Isaiah proclaims today that God will not remember the former things. I do not know if Isaiah is saying God is forgetful or just sees things differently now. The season of Lent takes place in the weeks leading up to Spring and it is appropriate to listen to the wisdom of God's creation around us to see how it might help us prepare for the joy of Easter.
One of the ways we celebrate Easter is with plants - colorful plants. But those plants did not just spring forth over night. Often the bulb was planted in the ground last fall, weathered the harsh winter beneath a blank of snow, and only as the soil temperature rises, does it's tiny green shoot burst forth from the ground (sometimes the snow) with a promise of new life. And when you see the colorful array of tulips starting to come up, I have yet to ever hear someone say, "Oh I remember when that was just a blah bulb. Do you remember how hard and misshapen that bulb was?"
No, we exclaim how much we admire the burst of color. We write odes to the beauty of a flower and we forget the bulb. To be sure, if someone asked, we'd remember. Maybe that is the way God works too. It is not that God has a short term memory loss, it is just that in looking at God's people, there in exile in Babylon, God sees something new and different. Do not remember the former things.
Of course, writing to church people, those words take on different meanings. The church is built upon former things. We LOVE former things...it is just we prefer to call that "tradition." Cue Tevye from "Fiddler on the Roof." Yet, the former things do not always last. Jesus said something like that in Matthew 9:17, "Do not put new wine in old wine skins or the skin will burst." I wonder how many of our churches today feel like they are making new wine? I question it. Are my sermons or blog posts or leadership at meetings...I am really doing a new thing? Or I am caught up in the former things, the bulb God planted years ago that I think is still a bulb but don't realize is actually blossoming and needing to be harvested/enjoyed.
The people Isaiah is preaching to are in exile. They are away from their homeland, what was comfortable and familiar. They are in a new place. Most pastor's today believe the church is in a new place, do we realize it? Do the People of God realize it? Do we see a bulb or a flower? Do we listen for the new song of God or keep thinking that God will sing the former hymn we've always known? Those are good questions and they are questions I believe that if we ask today, we might have traces of God's grace in our dialogue and attempts to answer the questions together.
May it be so this Lenten season.
Blessings and peace!
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