TKT 2010 NEW YEAR’S EVE SERMON: 31 DEC. 09 – REV. MAXWELL PIRIKISI
“NEW BEGINNINGS” – SEED TIME, HARVEST & THE POWER OF THE RAINBOW
Key Statements:
- “New Beginnings” means something that has never been there is now not only there, but starting to “happen”.
- That means, God is making a fresh start with His people.
- That means this is The Year Without Limits and it is marvellous after we have GONE BEYOND!
- In this Year of New Beginnings, it is going to be important how we position ourselves to maximise every benefit in God!
- There is Power in the Rainbow as covenanted by and with God.
Root scriptures:
Jeremiah 29:10 – 14 This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfil my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. (11) For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (12) Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. (13) You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (14) I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
Isaiah 43: 19 – Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
God is calling up time!
Subtext:
When God’s redeeming work in your life is complete, you will love God with all your heart and you will love your neighbour as yourself. You will reflect God’s glory along with a vast community of redeemed people drawn from every nation in whom His image has been fully restored.
God receives us in our sin, but he never leaves us in our sins. He is relentless in calling us to follow His ways and in correcting us when we depart from them.
After the time of David, there followed a line of kings, some good, but mostly bad. God’s people worshipped other gods, and walked in their ways. God sent prophets who spoke His Word, calling the people to repentance and obedience. Their message was largely ignored, and so God, whose Word never fails, moved to discipline and correct His people.
The land God had given to His people was over-run by their enemies, and God’s people became exiles in Babylon, where they lived under the discipline of God, and wept their way through 70 years of sorrow.
God never abandons His promise, and even in this severe trial, He was advancing His ultimate purpose for His people. God’s plans for His people are always good. He may hurt us but he will never harm us. His wounds are the wounds of a friend, who will not let you go.
Christ came into the world to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). That means more than forgiveness. Salvation is deliverance from sin and all its effects. It means washing sin’s guilt, breaking sin’s power, healing sin’s pain, removing sin’s regret, and finally expelling sin’s presence.
Hope is sustained for the Christian by looking ahead to your joy that will be full when Christ’s saving work is complete. On that day, your sins will not only be covered, they will be gone. Your sorrow over your own sins, and your pain over the sins of others will be erased as God wipes all tears from your eyes.
Sin will be no more — no longer in you, and nowhere to be seen around you. So take heart and be encouraged in your struggle with sin and sorrow today. It will not always be so. In this life, we are sinners even at our best, but we are sinners in whom God is at work by His Spirit restoring the reflection of His image. When you see Christ, you will be like Him. Having this hope, walk in purity today (1 John 3:2, 3).
Fed up of old things? Create new things! Yes you can!
God is saying: “Stop staring into your past; Start looking unto Me! He says I’m not concerned about where you are coming from because I was with you there anyway. I’m not even bothered about where you are today because I have allowed you to be there anyway. BUT this moment I am interested in where you are going because I know the plans I have for you!”
Could it be that God is so fed up and tired of your monotonous life that He wants to give you a whole new look?
My brother if you grow tired of seeing your wife wearing the same hairstyle all the time you need to know that complaining about it won’t change a thing until you give your wife a big bag full of money and physically take her to the best hair saloon in town, and to the best pedicure and manicure people! They know how to give her the best face-lift! You can complain all day and all night and you will still have the same drippy face looking at you 24/7 if you don’t do something about it! If you don’t like what you see and if you don’t like who you are then you have to take urgent steps at every opportunity to change the picture!
God is saying the same thing to The King’s Tabernacle right now and to every member of this congregation! The question is: are there sons and daughters of Issachar here in this place, who know what the people of God ought to do now? Are there brothers and sisters who are hearing what the spirit of God is saying to the Church as we prepare to embrace the new 2010!
God must have gotten tired of staring at the same “void” and “formless earth”.
God has always been in the business of making “NEW BEGINNINGS”!
If you are used to living a certain kind of life style and eating certain food stuffs and staying in certain neighbourhoods God is saying you better get ready because I am about to shake your foundations and blow you out of all your comfort zones!
Better get ready to lose some of those old things and the first thing you are going to have to lose is your bad envious spirit!
If God needs to remove your stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh then He is already doing so even now as I speak!
Hold on, you haven’t seen anything yet!
