Isaiah 65:17-25                       

¹⁷ For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.  ¹⁸ 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.  ¹⁹ 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.  ²⁰ 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.  ²¹They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.  ²²They 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.  ²³ 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.  ²⁴ Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.  ²⁵ 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.

Luke 21:5-19

    ⁵ When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ⁶“As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

    ⁷ They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” ⁸ And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.

    ⁹“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” ¹⁰ Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; ¹¹ there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

    ¹²“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. ¹³ This will give you an opportunity to testify. ¹⁴ So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; ¹⁵ for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶ You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷ You will be hated by all because of my name. ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ By your endurance you will gain your souls.

    ²⁰“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. ²¹ Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it.

 

 

God brings life out of death and creates new worlds out of old chaos.

The reading from Isaiah comes from the post-exilic material found in Isaiah 55 - 66.  We presume that the exiles have returned from Babylon, but the negative is that they have returned home to a land laid in waste.  Here is a Jerusalem in ruins.  The positive is that they were coming out of oppression into a time for independent rule.  God was doing a new thing, creating Jerusalem as a joy.  Their hope for the future was limitless in this time of peace and prosperity.

 

Compare this reading with our Gospel lesson.  The negative is that we find the faithful entering into an era of uncertainty, oppression, and persecution.   The positive part of this reading is that God does not abandon the faithful.  God provides wisdom and protection.  Through the endurance of their faithfulness the people of God gain their souls.

 

In times of change there are negatives and positives.  Something is dying and something is brought into being.  The visions in both our Old Testament reading and our Gospel lesson is focused on Jerusalem and the people of God.  In our hearing of it we expand it to our own time.

 

During the new age God does not promise us a reward for faithfulness, other than God’s presence.

 

There is no biblical basis for progress.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that things will gradually get better until at last the kingdom is present, and in fact it is closer to the biblical truth to say that things will get worse before they get better.

 

Consider, for example, the matter of deaths caused by war: in the 18th century, about 4 million people died in wars; in the 19th century, about 8 million people died in wars; in the 20th century, nearly 100 million people died in wars.  Now, in the 21^st century, we are well on our way to surpassing these totals.  It’s difficult for us to comprehend this as Christians.

 

It is very difficult to whistle or sing one melody while listening to another at the same time.  Singing harmony, that is the same song, but different is also difficult, but pleasant to the ear.  We know that the Lord comes to rule the earth with a melody of justice.  We know that most of the world sings a different song.  But we choose to sing with the Lord.  The scales will be balanced in the end, and in the meantime we sing a song that is not as popular as the world’s song of might.  We know that the song of faith, working as peace makers, living with generous hearts, and taking up the issues of injustice, will win the day, not disaster.  But it is a difficult song to sing when it seems that most people are singing a different tune.

 

I am not surprised by all the people I know who have gone “cold turkey” with the evening news.  They just stop reading the paper, watching the evening news, or reading internet news.  We can’t take it, all of the news about destruction, natural disasters, theft, murders, warfare, and global warming.  It’s hard to take it all in and hard to respond in ways that show any hope of making a difference.  News today is almost instantaneous.  Oh to go back to the days of the “News Reels” when tragedy was filtered with time and it seemed that you could respond well before the next crisis would hit.  In our information age we pile on one impossible situation after another, one problem after another.  Where are the solutions?  Sorry, there’s no time for a solution, this new crisis needs to be reported as a “News Flash;” negativity after negativity, tragedy after tragedy beat us down. 

 

We might ask “Where’s the hope.”  How can people address so many impossible burdens day after day, minute after minute?  Individuals can’t, so we tune out!

 

The faithful thing to do is not to tune out or become numb to the cry for justice.  The scriptures encourage us to have endurance, to become collaborators with Yahweh who addresses tragedy and injustice.  This is the role of the church, the Body of Christ, coming together to have an impact, at least some impact in the face of mounting disasters.  Without question, we will feel overwhelmed, but as a community we can bond together and have an impact.  We are the community of hope where hope is easily lost.  Our hope is this; we know that Jesus walks with us as we faithfully address the injustices that plague our world. 

 

At our church conference on Wednesday night, we were asked to break up into small groups and list the ways that our congregation is reaching out to people beyond the walls of the church.  The list was enormous, on and on we went with programs that reach people in many situations, in and beyond our community. 

 

The needs, just in Ashland, are immense; but then you add the needs of the people in the valley and throughout Oregon, our nation, and our globe...  We could triple our programs, and then triple them again, and again, and we wouldn’t exhaust the need.  That’s not the point.  The point is for us to be involved in ministries that alleviate injustice, and to do as much as we can.  We are called to be lovingly involved personally, economically, and prayerfully for the glory of God.  United Methodist are generous people.  Our involvement in outreach changes the lives of people, and it changes our lives. 

 

It might not necessarily make you more holy, though it might; it might not necessarily make you more faithful, though it probably will.  Our involvement in the church often changes us from being in need to being a person, no matter how little we have, that is generous.  The one thing that our involvement in the church definitely does is make us more grateful.  We recognize that we are indeed blessed.

 

Christian community fills us with the hope of God, whether in times of oppression or rebuilding, is doing a new thing now.  Our choice is either to participate, or not.