Monday in the Fourth Week: Courtesy of Elizabeth

Monday in the Fourth Week of Lent: God PROMISES!

Isaiah 65:17-25; Psalm 30:1–6,11–13; John 4:43-54

I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;

the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.

(Isaiah 65:17)

I don’t always remember that when God says things like this God PROMISES.  I respond as if God is saying “maybe I will, maybe I won’t.”  So I hedge my bets.  I stack up achievements, do my best to be perfect (ha!) and work to be as self-reliant as I can.  “Self-reliance failed us,” the AA Big Book says.  That doesn’t stop me from becoming despondent when I fail.   The maybe is often under the surface. 

Even when I care about suffering beyond my own I can fall into believing the “maybe.”  Then I may work really hard to fix it (or you!)  I act as if God says “It depends on you (singular or plural). It depends how you live, how you love, whether you confess your failures (and feel really bad about it).  If you….then the promise.  It is the ultimate bad equation.   

That is called being a “functional atheist.”  Or is it just bad religion?  Give lip service to God—and to placing trust in God—but hedge your bets.  Sing praise to God’s love and graciousness but be sure to operate as if new life that lasts is simply one possibility among many.  And whatever you do, don’t admit your doubt that God’s promises will have any real impact in the here and now.

Does God do commerce in promise, or possibility?  

I say God offers both.  The promise is that there WILL BE a new heaven and a new earth.  The promise is for us—all of us—from microbe to mountain, from acid raindrop to polluted ocean, all will be made new.

The possibility is that we will be part of creating it.   It is, indeed, only a possibility.  God gives us a choice.  Where will we align ourselves?  Who or what will we care about enough to DO something about tipping the balance.  How will we support the emergence of the new creation?  How do I?  How do you?  

 Some days I just don’t know.  But in this moment I know one thing:  it is a lot easier to discern the next step when I remember that I am not dealing with alternate facts with God.  I can trust what God promises and throw in my lot to be part of the promise coming to pass.  How about you?