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.
18But 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.
19I 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.
20No 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.
21They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they
shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22They shall not build and another inhabit;
they
shall not plant and another eat;
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.
23They shall not labor in vain,
or
bear children for calamity;
for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD--
and
their descendants as well.
24Before they call I will answer,
while
they are yet speaking I will hear.
25The 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.
On
her latest album, Dar Williams wrote a song called “I Am the One Who Will
Remember Everything,” which tells the story of a refugee boy who faces the
constant possibility of being pressed into service as a child soldier, a “child
born for calamity” as Isaiah speaks about:
“Oh what have we
here, he must be three or four,
Shaken out of a
boot on its way back to war
And he’s not
looking for a father or a mother,
Just a seven year
old brother,
On this smudged
line border camp of refugees,
I am the one who
will remember everything.
I am the one who
will remember everything.
So where are we
now, he must be five or six,
Just running
around, hungry kids, sharpened sticks.
And he will grow
with pain and fear and jealousy,
Taken in by
schools of zealotry,
Who train orphans
to make orphans evermore.”
It
is this kind of thing that will be swept away in the new Jerusalem that Isaiah
predicts.
The
promise in Isaiah that God is setting creation aright should sound familiar—we
heard it two weeks ago during 5 Lent in Isaiah 43:18-19: “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?” The
promise of creation, of the kingdom of God, is finally going to be fulfilled.
This will be a time of peace, justice, and plenty. Jerusalem will be God’s city;
in other words, the new Eden. The memories of war, violence, pain, and death
will be wiped completely away. The laborers will enjoy the fruits of their
labor, and blessings and mercy will be freely given to the people who inhabit
on God’s holy mountain.
Three
major shifts will take place: God will take joy in this new work; justice, contentment,
and peace will take the place of weeping, vulnerability, and injustice; and
relationships and the order of nature will be transformed so that none must
suffer or be deprived so that another may prosper. If we all understood that we
are members of one community—the kingdom of God—we might not just be satisfied
with a human calculus that divides our fellow human beings and children of God
into circles of ”them” and “us”—which is unfortunately another way to say “losers” and “winners.” God is eternal. Love is
eternal. How will we act in light of this knowledge?
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