Because:
- When you are in Christ you become a new creature!
- Jesus’ birth was a new thing – never had there been such a birth before!
- When Jesus rose from the grave it was a new thing – never had there been such a resurrection!
- The first time it rained, “raining” was a whole new concept because the scripture says it had never rained before, but water used to sip through the ground to water the earth and all its plants!
Nobody can tell you that you cannot have a first! Nobody can stop your New Beginnings!
No one is ever too fallen down to be unable to rise up again!
No one is too much of a sinner to be unable to be saved and to serve God!
You think you did so much wrong, stole too much, messed up with women or men too much or lied and deceived people too much?
Then Please allow me to give you a list of heroes of faith who were bad boys and girls:
- Eve was a con woman
- Jacob was a trickster
- Abel was too soft
- Zachariah was a non-believer
- Esther and Moses were one time impostors
- You say your English is bad – Moses was a stammerer and a murderer on the run
- You say you are too young – David was too young to face Goliath
- You say you have the wrong background
- Paul was a murderer
- Peter denied Jesus
- Judas was a thief and a sell-out yet he was Jesus’ personal financial advisor
- Joseph was a con artist and a jailbird
- David was an adulterer and a murderer
- Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations from prison
All these and many more were given NEW BEGINNINGS and if God could give them fresh start then surely Marjorie and Simeon and Zinhle and Mavuso will also have their NEW BEGINNINGS today!
Nothing is impossible with God. - Luke 1: 37
And today is your acceptable time with the Lord, not tomorrow!
Now is the time! Run with your life to God!
While this knowledge is not a license for us to continue in sin – the Bible says: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” – the truth of the matter is that God is not scarred or worried about your past because it is under the blood of Jesus!
Let me note that Solomon the wise said:
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us. - Ecclesiastes 1:9-10
But let me also note that God the all-wise said:
Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, 1 will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? - Isaiah 43:18-19.
From the very beginning God has always been BEGINNING new things!
Don’t let the devil tell you that you are raising your hopes too high!
They have asked the same question before!
They said:
“Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation’ - 2 Peter 3:4.
You turn around and tell all your detractors: “It may never have happened before, but it will start with me! So better get ready to see a new thing, such as you have never seen before!”
From the beginning of all things, God has been busy creating new things. When the Bible says that He rested, it does not say that He stopped creating altogether! Resting and stopping or discontinuing are two different things. When you rest, it means you can still continue. It means you are tired and you want to recuperate and get back your energy so that you can continue what you had started – what you were doing before you rested. But when you stop or discontinue, you are saying it’s enough and there is no more need to keep doing what you have been doing! I thank God that He rested on the seventh day, and resumed his creation again! And that’s why He is still creating NEW things today! And that’s why He is able to create NEW BEGINNINGS for me today, even right NOW!
Genesis 1: 1 – 31
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. 6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 8 God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. 9 Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13 There was evening and there was morning, a third day. 14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. 17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
20 Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” 21 God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. 24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. 25 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. 31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
You may have been going through a rough patch in your life! God is saying look out for the RAINBOW and start celebrating my Covenant (Genesis 9:8-17).
God told Noah and his sons that He would preserve life by not flooding the entire earth ever again (Genesis 9:11, 15). Moses writes:
“Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth. This is the sign of the covenant23 which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. And God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.’”
This passage reveals three important aspects to God’s covenant. This “covenant” is unconditional (9:9), universal (9:9-10, 17), and eternal (9:12, 16).
Several clues bear this out:
1. The recurrence of “I,” “Myself,” and “My” demonstrates the unconditional nature of this covenant. God Himself will ensure that this covenant is carried out. It is not dependent upon man’s work or faithfulness. This is how God typically works. There is nothing man can do to earn His favour.
2. The replication of the phrase “every living creature” (9:10a, 10b; 12b) and its equivalents, “all flesh” (9:11b; 15b; 17b), and “every living creature of all flesh” (9:15a; 16b)—a total of eight times, affirms God’s passionate concern for, and certain commitment to, the preservation and care of all living species on the earth.25 Since God appreciates both animal and human life, so should we.
