a new thing

“See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 42:19) 

We live in a day and age when we are between the first and the second advents.  Meaning, we live at a time when God has come, God is continually coming, and God will come again.  The reason that’s significant is because we do not just sit idly by and wait for some distant day when God will finally arrive and make all things right and whole once again, we keep our eyes peeled and our hearts attentive to what God is doing here and now, both within us and among us.  Jesus told us himself that, “My Father is always at his work.” (John 5:17)  Thus, God is always coming into our lives and our world in new and beautiful ways, if only we have eyes to see it.  There is already a new thing that he is doing, our job is to perceive it, embrace it, and enter in to it.  This very day, God is saying, “I am here.  I am at work.  I am doing something new and beautiful within and among you.  Join me!”  God has come, God is coming, God will come—it’s the beauty of Advent.  

new things

When God talks about “making all things new,” (Rev. 21:5) he is not necessarily talking about new in time (neos), although that may be true as well, but new in quality (kainos).  That’s why he says, “I am making all things new,” rather than, “I am making all new things.”  It is a subtle, but significant difference.  And one that we would do well to pay attention to. 

For if we take “the old is gone and the new (kainos) has come” (2 Cor. 5:17) in the quantitative (neos) sense, we will have the wrong idea about what is really happening.  We will be looking outside ourselves, rather than looking within.  We will be expecting something to come out of the blue, rather than something to grow deep in the soil of our soul.  

But if we take this newness in the qualitative (kainos) sense, we are much more likely to be able to see what God is really up to, and embrace it.  God is making us qualitatively different; not from the outside in, but from the inside out.  That's how the life of the Spirit works.  And I, for one, am so grateful.  There is something really beautiful about a God who cares about the quality of my life.  A God who is constantly forming new things in me that are more beautiful than I could ever imagine or dream about.

zechariah's prayer

luke 1:67-79

my son

my dear one

how long i have waited

for the day of your arrival

and even now

on the very day 

of your birth

i must already

begin to learn

how to let you go

for you do not belong to me

but to the one who formed

and made you

the one who

dreamt you into being

the one for whom

you must

even now

begin to prepare the way

so my job

as your dad

is not to hold onto you

but to let you go

and to allow you to become

all that he made you to be

what's it going to take

luke 1:18-19

what’s it going to take

for you to fully believe

that what I say about you

is really true

i sent angels

i performed miracles

i spoke through prophets

i even sent my son

what more can i do

O Lord, forgive me when I allow life’s circumstances to make me doubt the goodness of your heart.  Forgive me when I let the voices around me and within me determine my value and my worth, rather than your unfailing love.  O Lord, what’s it going to take for me to really believe that what you say is really true?  Lord, have mercy.  Amen.

she said yes

“I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be to me as you have said.” (Luke 1:38)  

So God came to a teenage girl and asked her to do what was unimaginable.  And low and behold, she said, “Yes!”  From that moment on, everything about her life was totally out of her control.  She placed herself completely in God’s hands.  And in the days and years that followed, that pattern would continually repeat itself; Mary’s big yes to God, would be followed by a million other yeses.  Each and every day she would be asked to surrender and to trust.

That’s the way life with God works.  He comes to us, asks for our yes, and then the rest of our lives is simply a matter of trust and surrender.  We do not get to dictate or control what our yes means.  We do not get to determine the terms and conditions of our yes.  Yes simply means yes.  We are his servants, not he ours.

So listen carefully.  God is asking for a yes from you and me as well.  What will our answer be?

O Lord, give me the strength and the grace and the courage to say yes to you today, whatever you may be asking.  Amen.

emmanuel

most often you come

in ways few would notice

not high and holy

but meek and lowly

a stable

a manger

a star

a teenage girl

small and quiet

hidden and lowly

humble and obscure

as if you wanted

to slip into your world

unnoticed

except by those

paying careful

attention

made perfect

heb. 2:10

what was it

about suffering

that made you perfect

for they seem

such odd bedfellows

yet in you the two

became one

was there something

in the lowering

and the emptying

and the taking on

of our flesh

that was necessary

for your becoming

or was it merely

the truest expression

of who you really are

was it something

about the sharing

of our humanity

that made you perfect

a desired union that

only shared suffering

could accomplish

whatever the case

if you were made

perfect through suffering

how could we expect it

to be any different

for each of  us

help us to accept

your invitation

to allow suffering

to do its work

in our hearts

and souls as well