Imagine
More
A
Sermon on Isaiah 65:17-25 and Luke 21:5-19
By
Griff Martin
For
November 17, 2019
For
the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist community of faith
Incarnate
and Resurrected God, we ask that you once again take the Word and transform it into
a living and breathing new reality we can all together experience. Make us
aware of your presence here in this space and in these words, God; for if we
are present to you then nothing else will matter, but if we are not present to
you then nothing else will matter. In the name of the Creator, the Christ and
the Comforter. Amen.
We
are very strange creatures – let’s start there. One of my favorite teachers,
Elizabeth Gilbert, says it best: “We are animals walking around with these
super computers in our heads and we don’t know what to do with them.”
And
these supercomputers are so much more powerful than we know.
Consider
this: Mike Pauletich woke up at 42 years old and began to notice something was
wrong with his body – it was how he held his coffee cup; it was how he threw a
baseball to his son – something was off. After a few doctor’s visits, he was
diagnosed with early on-set Parkinson's disease and told that within a few
years he would be in a wheelchair. As an athlete, as a father, as a young man,
he was devastated with the diagnosis. He began to look for new treatments and
stumbled upon the biotech firm Ceregene, which was working with gene therapy and
thought that by manipulating neurons and brain cells, they could help the mind
develop and produce more dopamine (the root cause of Parkinson's is a lack of
dopamine). Mike discovered there was a medical trial starting soon. Mike
registered and was accepted into this trial.
Now,
here is something I have recently learned about medical trials and placebos and
such: placebos are not just medicine in terms of pills; there are placebo
surgeries in scientific studies, as well. So, for something like this, those
receiving the placebo surgery would have their heads shaven, would be put under
and they would drill into the head just enough to make the person think they
had the full surgery. They would then enter a recovery period and regular
follow-up with a doctor who did not know who did and did not receive the full
surgery. Mike received a placebo surgery – a “sham” surgery – meaning his head
was shaved, he received anesthesia, they did drill into his head and he
received regular checkups, but they did not manipulate his genes. However, in
this multiple-year study, he would not know this for some time.
In
those years, his life returned to normal. He was able to work and workout as he
did before the diagnosis. He ran a triathlon; he went heli-skiing (skiing from
a place a helicopter takes you). His mood and his mobility both
increased.
Ultimately,
the entire study failed and this approach to curing Parkinson’s was considered
a failure. His doctor could not believe this conclusion because of what she saw
with Mike, so imagine her surprise when she was finally able to look further
into the study and saw that the patient she had been working with, the one who
seemed to have quite a successful recovery, had received the sham
surgery.
When
Mike Pauletich was finally let in on this devastating news, he says it felt
like a gut punch. And yet, he has not seen any drop-off in his activity,
mobility or quality of life. It is a case that is baffling to scientists who,
thus far, have come up with this conclusion: “The suggestion that he had
undergone a new, miraculous surgery actually changed the function of his
brain.” It’s what Mike himself believes, in his words: “It’s not fooling
yourself. You can’t fool yourself. You have to believe… It’s a difference
between belief and hope. At some point there is a switch between 'I hope I am
going to be get better’ and ‘I know I can defeat this.’”
That
will preach.
As
a community of Jesus-followers, we might need to remind ourselves of the
difference between hope and belief today, to remind ourselves we are not
supposed to be the ones who hope for the better world but the ones who are
building the better world we believe is possible. The world our spiritual minds
know is possible.
It
is a call for us to suggest to our world that a better world is possible and,
in doing so, change the very nature and function of the world around us. It’s a
call to not get so lost and hopeless in the world around us, but to instead
work towards the better world that we know is possible because of the two texts
in front of us today.
Our
Gospel text this morning has Jesus preaching in the temple, offering some very
hard truths… that this temple is going to be torn down, that there will be wars
and rumors of war, that nations and kingdoms will rise up against one another,
warnings of famine and plagues and natural disasters, a world where true Jesus-following
will get you in trouble because it goes against the systems and empires of the
day.
What
Jesus is prophesying about at this point is a world where folks don’t know who
they are unless they know who their enemies are and who they are against, a
world where natural disasters are on the rise, a world where there is constant
fighting and struggling, a world where if you are a true Jesus-follower, that
is not going to be easy to do because what you believe goes against the world
around you.
Jesus
might as well have been reading straight from the front page of The New York
Times recently.
And
what Jesus offers in the midst of that is a call to hold on; to know that God’s
faithfulness is still the truth of our world, that our endurance will gain our
souls, that this is not the end, that our call is still to be Jesus-followers
who are building the better kingdom that God has always envisioned.
And
I imagine that some of those listening to Jesus had the same reaction that you
and I are having: “Really? Do you see the world around us? Things are pretty
hopeless.” They had the same vision problem that you and I often have, where we
are so nearsighted that we can’t see the truth, the very truth on which we
staked our entire lives when we were baptized: there is so much more to this; our
call is to bring about a Kingdom of love.
And
it’s easy to forget this. Life is coming so fast at us and it’s so layered.
There is the immediate layer – family concerns, job stuff, health issues,
financial worries, the problems of those closest to you, all the things that,
when you wake up, they are the first things on your mind. And then there is the
story we find ourselves trapped in today – a world that is changing so fast, a
world where there is such polarization, a world where there are so many
injustices and so much that seems unfair and that we want to do something about
but it all seems so big. It’s easy to get so lost in those 2 layers that we
forget that they are blocking us from the bigger truth that God has called us
to, to a different world and a different way of living that is supposed to
start now. We are so nearsighted we can only see what is right in front of us
and we miss the bigger picture.