3. God clearly states that this is an “eternal covenant” (9:16), “for all successive generations” (9:12). Since God is the eternal God who dwells outside of space and time, He can maintain His covenants as long as He sovereignly chooses. The Bible teaches that God fulfils His covenants and promises. If He failed to fulfil even one covenant or promise, He would cease to be God. Furthermore, if He failed, or fails sometime in the future, how could we know with any degree of confidence that the Gospel is trustworthy? Those that suggest the Scripture has errors often overlook this point. Yet, God’s Word must be free of inaccuracies or God is not God and the rest of His Word is suspect, at best.
God is about to pour out new beginnings into your life, is there someone making room and creating capacity to receive new beginnings in here today!
Stop holding onto past pleasures! You have no time to brood over past pains! Stop being sorry for yourself because you failed in some area last year! God knows that and he is not sorry about that! He says I have not only overlooked it but I have cast it out into the sea of forgetfulness that and I want to give you NEW BEGINNINGS!
The prodigal son hung around pigs long enough to start eating what they were eating and if he had stayed long enough with them he was soon going to start hogging like them!
God is saying to someone here you have been hanging around the wrong crowd for far too long and you are about to start looking like them! He says it was good enough that you walked with them and spent some past time with them but not anymore … your time with that sister, that brother, that job, that condition, that disease that situation and that environment is up!
God says … behold I do a new thing!
- Somebody is going to get a new life!
- Somebody is going to get a new spirit!
- Somebody is going to get a new desire for God!
- Somebody is going to get a new house!
- Somebody is getting a new car!
- Someone is getting married!
- Someone is getting a new job!
- Somebody is getting a promotion!
- Someone is getting new friends!
- Somebody is conceiving even right now!
- Some people are giving birth right now!
- And a whole new bright future is beckoning for yet another one!
That’s my God!
I dare you to take God at His word and see what He will do for you!
God says:
- You have been around this place for far too long!
- It’s getting hot in here! It’s getting uncomfortable in here!
- It’s getting unfriendly in here!
- This place is getting rather small and you don’t fit in here anymore!
- You have outgrown your place that’s why your neighbours don’t like you anymore – so, STOP fighting them and START moving on with GOD!
- Goodbye small neighbourhood!
Someone ought to shout that’s for me! That’s for me!
Hallelujah!
Now let me talk a bit more about the RAINBOW Covenant …
When God makes a covenant with us, it normally involves these three elements. The difference is that God alone determines the terms of the agreement, and that God always comes through on His end of the deal.
If God is willing to make a covenant with us, and He is willing to bind Himself to that covenant no matter what, what does that say about the relationship God wants to have with us? It says that we can be hopeful about the future, because we worship a God that not only desires our companionship, but who is willing to take the steps necessary to obligate Himself to that relationship.
In Genesis 9:12-17, God also attaches significance to the rainbow as a “sign” of His covenant.26 The Hebrew word for rainbow (qeset) is also the word for a battle bow. The point seems to be that the bow is now “put away,” hung in place by the clouds, suggesting that the “battle,” the storm, is over. Thus, the rainbow speaks of peace.27 As a result, whenever clouds appear over the earth and a rainbow appears, God will “remember”28 His covenant with man.29 God said that the rainbow would cause Him to remember His unconditional covenant with man.30 God is a faithful God!
AND BY THE WAY …There was nothing wrong with Moses when he realised he needed a fresh start so making a fresh start does not mean that your life is not working. Moses had everything he needed – a great life in the palace, and a great future on thing was on the horizon. However, something was missing – he wasn’t being true to himself, he lived someone else’s life!
Could it be that you have been living someone else’s life?
The prodigal son realised he was living someone else’s life and had to make a u-turn in his life – going back to daddy!
It’s not about trying harder! It’s about increasing your faith in God!
It’s not about what your friend can do for you, but what God will do for you!
In addition, it gets even better because it’s no longer, what God will do for you but what you can do for God!
Anyone can have a fresh start!
Time and chance happeneth to them all! And this is someone’s chance.
You may look so dead, buried in your own grave, dead and stinking like poor old Lazarus but Jesus says to Mary stop crying and start showing me some faith!
God is saying stop crying over what has already happened and come forth from your grave!
Oh, someone needs to hear God’s call-out order and start shaking off their dust and come out of their grave into the marvellous life of God!
It’s dangerous to give up on God because he never gives up on anybody!
Even in his death in the grave Lazarus responded to the call of life!
You are not even dead yet and you are not even in the grave yet and still you cannot hear God’s voice?
