Wednesday, July 26, 2017

                Sometimes, scripture seems to offer different views on the same issue – seemingly polar 

opposites. For example, in Isaiah 46, we are encouraged, “remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other,” (v.9), but prior in Isaiah 43, we have the instruction, “Do not remember the former things, or consider things of old,” (v.18).  (Of course, context is everything for a proper interpretation, but I digress.)

                To remember or not to remember, that is the question.

I have always been a bit of an absent-minded person. My memory plays tricks on me. Take the simple act of going to the grocery store for just three or four items. I make a mental note of what I want before I leave. Our grocery store is a mere three-minute drive away. One would think that I should be able to remember the four things, but inevitably as soon as I get into the store I have forgotten at least one of the items.

So I wander up and down the aisles hoping that something will jog my memory. “Eureka, laundry detergent; that’s it.” Rapturous bliss!  “O crumb; what else I did come in to get?”  More aisle wandering.

You are probably thinking that I should write a list. Good idea, except that on the rare occasion that  I have written a list, and having put it down, briefly, to get my car keys I have left the house without the list.

But good news, eventually I will remember all four, grocery store items - usually as I pull back into my driveway, having just come from the store.

To remember or not to remember, that is the issue.

Now, of course, our previously quoted bible verses have nothing to do with where you have put your car keys, or left your eye-glasses, or misplaced your wallet or purse or remember what you had for breakfast. There are larger, deeper issues at stake.

For one thing, God is speaking to a people in despair, exile and feeling utterly abandoned by God. So, God stirs up their memories of their religious and spiritual heritage, of times and instances when God stood by his people, when God saved their necks, when God pulled them up on their feet, when God threw his love in their way and showed the way ahead. Remember the time God led us through the Red Sea. Remember the time that God helped Gideon. Remember what God said and did for King David. Remember that God said we would always be his people, no matter what.  “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago,” (Psalm 77:11)

But then God does not want his people wallowing in nostalgia, or wistfulness for the past, or wishing for the good, old days. Rather, these sacred memories are the key to a new future, new possibilities, fresh hope, lively promises, and confident expectation. The best memories point forward to the divine contradiction of the present pain, sacrifice and troubles.

Hear some more of Isaiah 43, for example:  “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?” (Is. 43:18-19) I am sure that any of us who have gone through troubled waters might find assurance, courage, and strength in these words. Not just a reshaping of the old past, or making our former lives a little more palatable or bearable, but a daring, radical turn-around in our situation, a remarkable beacon of well-being and redemption in the midst of chaos.  In Jesus’ words, “Take courage; I have overcome the world!”  To do that which you or I or we could not do on our own, by our own, for our own, for it takes a divine spark to get the future moving.

Pay close attention now: I'm creating new heavens and a new earth. All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten.  

Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I'm creating: 

I'll create Jerusalem as sheer joy, create my people as pure delight. I'll take joy in Jerusalem, take delight in my people: 

No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish; No more babies dying in the cradle, or old people who don't enjoy a full lifetime; One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal - anything less will seem like a cheat. 

They'll build houses and move in. They'll plant fields and eat what they grow. No more building a house that some outsider takes over, No more planting fields that some enemy confiscates, For my people will be as long-lived as trees, my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work. They won't work and have nothing come of it, they won't have children snatched out from under them. For they themselves are plantings blessed by God, with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed. 

Before they call out, I'll answer. Before they've finished speaking, I'll have heard. 

Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow, lion and ox eat straw from the same trough, but snakes - they'll get a diet of dirt! Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill anywhere on my Holy Mountain," says God. (Isaiah 65: 17 – 25, The Message) 

Dale