Longing for That Starry Night
Isaiah 65:17-25
New heavens and a new earth
65:17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
65:18 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.
65:19 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.
65:20 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.
65:21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
65:22 They 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.
65:23 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.
65:24 Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.
65:25 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.
The idea for this message came to me just after I read the lectionary selections for this weekend, most especially being jarred by the fantastic promises of this chapter 65 passage from Trito-Isaiah. A few minutes later, I was staring down the path from Groves Lodge toward the Manor at Olmsted Manor, looking over a table populated by a 1,000-piece puzzle of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” The puzzle was incomplete. Aren’t we all looking for that starry night, I thought? Ralph Waldo Emerson is credited with the poetic line, “When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.” Don’t we all hope that is true, given we are now experiencing some dark nights?
Olmsted Manor, like many similar church “camps,” is experiencing an existential moment. COVID put a serious crimp in the operation of so many retreat-oriented facilities, the shrinking economy has put yet another fold in it, and the cultural changes happening all around us has only sped up the harmful process. Costs to run such facilities are up, usage is down, and funding alternatives are far fewer, especially due to the disaffiliation in the United Methodist realm. While our camps and retreat facilities have pledged to continue to serve both the UMC and the Global Methodists, it does not seem like the fledgling product of this most recent church schism is interested in taking up the offer. My wife, Dara, is on the board of Olmsted Manor, an organization that I served as board president of for almost ten years. The current board is dealing with realities similar to what we experienced during my tenure (COVID shut-downs and the need to install a modern water system to the tune of $500,000). As I looked out that window to the beauty of Olmsted, framed by the Starry Night puzzle, I contemplated Isaiah 65.
In those few moments, I also thought about the federal government shutdown and the people it has already affected. I worried about those who had zero dollars deposited in their SNAP accounts these past two weeks, and fellow seniors who had no one to talk to when needing to contact the Social Security Administration. I couldn’t help but also be concerned for the 14 million Americans who may lose their healthcare coverage, should the Affordable Care Act credits be allowed to expire, thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill passed by Congress. Is it dark enough to see the stars, yet, Ralph? Vincent, will we be able to see the swirling stars in your Starry Night masterpiece? God, will we ever be able to see the fulfilment of Isaiah 65? My gut feeling must be at least a free sample of what God’s people Israel experienced when they heard these words of Isaiah 65: “We so BADLY need this, but I’m not feeling it!”
Have you ever noticed that picture puzzles are much like Bible prophecies? The box shows you what it should look like when everything comes together, but when you dump out those 1,000 tiny pieces, all seems near hopeless. My wife loves doing picture puzzles, and she has her “method,” as would any good Methodist. She turns all of the pieces over to the picture side, begins separating out the flat-edged “border” pieces, and then starts grouping the remaining pieces by color or subject matter. She starts with the border, possibly because her personality type likes to know its limits, first. I don’t have the patience for spending long periods of time poring over a picture puzzle, but when I do, I begin by looking at piece shape, generally ignoring clues such as subject or color. I am most frustrated by those puzzles that manage to shape the pieces almost identically, forcing the latter comparisons. I guess I’m the same with interpreting the Bible? I could never be a literalist, in this regard. In seminary, I passionately resonated with a statement attributed to Karl Barth, the Swiss pastor and theologian: “I take the Bible too seriously to take it literally.” As a journalist, I also resonated with the tongue-in-cheek line, “All the news that’s print to fit.” Like putting together a picture puzzle, I just try to make the pieces fit, hoping that the picture will reveal itself in due time. I think prophets like Third Isaiah did exactly the same thing. Their prophecies were one-third spirit-inspired, and two-thirds guttural hope.
What will it take for us to see that starry night in our time? Let’s look at the words of Trito-Isaiah:
New heavens and a new earth: I don’t know about the “new heavens,” for, as an amateur astronomer, I think the present ones are quite amazing. I spend countless hours with my “smart telescope” deployed, enjoying the mysteries and spectacular displays of the present “heavens.” I do accept the idea of a “new earth,” though, for we are well on our way of corrupting this one beyond recognition. On our recent nine-day cruse across the South Pacific, I was shocked by the amount of garbage and “plastic crap” we sailed passed in the middle of the ocean. “Green energy” will only help if it is more widely adopted, and our own country has taken a powder on this. Oh, and I’ll not even wade into Isaiah’s promise that “the former things will not be remembered” line. It will take a long, LONG time to forget the damage being done to humanity and good intentions by the actions of the selfish, egotistical leaders we have currently in the seat of power, and not just here in the United States.
