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Introduction to Worship for 11/13/2016

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Isaiah 65:17-25

This is the last week in “Ordinary Time,” the part of the church year where we are not celebrating particular times or seasons in the life of the church.  Next week we will celebrate the Reign of Christ, and then the week after that we will start the church year with Advent.  This is the time of year that we are beginning to dream of a world made new, to consider the promises of God and to remind ourselves of our hopes for the One who is to come. Our scripture this week is one of the texts that looks forward to the time when the world will be healed, and imagines what that day might look like.

Scholars believe the book of Isaiah was composed at different times by different authors, and generally divide the book into three sections: First, Second, and Third Isaiah. These verses are from Third Isaiah, written a couple generations after the people had returned from Babylonian Exile. The fresh energy is long gone, and in its place are the many hardships and deepening discouragement of a destroyed dream that Jerusalem would again be what it once was. Into this context of failed dreams, an uncertain future, the prophet Isaiah enters the chaos of their world with the astounding assertion that now is the time to rejoice in what God is doing. “Be glad and rejoice,” sings the prophet, with words of God’s promise. Let go of that old sad song about what once was and rejoice in the present day ways in which God’s justice, healing, and peace are being made known. There is no denial of the struggle, the weeping, cries of distress, lives lost too early, homelessness, economic injustice, and turmoil with which they live. But, rather than let this chaos become the basis for despair and hopelessness, the prophet attests that it is precisely in this chaos that God is able to create a new world of wholeness and peace, inviting our participation. The time for rejoicing is now.

Family activity (can be adapted to families of all ages)

  • Reflect on your own life and/ or the life of your community. What “former things” do you imagine might need to be forgotten, or let go so that the possibility of God’s new heaven and new Earth might emerge in your life, in your community, in the world?
  • How might letting go of old dreams open you and your community to the experience of joy? 
  • How have you experienced the surprising and unexpected peace and wholeness of God about which the prophet speaks?

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