Isaiah 43:18-20 (The Message)
This is what God says:
“Forget about what’s happened;
don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert,
rivers in the badlands.
Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’
—the coyotes and the buzzards--
Because I provided water in the desert,
rivers through the sunbaked earth,
Drinking water for the people I chose,
the people I made especially for myself.”
Today is the Fifth Sunday in Lent and we’re getting closer and closer to the end of Lent. We’re almost there. Next Sunday will be Palm-slash-Passion Sunday and the following week will be Easter. After next week we will still have to go through the suffering of Holy Week, but we’re almost there!
Today is similar to that third Sunday in Advent – the one where the liturgical colors change – for one day only – from the purple of waiting to the pink of getting close enough to start celebrating quietly. We’re not there yet, but we’re close.
The reading for today tells us what it is that we are getting closer to. This brief reading is the promise of Easter – and it comes from Isaiah, some seven or eight hundred years before Jesus.
The version I chose to read is the Message version, but the more traditional translations may be more familiar to you:
“I am about to do a new thing.” That is what Easter is – God’s “new thing.” We’re not there yet, but this is where we are going. This is that light on the hill that keeps us moving forward.
The gospel reading for today – that goes with our old Testament reading -- comes from John’s gospel, the twelfth chapter. This is the brief story of the night that Jesus, already on his final journey to Jerusalem, stops at the home of Lazarus – whom he had recently raised from the dead – and his sisters, Martha and Mary. In gratitude, they prepared a meal for Jesus and his followers.
At this meal, Mary came in with a bottle of expensive perfumed oil and used it to cleanse and anoint Jesus’ travel weary feet, something that would have been done for any guest, but using a cheaper, everyday oil.
It was at this meal where Judas berated Mary for wasting such expensive oil that could have been sold to feed the poor – (this is the only time we ever hear of Judas being particularly concerned with the needs of the poor). But Mary knew exactly what she was doing. Mary could see the light on the hill. She knew, somehow, that God was doing a “new thing,” and that this new thing was seated right in front of her, and she was preparing him for what was to come.
Some few, like Mary, saw just who Jesus was. She may not have understood perfectly but she had an idea. She saw that light ahead. But most did not, They couldn’t see it through their limited understanding and imaginations. Even at this point – as they are literally traveling closer and closer to Jerusalem and the death that waited there, they could not make the leap from Jesus – the man they knew – to the Promised One of God’s words through the prophets.
Variations of this phrase, “I am making all things new,” are scattered throughout scripture – particularly the New Testament. But as far as a quick survey showed me, (and I could be mistaken,) they show up at least from Isaiah to Revelation, they never say “I made all things new,” as a finished and accomplished act. It is always “I am making” – an act still in progress.
This new thing that was first shown to us that first Easter morning, is still seen today by some, but blissfully overlooked by many.
Creation, as God first dreamed it, has been marred by our human brokenness – but that is the “old thing” the Isaiah reading tells us to forget. Stop lugging that brokenness around with you and allow God’s new thing to grow, because God still carries that original vision for us all, the perfection God first dreamed for us, and one day the perfect creation will come into being in its fullness. Ever if it isn’t obvious right now, we still live in the midst of that dream – that coming, in-the-making new thing – right here and now. This is how God sees this world and us.
We are still on that journey. We are still following the light on the hill – the one that points to God’s new thing.
Can you see it? Do you see where it is coming? Are you watching for it? Do you see yourself as having a role in the creation of this promised new thing? Are you awake and aware so that when you are called to play your part you are prepared to step up and say, yes, here I am?
It’s not here yet – not fully -- but it is coming. God is making it happen. Watch for it. Keep watching for it.
Amen.
Today is similar to that third Sunday in Advent – the one where the liturgical colors change – for one day only – from the purple of waiting to the pink of getting close enough to start celebrating quietly. We’re not there yet, but we’re close.
The reading for today tells us what it is that we are getting closer to. This brief reading is the promise of Easter – and it comes from Isaiah, some seven or eight hundred years before Jesus.
The version I chose to read is the Message version, but the more traditional translations may be more familiar to you:
- Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
“I am about to do a new thing.” That is what Easter is – God’s “new thing.” We’re not there yet, but this is where we are going. This is that light on the hill that keeps us moving forward.
The gospel reading for today – that goes with our old Testament reading -- comes from John’s gospel, the twelfth chapter. This is the brief story of the night that Jesus, already on his final journey to Jerusalem, stops at the home of Lazarus – whom he had recently raised from the dead – and his sisters, Martha and Mary. In gratitude, they prepared a meal for Jesus and his followers.
At this meal, Mary came in with a bottle of expensive perfumed oil and used it to cleanse and anoint Jesus’ travel weary feet, something that would have been done for any guest, but using a cheaper, everyday oil.
It was at this meal where Judas berated Mary for wasting such expensive oil that could have been sold to feed the poor – (this is the only time we ever hear of Judas being particularly concerned with the needs of the poor). But Mary knew exactly what she was doing. Mary could see the light on the hill. She knew, somehow, that God was doing a “new thing,” and that this new thing was seated right in front of her, and she was preparing him for what was to come.
Some few, like Mary, saw just who Jesus was. She may not have understood perfectly but she had an idea. She saw that light ahead. But most did not, They couldn’t see it through their limited understanding and imaginations. Even at this point – as they are literally traveling closer and closer to Jerusalem and the death that waited there, they could not make the leap from Jesus – the man they knew – to the Promised One of God’s words through the prophets.
Variations of this phrase, “I am making all things new,” are scattered throughout scripture – particularly the New Testament. But as far as a quick survey showed me, (and I could be mistaken,) they show up at least from Isaiah to Revelation, they never say “I made all things new,” as a finished and accomplished act. It is always “I am making” – an act still in progress.
This new thing that was first shown to us that first Easter morning, is still seen today by some, but blissfully overlooked by many.
Creation, as God first dreamed it, has been marred by our human brokenness – but that is the “old thing” the Isaiah reading tells us to forget. Stop lugging that brokenness around with you and allow God’s new thing to grow, because God still carries that original vision for us all, the perfection God first dreamed for us, and one day the perfect creation will come into being in its fullness. Ever if it isn’t obvious right now, we still live in the midst of that dream – that coming, in-the-making new thing – right here and now. This is how God sees this world and us.
We are still on that journey. We are still following the light on the hill – the one that points to God’s new thing.
Can you see it? Do you see where it is coming? Are you watching for it? Do you see yourself as having a role in the creation of this promised new thing? Are you awake and aware so that when you are called to play your part you are prepared to step up and say, yes, here I am?
It’s not here yet – not fully -- but it is coming. God is making it happen. Watch for it. Keep watching for it.
Amen.
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