The thought of something new is always exciting – a new baby, a new job, a new car, a new house. We enjoy meeting new people and going to new places, eating new foods and learning new things. We all need a taste of something new from time to time to encourage us, especially after these last two years of dealing with the pandemic and all the changes that came as we made our way through to this very day.
“Behold, I make all things new,” says the Lord. The phrase is found throughout the Bible, and it is God’s word to all of us on our journeys of life and faith. The Lord says I will make a “new covenant” with you, I will place in you a “new heart”, I will give you a ”new spirit”, I will give you a “new name”, and you will sing a “new song”. The Apostle Paul writes: “When anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.” God is always at work doing new things, even when we cannot see it.
In the context of the exile, Isaiah invites the people to see something new springing forth. For decades they have lived in captivity, away from their homeland; the temple is destroyed, the king is held captive, and their families are scattered. They are told by God, “Remember not the things of old. Behold I am doing a new thing!”
What new things might God create in us and through us, if we were to put our past behind us, say a prayer over it and release it to God? The God who says, “I am doing a new thing” is speaking to the Hebrew people then and there, and also to all of God’s people here and now.
“Don’t brood over past history. Don’t brood over the mistakes of the years gone by. I the Lord God am doing a new thing in your life. Can’t you see it? (Isaiah 43:18-19, New English Bible) In these final days of our Lenten journey, may we have eyes of faith to see the new thing God is doing in our lives and in all of life. May God give us grace to turn from the past and move forward in the hope that is ours in Jesus Christ.
Elizabeth
Prayer for 4th Sunday in Lent
Great and loving God, whose giving knows no ending, in a world that ever changes, we give thanks for all that is constant and unchanging – for the witness of scripture and the means of grace; for the bonds of faith and the hope of the gospel; for the church’s one foundation, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Meet us where we are on life’s journey this day. Help us to find what we’ve lost in our years of living. Redeem our past and help us to live fully in the present. Call us to new life in areas that are troubled and broken and wounded. Change our hearts, Lord. Open them to the needs of others, and use us as instruments of your love and grace wherever we are.
As the world faces growing concern in every area of life from day to day, use us to bear witness to your peace. As the daily headlines announce bad news, use us to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. As our communities wrestle with pressing social issues, help us to re-imagine our world in ways that help the new thing you are doing come to pass. As so many grow weary and worried, use us to bring relief and hope.
Lord, pour out your care on those devastated by storms and fires and floods. Wrap in love your children who cry out for all they have lost and cannot imagine living without. Grant your strength to your prophets speaking the truth in love to many as yet unable to hear it. Give your peace that passes understanding to those overwhelmed and anxious and fearful of what tomorrow might bring.
Keep us mindful of our connection to the rest of our human family, and lead us to work together to make life better for our brothers and sisters in every land. Help us to trust where we cannot see; to know that you are at work in all the struggle, difficulty and uncertainty of life, to make all thing new. Amen.
Yesterday we read from Luke’s gospel the troubling story about the fall of the tower of Siloam and the murder of those gathered to worship by Pilate - words that raise the eternal question of WHY such things happen.
I told the story of a little girl learning to pray: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Every time she would start to pray this prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven,” a need would come to mind, and she would have a question for God: “Our Father who art in heaven … why did so many people die in the tornadoes? … Our Father who art in heaven … why did that man shoot those homeless people? … Our Father who art in heaven, why are the Ukranian people under attack, with so much suffering in their land? … Our Father who art in heaven, why are there so many starving people in African? … Our Father who art in heaven … why did my brother die? … Our Father who art in heaven … why did my Daddy lose his job?” … Perhaps from time to time, many of us feel like this little girl – “Our Father who art in heaven … why, why why?”
Today’s scripture reminds us that the same question was asked of Jesus centuries ago. Pilate had murdered some Galileans as they worshipped. Why did they die? Were they greater sinners than others? And in the case of those 18 people killed when the tower of Siloam fell – were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem?
In both cases, Jesus denies there is any connection between their deaths and their sins. What the issue is, Jesus is saying, is not WHY one dies, but HOW one lives. Towers fall and floods and earthquakes and famine are reality; the Pilates of every age will kill innocents in every generation; and there just aren’t enough answers for our “whys?” The bottom line is our call to live fully and well the time that is ours.
At this point, Jesus tells the story of the fig tree that took up space in the vineyard for three years and bore no fruit. The owner wanted to cut it down, but the gardener intervened – “Let’s wait a year, and let me work with it … maybe it will begin to grow and have good fruit.” The owner gave the tree another year.
The parable of the fig tree is a message of God’s grace, and at the same time a word about doing more than just taking up space in God’s vineyard. Time has a way of slipping by, and none of us knows our length of days. Our call during Lent is to look at our lives, and to reflect on our living prayerfully, knowing that God is at work in our lives and through our life experiences to help us grow and bear fruit, so that we might have life and have it abundantly.
Elizabeth