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…: Our own country has one of the worst infant mortality rates of any “civilized” nation, and the patent disrespect we show our elderly is unique among the nations of the world. Why? I’m open to any suggestions beyond just that we are heinously self-centered, and happy with the “wealth flows upward” tenet of unregulated capitalism. We are living in a time of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Years ago, someone hypothesized that, if you were to redistribute a society’s wealth across the broad spectrum of that society, with a fairly short period of time, those who were originally wealthy would be wealthy again, and those who were at first poor, would be poor again. I’m sure this is correct, because “handling money responsibility” is surely a product of education and experience. THIS is why regulations and “caring for the least of these” was a “thing,” even in Jesus’ day! Using this “money flows upward” factoid as a justification for deregulating the economy is not only folly, it is downright cruel. And how long will a hurting society wait for the “wealthy” to gain a conscience? Ask Elon Musk, who just got a TRILLION DOLLAR payday!
They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit: If the world has a homelessness problem, the United States is its capital city. Every town of every size has unhoused persons wandering the streets, pushing their entire worldly possessions in an old shopping cart, and begging at traffic lights for money to feed themselves. Yeah, I’ve heard all the arguments about how “it is their own fault,” or “they are actually wanting money for drugs or alcohol,” and “they won’t use the shelters because they suffer from mental illness.” While all of these things may be true, to some extent, why can’t a progressive, advanced society that can put a smart phone in everyone’s pocket solve THESE challenges so our citizens can’t get the help they need and have a roof over their heads? We seem satisfied to live in a society of “haves” and “have nots.” Isaiah was not impressed, and neither did he think God was. Speaking for the Divine, Third Isaiah thought that people should have shelter and food. It’s that simple, and for the believer, we should not find satisfaction until this prophecy is fulfilled.
Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear: I think God is trying to keep up God’s end of the bargain. If it were not for the times when God has intervened in human affairs, I think we would have long since vanished from this planet. Also, God IS willing to answer, but are we speaking? What ARE we praying for, if anything? And are we just sending up our personal shopping list without listening to see if God has a message or marching orders for us? I find myself thinking often about the efficacy of prayer. I have come to accept as a matter of faith that prayer is an important and good thing, and that I should do it, regardless of my understanding of how it works, similar to breathing. I know that if I stop breathing, I will cease to live. As a believer, if I cease praying, I will therefore cease to believe, after a time. Prayer is like breathing, for a believer. Beyond this, prayer is also a kind of self-reflection, serving to internalize our “dreams” for our life, our family, and for the world. Praying, therefore, can be an exercise in externalizing these dreams. Maybe when we pray them—externalize them—we will be compelled to work for them? So many of my prayers can be fulfilled by my own actions; do I hear the Spirit of God saying, “Then go DO that!”? God is not the genie in the lamp. God is the lamp.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together: While it would be cool to see this happen among the members of the animal kingdom, I watch enough Nature episodes with David Attenborough to know that it might not be the best for them, if they were to fully “be at peace” with one another. Indeed, some might even starve. I’m thinking these words of the prophet are more about the nations of the world, and our world leaders? Putin is a wolf, as is North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. China’s Xi seems to want to be more of a lamb, albeit an economically-driven one, while the European “pride” is largely lambs, hoping for a world where “we all just get along.” The United States has played the role of the heavy-feeding, heavy-lifting OX, most of the time, and occasionally taking on a reconciling “lamb” role. Now, we have a wolf in charge, and it could potentially throw the world off its axis, peace-wise. It is time for the peacemakers Jesus talked about. We should pray for them, be them, and look for the blessings of peace, rather than join in the lion’s roar, as people of faith, in my opinion. But, of course, I’m not a literalist…
Third Isaiah envisions a world that we STILL can’t yet grasp. The border pieces of his “puzzle” are not yet together, let alone the main body of the picture. A few minutes after I was glancing over the far-from-finished puzzle of the Van Gogh at Olmsted, my dear wife came along and pointed to it, saying, “That was here back in July, and it doesn’t look like much has been done to it, since then.” Therein lies my greatest fear with the “world puzzle” of Isaiah’s (and God’s?). Who will pick up the mantle of completing the puzzle of God’s “Starry Night” if we don’t? And how will the church become a key—if not THE key—agency for fleshing out the picture? We must first believe this is the picture God wants us to present to the rest of the world, and THEN we must want it with a passion.
Are WE longing for Isaiah’s Starry Night? Think about it, Beloved. Shalom…
No comments:
Post a Comment