That's How It Ought to Be

For I am about to create a 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; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. 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. No more shall there be in it an infant who 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. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another ear; 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. 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. 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; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

Isaiah 65:17-25

Over the past several months, our UKirk students and I have been studying different images of God found in the Bible—the beautiful images of God as our Creator and sustainer, God our shepherd and salvation, God who is our rock. When we talked about the image of God as rock, we talked about the different ways upon which God is our cornerstone, the one in whom we build our faith on, the one who holds us up and never lets us crumble. We discussed how we build with rocks and stones, how God is a fortress around our lives, how God builds us up. But we also spent some time discussing what else we can do with stones—about how a woman was almost stoned to death in the Bible, about how we can use stones to tear down, about how we are so apt and quick to throw stones at each other. We discussed how, especially now in this social media world, it is so easy to throw rocks at each other, to call someone stupid or make fun of their lives or to tell them that they are less than nothing, so easy to tear someone down using their social or political or religious beliefs as the stones that bruise and harm so easily—so easy to do that across internet lines because we never have to look into the eyes of the person we are tearing down.

We live in broken and fearful world, a world where brokenness and sin often pervade our lives and always threaten to tear us down. I was appalled to listen to an interview this week, the story of the woman who first appeared on the front page of the website for the Affordable Care Act. She is a beautiful woman with gorgeous light brown skin, a permanent resident from Colombia whose husband is a US citizen, whose son was born here, who is applying for US citizenship. She simply posed for a stock photo, not knowing where and when the photo would be used. It just so happened that her photo was used on the front page of the website, and because of all of the problems with it, her face has been scrutinized by the press and the public, she has been called “glitch girl,” even described as having “the most despised face on the planet.” No one ever stopped long enough to think about her, about the fact that she had absolutely nothing to do with this website or the ACA—but even if she had everything to do with it—she still shouldn’t have been torn down. No one stopped to think that she is a person just like the rest of us, created and worth. An example of our broken and sinful world.

All we have to do is stop and look to see the brokenness around us. We see the brokenness of people who do not have enough food to eat, of food banks who don’t have enough food on their shelves to help. We see the brokenness of our priorities when we hear about who might possibly run for president 3 years from now before we see pictures of typhoon destruction in the Philippines, before we stopped to pray for the lives lost. We see the brokenness of our government representatives of all parties, representatives who would rather retreat to their own corners and throw rocks at each other than sit down, compromise, and come to sensible solutions together. We see the brokenness that comes with addiction when we see a Canadian mayor who lashes out instead of seeking help. We see the brokenness of the world as we are approaching the one year anniversary of a school massacre—and we are too crippled and scared and polarized to either do anything about an ill person who has nothing to lose or the weapons that enabled him to so easily take the lives of 20 babies with him. Every day we see the brokenness of families and friendships, of relationships and lives. And so often it seems like there is nothing we can do. A broken and fearful world, indeed.

But when we feel we are most lost, most helpless, Isaiah gives us a new vision, tells us what God is going to do in the Kingdom of heaven:

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; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. 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…The wolf and the lamb shall feed together…they shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

Isaiah gives a new vision of a new heavens and a new earth, not a vision of brokenness and sin, but a vision of newness, of wholeness, of holiness. Isaiah gives us a vision of transformation where everything is made new, a new creation where the most vicious animals will hang out with the least, where there will be joy instead of sorrow, where distress will turn into delight.

It is indeed a beautiful vision of a new heaven and a new earth. And how tempting it is for us to believe that this is solely a vision of the future, of the time when we will leave what we know of this earth and draw nearer to God in the death that leads to new life. It is so tempting for us to leave it there—that this is what life will be like when I get to heaven, that it will never be like this here on earth. But, as Presbyterians, we believe differently. As Presbyterians, we believe that the church exists to do these 6 great things: to proclaim the gospel for the salvation of humankind; to provide shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; to maintain divine worship;to preserve the truth; to promote social righteousness; and to exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.

Did you catch that last one? As Presbyterians, as Christians, as people of faith, we are called to exhibit the kingdom of heaven to the world. We are called to exhibit a kingdom where the crying and sorrow will come to an end as joyfulness and rejoicing lead the way; where people will not die young, but live full lives; where no one will go without shelter but instead live with roofs over their heads; where there will enough food and labor for everyone; where families are blessed instead of cursed, where animals and creatures of all kinds will no longer recognize their differences and exert power over each other, but instead lie down and coexist peacefully with each other.

