening in our
midst, if we but pay attention.
Now, I do want to say a little bit about old things,
because the verse before God says, “I’m about to do a new thing,” he says,
“Don’t cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago.”[3] And at the same time we have this reading
from the psalter about a previous time when God did a new thing, when God
“changed Zion’s circumstances for the better” and restored their fortunes.[4] So we know, God has done this before. God did a new thing for Israel. God did a new thing when he sent his son,
Jesus Christ, into the world. God did a
new thing on the cross and in the grave, as we’ll remember and celebrate in a
couple weeks. God has done this before. And we know that God has acted in our midst
before. God has acted here in our
church, before. God did a new thing in
planting this church here. God did a new
thing in the previous ministries of this church. God did a new thing when this church grew
enough to support their own pastor. God
has done all this before. We’ve seen him
do new things before. And yet, before
God says, “I’m about to do a new thing,” God says, “Don’t ponder ancient
history.” Wait, what?
So, here’s the thing about memory, and remembering former
things. Memory can be a strength.
Knowing how we got here, remembering where we came from so that we can
honor our roots and our ancestors in the faith is a good thing. Remembering the past can help you
survive. Knowing about past mistakes can
mean you don’t repeat them in the future and can lead to even greater future
successes. [5] Memory can be our reference point for
interpreting events and life circumstances.[6] Memory tells us who we are and helps us
respect our past and how we got here.
However, unfortunately, memory can also be a hindrance. You’ve heard of folks who are stuck in the
past? That happens when you continue
holding on too tightly to the past. Or perhaps
people who view the past through rose-colored glasses, where they only remember
the good and forget the mistakes? Clinging
too tightly to a memory can cause you to misinterpret life.[7] If someone from the 1950’s were to show up in
our congregation this morning, they’d be appalled by how many of us ladies are
wearing pants, by any of us who are wearing jeans or sneakers, and by a female
preacher. They’d recognize that we’re in
a church, but they might not be sure what else is going on. “If you hold too tightly to former things,
you will not be able to embrace new things.”[8] There’s gotta be room for something new to
spring up, much less flourish.
I remember the sermon illustration the senior pastor I
served with at my previous church gave one time. He was talking about how when he comes home
from the grocery store, he wants to carry all the groceries in at one time, and
so he loads up with big armfuls. Anyone
else do that? Now, what happens when you
get to your front door? You have to put
some of the groceries down in order to open it, don’t you? You don’t usually have to put all of them
down, but at least one hand has to be free to unlock and open the door. God’s not saying forget who you are and where
you came from. God’s not saying to
forget the past; he says don’t cling to it, don’t dwell on it.[9] Keep some memories with you, and go on inside
to the next thing. There’s gotta be room
for the new. I had to leave Nicaragua to
go to seminary. In my case, I had to
physically move in order for there to be room for the new thing.
I think we are in a season of God saying, “Look, I’m
about to do a new thing!” I think we’ve
been here at least since I arrived, not quite two years ago, maybe longer. I think God’s got our attention in a way he
didn’t before, and I don’t say that to knock previous ministries or previous pastors; simply to say
that we are in a different season now, a season of God on the verge of doing a
new thing. There may be things we have
to move in order to make room for new things.
That’s part of why we’ve cleaned things out and are looking again at
space we weren’t using. What new thing
can God do there? What dreams and hopes
do you have for those rooms? Things aren't going back to how they used to be; y’all know as well as I do that life moves
forward, and you can’t step in the same river twice. The river keeps changing. Life keeps changing. Our church keeps changing. And so as God continues to change us and mold
us and shape us to be more like him, I know he also gives us hopes and dreams
of what we might be, glimpses of what this church could look like, not five
years down the road, but thirty years down the road. We’re not changing for ourselves; we’re changing
for the future, for future generations.
At the same time, we’re not completely discounting that
God has been at work here in the past. I
legally changed my name when I got married, yet you’ll still see my maiden name
on social media because I had a life before I got married, too, and I want
folks from that life to be able to find me.
God doing a new thing doesn’t ignore or forget the old things he has
done; that was the whole point of the psalm!
Rather than fixating on the old things, though, we can look at them like
Paul considered his former things in the Philippians passage. Paul remembers who he was and can boast about
all these advantages and assets he had: born to the right family, upheld the
law perfectly, knew the law inside and out, A student, and now considers it all
as rubbish compared to knowing Jesus.
Paul knew what was important and what was not. Today’s passage from Philippians ends with
Paul writing, “It’s not that I have already reached this goal or have already
been perfected, but I pursue it, so that I may grab hold of it because Christ
grabbed hold of me for just this purpose. Brothers and sisters, I myself don’t
think I’ve reached it, but I do this one thing: I forget about the things
behind me and reach out for the things ahead of me. The goal I pursue is the
prize of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus.”[10] I don’t reach behind me; I reach for what is
in front of me. I know what’s back
there, I remember what’s back there, and I know and trust and believe that God
is about to do a new thing, and it’s that new thing that I reach for. It’s that new thing that stirs my blood and
gets me excited. It’s that new thing
that I want to know more about and see how God is going to act now and just
what God is up to now.
No comments:
Post a Comment