Somebody shout, “Speak Lord!”
Hallelujah!!!!!!
CONCLUSION:
Jeremiah 29:10-14
God promises, “I’m going to bring you home. You will no longer be in exile. I will give you the promised land. I will give you My rest.” We have been seeking “the rest of God”, ‘the true Sabbath, in His Kingdom (Hebrews 4). He says He will give it to us because of His good plans in His heart for us. He wants these good things to be given to us.
Therefore, He urges us to continue on, to build our families and to strengthen the ties between, not only within the family, but also with other families of His people. We are to overcome, grow, and produce fruit, so that we will have the heart that will seek Him in everything. In addition, if we can, to grow in numbers. He wants us to be increased and not diminished, if possible. He also advises us to be at peace with other men, to have the peace around us in which we can grow in righteousness and holiness and transform into His image.
When we do those things, and God’s time is right, He will bring us out of our exile. But not until then. He is the one, the Master Timekeeper, and when He says it is the right time, it will be the very best time for us to come out of exile. From wherever He has scattered us, He will bring us back and settle us, giving us true rest in His Kingdom.
EXTRA …
Thus says the Lord who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters. Remember not the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing, Even now it is springing to light. Do you not perceive it? A way will I make in the wilderness and rivers in the desert! Isaiah 43:16, 18-19.
Let us listen to words of the Old and New Testaments, which speak of the new, that God makes in life and history.
Behold the days come, saith the Lord, That I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel And with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day that I took them by the hand 1?o bring them out of the land of Egypt; Which my covenant they brake, So that I had to reject them. But this shall be the covenant That I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them And write it in their hearts; And I will be their God And they shall be my people. … For I will forgive their guilt And I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 81:31-34.
(Thus says the Lord God:) I will give them a new heart, And I will put a new spirit within them. I will remove their heart of stone And will give them a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 11:19.
(Thus says the Lord God:) I ignore the troubles of the past. I shut mine eyes to them.
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. The past shall be forgotten And never come to mind. Men shall rejoice forever in what I now create. Isaiah 65:16, 17.
Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, all things have become new. I Corinthians 5:17
(In addition, Jesus .said to them:) No one puts a piece of new cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; if it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into new wineskins, and so both are preserved. Matthew 9:16-17.
Finally, let us listen to the seer of the New Testament:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. In addition, I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down . . . and I heard a great voice from the throne saying: Behold, the dwelling of God is with men . . . he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, for the former things have passed away. . . . Behold, I make all things new. Revelation 21:1-5.
MEDITATION ….
Let us meditate on the old and the new, in ourselves and in our world. In these Biblical texts, the new contrasted with the old: the old is rejected and there is stated, in passionate words, expectation of the new. Even the Preacher, who denies the possibility of anything really new on earth, does not hide his longing for the new, and his disappointment in not being able to find it. Why do these writers feel and speak in this way? Why do they prefer the new to the old, and why do they believe that God is the God of the new? Why do they demand and expect the new birth, the new heart, the new man, the new covenant, the New Jerusalem, the new heaven and the new earth?
They do not announce the new because they believe what many people of the last decades have believed: that the later things are better than the former things simply because they are later; that new developments are more divine than old ones, because they are nearer to a final perfection; that God guarantees a perpetual progress, and that for this reason He is the God of the new. Against such illusions, the disappointed words of the Preacher are true for all history. In addition, certainly such illusions are not the content of the prophetic and apostolic preaching concerning the new. What is the content of their expectation? What do they mean when they warn us not to consider the things of old? What are those old things, and what are the new things, which they ask us to see and to accept?
“Old” sometimes means that which lasts though all times, that which is today as it was in the past and as it shall be in all the future. There is something that does not age, something that is always old and always new at the same time, because it is eternal. God is sometimes called the “ancient of days” or the “Redeemer of old”. The wisdom of old and the law of God, which are as old as the foundations of the earth, are praised just because they are old; nothing new is set against them as no new God is set against the God of old. “Old” as it is used here means “everlasting”, pointing to that which is not subject to the change of time.
However, in the texts we have read from the words of the unknown prophet of the exile, in the 43rd chapter of Isaiah, “old” means just the opposite. It means that which passes away and shall not be remembered any more — the destiny of everything created, of the stars as well as of the grass in the field, of men as well as of animals, of nations as well as of individuals, of the heavens as well as of the earth. They all become old and pass away. What does it mean to say that somebody or something becomes old? All life grows; it desires and strives to grow, and it lives as long as it grows. Men always have been fascinated by the law of growth.