David LaMotte, our keynoter at least year’s college conference, is a singer/songwriter, but most importantly, a Rotary Peace Fellow who constantly works to help us find peace in a broken world—or better put, he works to inspire us and help us find ways to usher in the kingdom. He talked to our students about call and service in January. Listen to his words:

What we do is about how we engage with the world. We care about the kingdom coming here and now. It’s our job to figure out how to invite the kingdom into our world. Change is always happening. You are invited by God into the process of creating the world. You are part of the partnership with God. God wants to move in you and God is moving in you. And we think, “I run into the things that trouble me. I want to have an impact, and I want to be engaged but say instead, ‘Who am I to do this? I’m busy. I don’t have the gifts required to help in this situation.’” But God has other plans.

Yes, the great news is that God has plans for us, plans that we could never, ever begin to imagine or dream on our own. God, through Isaiah, gives us a new vision of a new heavens and a new earth, a new earth that is possible in the here and now if we simply get out of God’s way and stop being stubborn and hopeless, if we let God work through us. It is so easy for us to stop and look at all the pain around us and think, “There’s no way I can help everyone, stop all of the pain, heal all of the brokenness around me. I can’t do it. I don’t have the time. I don’t have the energy. I don’t have the gifts. And I can’t do it all, so why even try?”

I think about our time in Haiti, about how many times I looked around and saw a woman my age in a bed dying from AIDS, looked to the next to see a teenager suffering from yellow fever, simply to look at another and find an older woman covered in boils with a stinch so bad I almost vomited. It was so much to take in, and I walked out of the room, sat on a bench, and started to cry: “Why try to help any of this if I can’t solve it all?” That kind of fear is paralyzing. It is so easy to wallow and squander our lives away, to get lost in those things that simply make us stop in our tracks and think that we can’t go on, but we can’t. We can’t shut down because we have been forgiven, and in that forgiveness have been given a glimpse of the new heavens and the new earth. And because we have been given that grace, we have to do something with it. We have to do what we can, one step at a time, one moment at a time, in response to God’s gifts of creation and life, God’s gifts of forgiveness and grace. In the Feasting on the Word commentary, Mary Eleanor Johns beautifully describes how we are called to usher in the kingdom one moment at a time:

The text describes radical transformation of living conditions in the new Jerusalem, including low infant mortality, housing and food for all, and sustainable employment. Such details push us to focus on the manner in which Christ’s church participates in his messianic rule…We are able to give one drink of cold water at a time. We are able to bring comfort to the poor and the wretched, one act of mercy or change at a time. One book given, one friendship claimed, one covenant of love, one can of beans, one moment of commendation, one confession of God’s presence but for the asking, one moment in which another person is humanized rather that objectified, one challenge to the set order that maintains injustice, one declaration of the evil that is hiding in plain sight, one declaration that every person is a child of God: these acts accumulate within God’s grace.

Because of the grace given to us, we are called to respond with grace, to see the pain and suffering and brokenness around us and do what we can—one drink of water at a time, one declaration at a time, one thing given at a time, one challenge at a time. We are called to celebrate God’s kingdom in heaven and called to usher that kingdom in on God’s earth, to create peace wherever we can.

Our children just sang in the best:

You be the lion, fierce and wild.

I’ll be the lamb, so meek and mild.

We live together happily,

That’s how it ought to be.

You be the lion brave and bold,

I’ll be the lamb with heart of gold.

We get along in harmony,

That’s how it ought to be.

Peace, good will to all the earth

Sang the choirs at Jesus’ birth,

But this world needs us today.

Pointing out the way.

So you be the lion filled with pride.

I’ll be the lamb and walk beside.

We’ll make the dream reality,

That’s how it ought to be.

We will follow God’s command,

Spread the word through all the land,

Scatter love on every hand,

Cause that’s how it ought to be! See!

Out of the mouths of babes. We live together happily, we get along in harmony. We’ll make the dream a reality. Scatter love on every hand, because that’s how it ought to be. See!? Thanks be to God.