Isaiah 65:17-25

Will You Take Part?

                     Daniel Simons is a researcher in a field of psychology called visual cognition. His best-known experiment is on attention blindness, also popularly called “the invisible gorilla.” You’d assume that if you were watching people walking in a circle passing a basketball, you’d notice if some dude in a gorilla suit randomly walked through the scene, waving his arms and jumping up and down. 90% of people assume that they wouldn’t miss such an obvious event, yet 50% do.

The experiment goes like this: two groups of people some in white others in black shirts pass the basketball among themselves as they walk. Observers are asked to count how many times people in the white shirts touch the ball. Seconds into the sequence, the gorilla comes running through. Afterwards half of the observers are shocked when asked if they saw a gorilla.

Simon’s experiment shows that if people were looking for a gorilla, they would see a gorilla. But if their attention is elsewhere at least half will miss the man in a gorilla suit. Simon’s point is clear: what we are prepared to focus on is what we see.

                      Rev. Samuel talked to us about his work trying to inspire white congregations to not miss the true message of the kingdom, while focused on multiplying their 500K $ budget or renewing their 10K square feet sanctuary, and help them to see the jumping gorilla in the room.

And when I invited him I thought: what kind of message can he bring to a church like ours? You may have noticed but we’re not a white church. And we are pretty open and inclusive, and most of the times welcoming to people who walk in our doors, but we’re not perfect. So what are the ways in which we can be challenged?

I want to challenge us this morning to question ourselves: what does Parkview focus on? What do we see, and what do we fail to see because of that? Where does our time go? Where does our money go? Where is our energy focused? And where is our planning focused?

The words of scripture for this morning declare: “I am about to create new heavens and a new earth.”

Scriptures do not say “I might create new things,” or “if you help me,” or “if or when you are ready for it then I will create new things” but “I am about to create…” I am going to, it is happening. God has always been creating and recreating and we cannot stop God’s work but we can only choose not to be part of it.

I am about to create new heavens and a new earth. The former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. We joke about not being able to un-see something like an embarrassing photo and we cannot really un-remember things that had impacted us. But Isaiah is saying here: there is no room for both old and new, but in order for the new to replace the old, the latter’s got to go. Here’s a painful fact of life: For something new to be born, something’s got to die.

Jesus said unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit…

I’ll give you an example, which one of us did not adore our tall, white, talkative, Dutch-blooded pastor? And man he loved this congregation. Wherever he went he bragged that everyone wants to be like us. Yet he knew that if this church is to be tuned to the new thing, his era has to die. Not that he wasn’t good, or wasn’t good for the church, he was great. But he had to go in order to make room for something new.

I think we hear enough about the new things that are happening but we don’t hear enough about the old things that need to go in order to make room for new ministries to flourish.

If we look at our calendar, we have things going on year-round at Parkview and I think that is wonderful and if it indicates anything it is the enthusiasm and the energy and the commitment of this congregation. But times have changed, our context have changed, and we reached a season in our church’s life where we have this great opportunity to start over and create something new and relevant, and I think the great challenge that scripture brings to us this morning is: in order for our new ministry to flourish, what are the things that we can prayerfully let go.

Friends it is understandable that letting go of what we know isn’t easy. Because we have come to love those boxes we live in. The box might be tight, but it is too scary out there I’d rather just be in the box.

Letting go of things that are good enough is actually considered foolish in our society. You may hate your job, but you don’t quit until you find another. You don’t just cancel your insurance plan, until it’s replaced. You don’t sell your wrecked car until you find a new one. But it isn’t the same in our life with God. Isaiah says, the former things will be totally and completely forgotten.

But for that to happen we need faith, lots of it. We need to stop accepting “good enough” as good enough and trust that God who created the old heavens and earth is capable of creating new and even better heavens and earth.

Personally, my favorite part of my journey with God is that what God has given me always exceeded all of my expectations. I grew up in a traditional village, where girls don’t just leave and live on their own, and kids in general do not leave their parents’ house until they get married, and if they don’t marry they don’t leave at all. So, at 21, if you had told me I would be traveling across continents in a few years, let alone living thousands of miles away from home; I would have thought you were planning to murder my father.

Talk about things you had never imagined!

I wish I had trusted God better than I did at times.

God really is bigger than our imaginations. God really is more bountiful than we dream God might be. God really delights in us.

In our passage from Isaiah, starts with: “I am about to create new heavens and a new earth,” and moves on to talk about God’s people being the main recipients of the new creation, and the ones who are to delight in it. So the text continues like this (and I am reading the RNT version – Rola’s New Translation):

          18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Sacramento to be a delight and its
people a joy.

          19 I will rejoice over New Jersey and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in Lebanon no more.

          20 “Never again will there be in Africa an infant who lives but a few days, or in Syria an old person who does not live out their years.

          21 The people of Iraq will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

          22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones of Yemen will long enjoy the work of their hands.

          23 They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them.

          24 Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.

          25 America and Russia will feed together… They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy earth” says the Lord.

“For behold I create new heavens and a new earth.”

Ahead of us are things we had never imagined. And I hope and pray that we can humble ourselves enough to focus our attention on our new calling, enough to let go of the things that stand in the way –including our ego, and enough to celebrate our past and hold it dear, but to look forward to the future with faith in God’s recreating, regenerating, and renovating power.

Friends, God is creating something new, and we are invited to be part of it. Amen.