They have called that which helps growth good, and they have called that which hinders it evil. However, let us look more deeply into the law of growth and into its tragic nature. Whether we observe the growth of a living cell, of a human soul, or of a historical period, we see that growth is gain and loss at the same time; it is both fulfilment and sacrifice. Whatever grows must sacrifice many possible developments for the one through which it chooses to grow. He who wants to grow as a scientist may have to sacrifice poetic or political possibilities which he would like to develop. He has to pay a price. He cannot grow equally in all directions. The cells, which adapt themselves to one function of the body, lose the power to adapt themselves to other functions. Periods of history, which are determined by one idea, suppress the truth of other possible ideas. Every decision excludes possibilities and makes our life narrower. Every decision makes us older and more mature.
Youth is openness. However, every decision closes doors. In addition, that cannot be avoided; it is an inescapable destiny. Life makes decisions in every moment; life closes doors in every moment. We proceed from the first minute of our lives to the last minute, because we are growing. The law of growth lends us greatness, and therefore tragedy. For the excluded possibilities belong to us; they have a right of their own. Therefore, they take their vengeance upon our lives, which have excluded them. They may die; and with them, great powers of life and large resources of creativity. For life, as it grows, becomes a restricted power, more rigid and inflexible, less able to adapt itself to new situations and new demands. Or, on the other hand, the excluded possibilities may not die. They may remain within us, repressed, hidden, and dangerous, prepared to break into the life process, not as a creative resource, but as a destructive disease.
Those are the two ways in which the aging life drives toward its own end: the way of self-limitation, and the way of self-destruction. Often the two ways merge, carrying death into all realms of life.
Let us consider one of these realms — our historical situation, the life of our period. Our period has become what it is though innumerable decisions and, therefore, innumerable exclusions. Some of the excluded possibilities have died away, depriving us of their creative power. Many of them have not died, and after having disappeared for a time, are now returning destructively. The former greatness of our period has produced its present tragedy and that of all who live within it. Even those who are young amongst us are old, in so far as they belong to an aged period. They are young in their personal vitality; they are old because of their participation in the tragedy of our time. It is an illusion to believe that youth as youth has saving power. When the ancient empires aged and died, their youth did not save them. And our younger generation will not save us, simply by virtue of the fact that it is young.
We have made many decisions in order to become what we are. But every decision is tragic, because it is the decision against something, which cannot be suppressed with impunity.
At the beginning of our period, we decided for freedom. It was a right decision; it created something new and great in history. But in that, decision we excluded the security, social and spiritual, without which man cannot live and grow. And now, in the old age of our period, the quest to sacrifice freedom for security splits every nation and the whole world with really daemonic power.
We have decided for means to control nature and society. We have created them, and we have brought about something new and great in the history of all mankind. But we have excluded ends. We have never been ready to answer the question, “For what?” And now, when we approach old age, the means claim to be the ends; our tools have become our masters, and the most powerful of them have become a threat to our very existence. We have decided for reason against outgrown traditions and honoured superstitions.
That was a great and courageous decision, and it gave a new dignity to man. But we have, in that decision, excluded the soul, the ground and power of life. We have cut off our mind from our soul; we have suppressed and mistreated the soul within us, in other men, and in nature. And now, when we are old, the forces of the soul break destructively into our minds, driving us to mental disease and insanity, and effecting the disintegration of the souls of uncounted millions, especially in this country, but also all over the world.
From the very beginning of our period, we have decided for the nation, as the expression of our special way of life and of our unique contribution to history. The decision was great and creative, and for centuries, it was effective. But in that decision we excluded mankind and all symbols expressing the unity of all men. The former unity was broken, and no international group has been able to re-establish it.
Now, in the old age of our period, the most powerful nations themselves claim to represent mankind, and try to impose their ways of life upon all men, producing, therefore, wars of destruction, which will perhaps unite all mankind in the peace of the grave.
