Rochester, MN UCC - "Made New" - Isaiah 65:17-25

For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.   But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating. – Isaiah 65:17-18

The world we live in has profoundly changed in the last two years. So much of what we used to do doesn’t quite work anymore; going to work sick now seems crazy, political violence is a real threat, even taking attendance in worship has become a challenge in our new hybrid world. We have lived through a gigantic cultural shift and now stand trying to make sense of it all the while continuing to move forward into this newness. It’s a challenge and for those of us in the Church, it is yet another opportunity to move forward into the new world with open hearts and minds about what the Spirit is doing.

The prophet Isaiah is reminding us that God is always moving in and around and through this broken world that we live in. Our sense of overwhelm can be a gift, an opportunity to reorient ourselves to how we engage the world in light of God’s coming kingdom.

God’s kingdom is one where: “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” (Isaiah 65:20) and “Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox.” (Isaiah 65:24-25) This is the kingdom of God that is always near, that we are always being called to.

 This week, let us rejoice together in the new thing God is calling us to. Let us discern what it means to be people who desire for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven and consider what it is we as a people are creating together.

Pastor Shannon Smith