“A NEW THING”
Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 13, 2016
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
“Remember not the former things; nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not
perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the
desert.”
Isaiah 43:18, 19 (ESV)
The philosopher George Santyana is credited with the statement:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
There’s a lot of truth in that. I am convinced that a lot of the
problems that we face today, both in the Church and in society, stem
from the fact that a lot of people these days have absolutely no sense
of history. They act as if nothing significant ever happened until
they arrived on the scene. It is a good thing to look back at where
we have been so that we might be encouraged by past joys and successes
and so that we might learn from past mistakes and failures. But so
many people go a lot farther than simply remembering the past; they
live in the past. Some people have a particularly morbid habit of
dwelling on everything in their past that was bad. I once knew a
woman who could recite--down to the minutest detail--all of the bad
things that had happened to her over the past thirty years. What a
waste that is! Think of all of the great dreams and positive ideas
that person could have come up with if only she had directed all of
that mental energy into visualizing good things in her future and
developing some goals for the remainder of her life.
That is precisely what God is telling us to do in this morning’s Old
Testament Reading. Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord says
that we should forget all of the old and dead things that clutter up
our minds. He doesn’t literally mean that we should forget them
altogether, but rather that we should not dwell on the past. He gives
us something better to dwell on, because in place of the old things of
the past He says that He is “doing a new thing” for us, which is far
more worthy of our interest and attention. While the prophet does not
say specifically what this “new thing” is, to the Christian it is
obvious: The “new thing” is the grace of God revealed in Jesus
Christ, in whom we are able to die to the past and live the New Life
that lies ahead of us through the power of Christ’s death and
resurrection. Our theme for this morning’s message is a very simple
one: God’s “new thing” is infinitely better than our old things.
One of the biggest problems with the past is that it can cripple us.
When we dwell on the past, especially the not-so-pleasant things in
our past, those thoughts have a way of at first captivating us and
eventually enslaving us, making it impossible for us to break out of
our old bad habits and our old defeatist attitudes. We can become so
absorbed in past disappointments and failures that we can’t see beyond
them. This has happened to so many people personally and also in the
history of the Church. The disciples of Jesus, for example, were very
excited about their New Life in Christ, but they still dwelled on
their past pride and jealousies enough to bicker with one another over
which of them was the greatest. In a similar fashion, the early
Christians had their hearts in the right place when they boldly
confessed Christ in the face of persecution, but once they became an
institution with a favored status they reverted back to playing the
world’s old game of accumulating wealth and persecuting their enemies.
On so many occasions the Lord has made it clear to us that if we
really want follow Him we have to make a clean break with our past.
Listen to what God said when He called Abraham: “Go from your country
and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show
you” (Genesis 12:1). Jesus said the same thing. To a man who was
willing to follow Him but first had to go and bury his father, the
Savior said: “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you,
go and proclaim the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60). To another who
wanted to follow Him but first had to say goodbye to his family, Jesus
said: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for
the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). When it comes to being a disciple of
Jesus Christ, there can be no hesitation or divided loyalty, for He
calls us to forsake our past and to embrace and pursue His “new
thing.”
The “new thing” that God calls us to gives us hope because it sets us
free from our past. In Christ God has wiped away our past life of
sin, together with all of its failures and disappointments. Because
of what our Savior has done for us in His life, death, and
resurrection, God accepts us as being righteous-- unscathed by our
past sins and shortcomings. The time for feeling guilty over the past
is over and done with; it is now time for us to live the New Life that
is ours in Him. If we continue to dwell on past sins and live in
those past sins, we are in fact denying and negating what Christ has
done for us. Paul’s rhetorical question, addressed to the Roman
church, speaks loudly and pointedly. The apostle asks: “How can we
who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:2). Elsewhere in his
writings he offers an alternative: “If anyone is in Christ,” he
writes to the Philippians, “he is a new creation. The old has passed
away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
God’s “new thing” for us in Christ, given to us in the Sacrament of
Holy Baptism, is a new and glorious future, beginning at our Baptism
and lasting throughout our lifetime and even beyond the grave into
everlasting life. Because Jesus was willing to be made like us, we
are able to be remade like Him. So glorious is our future hope in Him
that we should have no need to even think about our past
disappointments, nor even of any unpleasantness in the present, as
Paul experienced himself when he wrote: “I consider that the
sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory
that will be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). There is so much good for
us to enjoy both now and in the future because of God’s “new thing” in
Christ that it overshadows all of the negative things in our past and
present. Like “a light shining in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19 NIV),
our future hope in Christ dispels all the darkness of whatever
failures and sorrows we have endured so far.
As we look back on the past we find many things--a “mixed bag,” as
they say: high points and low points, joys and sorrows, good times and
bad times, virtues and sins. But no matter what may be included in
your past, one thing is abundantly clear: You can’t change it. For
good or ill, it’s there--and it is what it is. But your Savior Jesus
Christ has changed how you live from this point on. God has wiped
away your past sins and shortcomings by doing “a new thing” for you in
His Son Jesus Christ, and as a result He calls you by His Holy Spirit
to live a New Life to His glory, telling others, in word and deed,
about His “new thing” and about His call, so that more of those for
whom He suffered and died might know it, believe it, and be made new
by it. His Spirit, working through the Gospel, motivates and
strengthens us for this and even forgives us when we fail. More than
that, He makes sure that our calling is fulfilled in us, making up for
what is lacking in us, so that we need not worry, be afraid, or be
held back but may move forward confidently in His power and grace.
Amen.
May the One who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,
making us kings and priests before His God and Father, lead you to a
life of repentance and trust. May He also be glorified in the lives
of you, His people. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.
Amen.