Our period has decided for a secular world. That was a great and much-needed decision. It threw a church from her throne, a church that had become a power of suppression and superstition. It gave consecration and holiness to our daily life and work. Yet it excluded those deep things for which religion stands: the feeling for the inexhaustible mystery of life, the grip of an ultimate meaning of existence, and the invincible power of an unconditional devotion. These things cannot be excluded. If we try to expel them in their divine images, they re-emerge in daemonic images. Now, in the old age of our secular world, we have seen the most horrible manifestation of these daemonic images; we have looked more deeply into the mystery of evil than most generations before us; we have seen the unconditional devotion of millions to a satanic image; we feel our period’s sickness unto death.
This is the situation of our world. Each of us should realize that he participates in it, and that the forces in his own soul which make him old, often in early years, are part of the forces, which make our period old.
Each of us strengthens these forces, and each of us is a victim of them at the same time. We are in the desert of which the prophet speaks, and none among us knows the way out. Certainly, there is no way out in what some idealists tell us: “Make decisions, but don’t exclude anything! Take the best in all possibilities. Combine them. Then will our period become young again!” No man and no nation will become young again in that way. The new does not appear from a collection of the elements of the old, which are still alive.
When the new comes the old must disappear. “Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old”, says the prophet. “Behold, all things are become new”, says the apostle. Out of the death of the old, the new arises. The new is created not out of the old, not out of the best of the old, but out of the death of the old. It is not the old which creates the new. That which creates the new is that which is beyond old and beyond new, the Eternal.
“Behold, I am doing a new thing, even now it is springing to light. Do you not perceive it?” If the new were a part of the old, the prophet would not ask, “Do you perceive it?” for everybody would see it already. But it is hard to perceive. It is hidden in the profound mystery, which veils every creation, birth as well as rebirth. It springs to light — which is to say that it comes out of the darkness of that mystery.
Nothing is more surprising than the rise of the new within ourselves. We do not foresee or observe its growth. We do not try to produce it by the strength of our will, by the power of our emotion, or by the clarity of our intellect. On the contrary, we feel that by trying to produce it we prevent its coming. By trying, we would produce the old in the power of the old, but not the new in the power of the new.
The new being is born in us, just when we least believe in it. It appears in remote corners of our souls, which we have neglected for a long time. It opens up deep levels of our personality, which had been shut out by old decisions and old exclusions. It shows a way where there was no way before. It liberates us from the tragedy of having to decide and having to exclude, because it is given before any decision. Suddenly we notice it within us! The new which we sought and longed for comes to us in the moment in which we lose hope of ever finding it. That is the first thing we must say about the new: it appears when and where it chooses. We cannot force it, and we cannot calculate it. Readiness is the only condition for it; and readiness means that the former things have become old and that they are driving us into the destruction of our souls just when we are trying most to save what we think can be saved of the old.
It is the same in our historical situation. The birth of the new is just as surprising in history. It may appear in some dark corner of our world. It may appear in a social group where it was least expected. It may appear in the pursuit of activities which seem utterly insignificant. It may appear in the depth of a national catastrophe, if there be in such a situation people who are able to perceive the new of which the prophet speaks. It may appear at the height of a national triumph, if there be a few people who perceive the vanity of which the Preacher speaks.
The new in history always comes when people least believe in it. But, certainly, it comes only in the moment when the old becomes visible as old and tragic and dying, and when no way out is seen. We live in such a moment; such a moment is our situation. We realize this situation in its depth only if we do not continue to say, “We know where the new will come from. It will come from this institution or this movement, or this special class, or this nation, or this philosophy, or this church.” None of these, of course, is excluded from being the place where the new will appear. But none of these can guarantee its appearance. All of us who have looked at one of these things as the chosen place of the new have been disappointed.
The supposedly new always proves to be the continuation of the old, deepening its destructive conflicts. And so I repeat: the first thing about the new is that we cannot force it and cannot calculate it. All we can do is to be ready for it. We must realize as profoundly as possible that the former things have become old, that they destroy our period just when we try most courageously to preserve the best of it. And we must attempt this realization in our social as well as in our personal life. In no way but the most passionate striving for the new shall we become aware that the old is old and dying.
The prophets who looked for the new thing He is doing were most passionately and most actively involved in the historical situation of their nation. But they knew that neither they themselves nor any of the old things would bring the new.
“Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old”, says the prophet. That is the second thing we must say about the new: it must break the power of the old, not only in reality, but also in our memory; and one is not possible without the other. Let me say a few words about this most sublime point in the prophetic text and in the experience of every religion. We cannot be born anew if the power of the old is not broken within us; and it is not broken so long as it puts the burden of guilt upon us.
Therefore, religion, prophetic as well as apostolic, pronounces, above all, forgiveness. Forgiveness means that the old is thrown into the past because the new has come. “Remember not” in the prophetic words does not mean to forget easily. If it meant that, forgiveness would not be necessary. Forgiveness means a throwing out of the old, as remembered and real at the same time, by the strength of the new which could never be the saving new if it did not carry with it the authority of forgiveness.
I believe that the situation is the same in our social and historical existence. A new which is not able to throw the old into the past, in remembrance as well as in reality, is not the really new. The really new is able to break the power of old conflicts between man and man, between group and group, in memory and reality. It is able to break the old curses, the results of former guilt, inherited by one generation from another, the guilt between nations, between races, between classes, on old and new continents, these curses by which the guilt of one group, in reality and memory, permanently produces guilt in another group.
What power of the new will be great and saving enough to break the curses, which have laid, waste half of our world? What new thing will have the saving power to break the curse brought by the German nation upon herself before our eyes? “Remember not the former things”, says the prophet. That is the second thing which must be said about the new.
“Behold, I am doing a new thing.” “I” points to the source of the really new, to that which is always old and always new, the Eternal. That is the third thing which must be said about the new: it bears the mark of its eternal origin in its face, as it did when Moses came from the mountain with the tablets of the law, opening a new period of history. The really new is that which has in itself eternal power and eternal light. New things arise m every moment, at every place. Nothing is today as it was yesterday.
But this kind of new is old almost as soon as it appears. It falls under the judgment of the Preacher: “There is no new thing under the sun.” Yet sometimes a new thing appears which does not age so easily, which makes life possible again, in both our personal and our historical existence, a saving new, which has the power to appear when we least expect it, and which has the power to throw into the past what is old and burdened with guilt and curse. Its saving power is the power of the Eternal within it.
It is new, really new, in the degree to which it is beyond old and new, in the degree to which it is eternal. And it remains new so long as the eternal power of the Eternal is manifest within it, so long as the light of the Eternal shines through it. For that power may become weaker; that light, may become darker; and that which was truly a new thing may become old itself. That is the tragedy of human greatness in which something eternal appears.
When the apostles say that Jesus is the Christ, they mean that in Him the new eon which cannot become old is present. Christianity lives through the faith that within it there is the new which is not just another new thing but rather the principle and representation of all the really new in man and history. But it can affirm this only because the Christ deprived Himself of everything which can become old, of all individual and social standing and greatness, experience and power. He surrendered all these in His death and showed in His self- surrender the only new thing which is eternally new: love. “Love never ends,” says His greatest apostle. Love is the power of the new in every man and in all history. It cannot age; it removes guilt and curse. It is working even today toward new creation. It is hidden in the darkness of our souls and of our history. But it is not completely hidden to those who are grasped by its reality. “Do you not perceive it?” asks the prophet. Do we not perceive it?
AND MORE …..
Isaiah 43: 1 – 21
1 But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! 2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you. 3 “For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savoir; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. 4 “Since you are precious in My sight, Since you are honoured and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange or your life. 5 “Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, And gather you from the west. 6 “I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring My sons from afar And My daughters from the ends of the earth, 7 Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.” 8 Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes, And the deaf, even though they have ears. 9 All the nations have gathered together So that the peoples may be assembled. Who among them can declare this And proclaim to us the former things? Let them present their witnesses that they may be justified, Or let them hear and say, “It is true.” 10 “You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. 11 “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savoir besides Me. 12 “It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, And there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And I am God. 13 “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?” 14 Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “For your sake I have sent to Babylon, And will bring them all down as fugitives, Even the Chaldeans, into the ships in which they rejoice. 15 “I am the LORD, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King.”16 Thus says the LORD, Who makes a way through the sea And a path through the mighty waters,
17 Who brings forth the chariot and the horse, The army and the mighty man (They will lie down together and not rise again; They have been quenched and extinguished like a wick):
18 “Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past. 19 “Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert. 20 “The beasts of the field will glorify Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I have given waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My chosen people. 21 “The people whom I formed for Myself will declare My praise.
ENDS.
