“For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. . . . The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox. . .”
This passage from Isaiah is one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible, for isn’t it how we would all like life on this planet to be? No more weeping or cries of distress. Everyone will live for hundreds of years. No child will die of hunger or disease or neglect. Everyone shall have a place to live and food to eat. No one will live off the labor of another. This passage from Isaiah is truly beautiful. It is a vision for the world that brings peace and hope to my heart. It is God’s vision for the world.
However, we all know that this earth is far from this vision. Every single one of us here today has wept in distress and will weep in distress. We hope to live a long life, but none of us will live for 100’s of years. We all know that thousands of children around the world die every day from hunger, disease and neglect. We know that everyone does not have a place to live and food to eat. We know that there are many wealthy people who live off the labor of others. If this is God’s vision for the world, why doesn’t it happen? Why isn’t life like this?
No one has an answer to these questions. No one can tell you for certain why suffering exists, why God’s vision of the world and the reality of life on this planet are so different from each other. This is one of the mysteries of life that we have to live with. But this doesn’t mean that we are called to a kind of stoicism in which we say “life’s hell and then you die,” or a kind of Hedonism where we say, “life’s hell, so we might as well party.” Instead, the mystery of suffering calls us to live with not knowing why we suffer, while at the same time having an awareness that we are somehow called to be the hands, feet, and face of Jesus in the midst of this suffering.
One thing that Scripture makes very clear is that human beings have free will. We are not God’s puppets. We are called to be co-creators with God. In Genesis 1:27 we are told that “God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male, and female he created them.” We are not God, yet we were created in God’s image. God is the Creator, and we are partners with God in this creation. Therefore, God’s vision for the world is to be our vision for the world. God’s desire for the world, for all creation, is for all of creation to be reconciled, to live in harmony and peace and this is to be our desire as well. Our job in our lifetimes is to do what we can to show the world God’s vision for it. Our job, in our lifetimes, is to be God’s reconciling presence on earth. We may not be able to create the New Jerusalem that is depicted in this passage from Isaiah, but in our own little corner of the world we are to do our part in bringing about even the smallest piece of God’s vision. We are to give hope to the grieving, food to the hungry, healing to the sick, release to the prisoner.
And this is what stewardship is about. Often we confuse our stewardship efforts with buildings and salaries and programs, thinking that this is all that stewardship is about, when in reality our stewardship efforts are about God’s vision for this world. Often we confuse our community, this church–St. Andrew’s, with buildings, salaries and programs, when in reality this community is really none of these things, but instead a small glimpse of God’s vision for this world. Our building could burn down tomorrow, and we could still exist as a community. A Pandemic could and has invaded our lives, and we still exist as a community. Our programs could all change, or cease to exist, and we could still do God’s work in the world.
We exist not to provide a community center. We exist not to make our members good citizens. We exist not to make us feel more spiritual. St. Andrew’s, this community, exists because each and every one of us here is called to play a part in bringing God’s vision for this world into reality, and we need to come together with other followers of Christ to do this. St. Andrew’s exists so that each one of us who enters these doors might find ourselves transformed.
St. Andrew’s exists so that each one of us who calls this place our community might find ourselves becoming more and more reconciled with God. St. Andrew’s exists so that we, the transformed followers of Christ, might together go out into the world and to take part in God’s reconciling work in the world. St. Andrew’s exists so that together we might be God’s hands and feet in the world around us.
It isn’t always easy to be a part of a community such as ours. It requires that you commit your time, treasure and talent to the work that we do together. We have to give of ourselves, sometimes sacrificially, as we work together to be co-creators with God, as we work together to give the world a glimpse of God’s vision, God’s desire for the world. It requires that we love one another, even when our rough and wounded parts rub up against each other. It requires that we not just look for what this community can give to us, but what we can give to this community and to the world.
I give thanks for the many ways that this community is transforming me. I give thanks for the opportunity to be part of a community of faith that is called to bring God’s vision into the world.
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD—and their descendants as well. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD. (Isaiah 65:17-25)
Allow God’s vision for the world to transform you and join in that vision, that the world might also catch a glimpse of and be transformed by it as well. Amen.