So,
what’s the remedy for our nearsightedness? I think it’s an old truth that we
have forgotten that comes to us from Isaiah. And it’s very important we put
this into context because sometimes we read the prophets as if they are
Hallmark cards when the truth is the prophets most often speak in the midst of
doom and gloom, of destruction and despair, in times like these. That is where
Isaiah speaks from when he gives one of the most poetic, beautiful visions in
all of Scripture.
A
world that is a new heaven and earth, where there is no weeping or sounds of
distress, a world of life, a world of homes for all, a world of meals for all,
a world of fair work, a world of peace, a world without violence, a world where
all people belong.
Today,
this would be a world where there are no parents crying because they lost their
kids to gun violence, a world where no parent is weeping because they are
having to choose if they will pay the rent or buy groceries, a world where
there are no tent cities that people are forced to live in that are not close
to running water or food, a world where there is food for all and we are not
worried with the climate if we can sustain that, a world of fair and living
wages, a world where we are not scared of nuclear war, a world without
violence, a world where there are no margins or borders and everyone belongs, a
world where we are celebrated no matter our skin color, gender, who we love,
our religion or what political party we belong to. That is our call.
And
here is the call this morning: to not see that world as happily-ever-after, as
a world that is a fairy tale, because it is not. That world is the very calling
of God. God gave us the vision for that world and our job is to create
it.
But
we can’t create it if we don’t see it.
Think
about like this: How often do you come home after a long and exhausting day and
you open the fridge to make dinner and you just stand there and stare because
you have no idea what you can do, what you can make, or how you are going to
feed yourself and those who live under your roof. So, you just stand there
trying to calculate how long it takes to get pizza delivered or how long the P.
Terry’s line might be.
Because
you have no vision. And then you see it. You have onions, tomatoes, garlic… and
you remember that you have hamburger meat in the freezer and a box of pasta in
the pantry, and suddenly you see it – you can make spaghetti for dinner. And
before you know it, you have sauce going and water boiling and you are throwing
together a salad and garlic bread and this has even given you so much energy
that you are suddenly pulling out a cake mix and there is going to be dessert
tonight.
All
because you finally saw it. The ingredients for it all were right in front of
you, but you had to see it first.
This
is the power of imagination; to see that which is possible. It’s the truth of
C.S. Lewis who calls us to imagine more with these words: “Let us pretend in
order to make the pretense into a reality.”
Because
if we can think it, we can make it happen.
And
God has already thought it; God is now waiting for us to make it a reality.
God
has given us the vision; God has given us everything we need to make that
vision a reality. God is just waiting for us to catch this vision and to do the
work.
Elizabeth
Strout gave the world an incredible gift in a somewhat cranky old retired schoolteacher
who is not real happy with the changes in her hometown of Crosby, Maine – a
woman some of us know as Olive Kitteridge. She is one of the best characters in
modern literature. Just a few weeks ago, the sequel, Olive Again, came
out. In an interview, Elizabeth Strout was asked if she planned to write a
sequel. She said no, she did not, but one day while on a trip in Norway, she
says, “I saw her so clearly… I saw Olive getting out of her car in front of the
marina using a cane and I realized I have to get this down.” Thus, began a book;
a sequel she never planned to write. Olive had returned to her imagination and
was calling forth a new story.
First
Austin, God has called us to a better world; God has called us to be creators
of that better world. We need to catch that vision so that we can make that a
reality, because that is the most important work we will ever do.
And
here is the Gospel hope this morning. One of the conversations I am having over
and over and over again in the pastor’s office is this: “Where is God in the
midst of all this?” Many of you ask me this through tears, and here is the
answer: God is on the road towards making this calling possible, God is in the
place where the lion lays down with the lamb, where everyone has a bed and a home,
where violence is no more, where weeping is no more…. God is already present
there and God is present at every step we take to get there. So, if you want to
find God, get moving to the place God has already called us.
Close
your eyes and hear the vision of the Lord once again:
Pay
close attention now:
I’m
creating new heavens and a new earth.
All
the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain
are
things of the past, to be forgotten.
Look
ahead with joy.
Anticipate
what I’m creating:
I’ll
create Austin as sheer joy,
create
my people as pure delight.
I’ll
take joy in Austin,
take
delight in my people:
No
more sounds of weeping in the city,
no
cries of anguish;
No
more babies dying in the cradle,
or
old people who don’t enjoy a full lifetime;
One-hundredth
birthdays will be considered normal—
anything
less will seem like a cheat.
They’ll
build houses
and
move in.
They’ll
plant fields
and
eat what they grow.
No
more building a house
that
some outsider takes over,
No
more planting fields
that
some enemy confiscates,
For
my people will be as long-lived as trees,
my
chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.
They
won’t work and have nothing come of it,
they
won’t have children snatched out from under them.
For
they themselves are plantings blessed by God,
with
their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.
Before
they call out, I’ll answer.
Before
they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard.
Wolf
and lamb will graze the same meadow,
lion
and ox will nap together,
Neither
animal nor human will hurt or kill
anywhere
on my Holy Mountain,” says God.
Now
let’s imagine that and build that. That is our call, no more and no less.
Amen and Amen.
*artwork: Lion and Lamb, by Heather Cooper, Oil on Canvas, heathercooper.com
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