Wingham United Church

November 16, 2025

A New Creation

Isaiah 65:17-25

Isaiah 12:1-6

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Luke 21:5-19

          The life of the Israelite people, as told in the Hebrew scriptures, is one of constant rise and fall. I suppose the same is true of all humanity throughout time. According to scripture, there is a consistent and predictable pattern. For a time, the people are faithful to God. They worship God and follow God’s commands, and they live in peace with their neighbours and life is good, peaceful, and prosperous. Over time, however, they begin to believe that their good fortune is due to their own effort and ability, and they begin to honour and obey God less, and follow their own agendas, desires, and reasoning. This begins a slippery slope toward a society that is uncaring, unjust, and corrupt. We are clearly living in such a time as that.

          But we have been warned that sooner or later, disaster will strike. Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, this most often takes the form of an attack by a hostile empire, occupation, exile, and even enslavement. After a period of suffering and pain, the people once again turn to God and things begin to improve. Eventually freedom, peace, and prosperity return, only for the cycle to begin again.

          Our Hebrew scripture readings today are indicative of this ebb and flow in the history of Israel. In Isaiah 12, the prophet tells the people that a day will come when life will be good for the people. This is good news because it follows several chapters of some pretty dark prophecies. Isaiah tells the people that, due to their own actions and failure to obey God, death and destruction will be their fate. The most serious charge against them is injustice, their failure to care for the needy and to allow the rich to exploit the poor. Some believe that these disastrous events are punishment from God for their unfaithfulness, but I think it more likely that, by turning away from God and failing to follow God’s guidance, the people bring such disasters upon themselves despite God’s efforts to save us, like someone who drives around a road closed sign, then gets stranded on an impassible road.

Whichever the case, Isaiah offers a light at the end of the tunnel. In due course, a messianic re-creation of their world will happen, and in those days, they will sing praises and thanks to God. They will trust God and not be afraid of earthly turmoil. Peace and prosperity will be theirs once again.

          Our other reading from Isaiah, from chapter 65, is from a much later period in their history. This is not the same Isaiah that delivered the prophecy of which I just spoke. Most contemporary theologians agree that this is the third prophet to be known as Isaiah. The message, however, is not that different. God’s people are no longer living in exile. They are free. However, due to the destruction of their land and homes, life is difficult and the hardships cause them to turn on one another, to become protective and selfish. Injustice flourishes. Isaiah assures them that hope is on the horizon. God will soon create a new heaven and a new earth. All the pain and suffering, injustice and persecution of the past will be so far from their minds that they won’t even be remembered anymore.

In this new nirvana, people will live long, productive, happy lives. In the past, they built homes and planted crops, only to have others steal it all away, but that will not happen in God’s new creation. People will reap the benefits of their work and pass on their good fortune to future generations. Peace will be known by all Creation; people and animals alike. No more will there be predator against prey, for they will all sit down and eat together. I believe that to be a metaphor for relationships between people and between nations. Israel has too often and for far too long been preyed upon by other nations – predators with stronger armies bent on domination and empire. The poor and helpless have been victimized by people in power. But that will all disappear in the new reality that God is creating.

Heaven and earth will not be separate, different realities. There will be no distinction between the two. God will, once again, dwell among the people and all people will be blessed. Everyone will live with justice, peace, security, and love.

This same message of a coming messianic age carries over into the New Testament. In fact, Jesus came to bring it about. He warns the people, though, that there will be hard times to endure before this re-creation comes to pass. Nation will rise against nation. Kingdoms will go to war. Natural disasters will occur. All of these are signs of something new and better coming, but God’s people must be patient and faithful. They will endure persecution and isolation. They will be outcast by society, even their own families.

They have tough decisions to make. They must choose God over the opinions and approval of other people. They will have to stand firm in their beliefs, even when it means imprisonment and torture. When they are brought before judges, kings and governors, they must stand with integrity and testify to that which they believe in, regardless of the outcome. Jesus always seems to tell his followers, in one way or another, that following him won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.

In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul is addressing a more down to earth problem, but I believe his message has implications for us on a much grander scale. It seems there are people connected with the church in Thessalonica who are freeloading off the rest of the congregation. Remember that the Christian way is for everyone to share whatever they had so that no one went hungry or otherwise suffered in poverty. This is, perhaps, our oldest lesson in social justice. The widows, the orphans, or anyone else who did not have the means to support themselves were supported by the faith community. That was part of the church’s mission then, as it is today.

However, just like we see in our society today, there were those who were taking advantage of the goodwill of others. People who were able to contribute to society were not, yet they were expecting to be looked after. Paul points out that he had set the example for them when he lived and worked among them. He and his disciples, who had been among them to share the gospel and plant the church, also worked with them to earn their keep. Paul asserts that he could have asked to be fed and housed but chose not to burden the faith community. Tradition has it that Paul was a leather worker and tent maker, so there would no doubt have been plenty of work available. Everyone, he tells them, should quietly go about their work, earn their keep, and persist in doing what was right and good.

I include Paul’s letter with the rest of our lesson because I believe it applies to the new Creation God and Jesus are promising as well. As I mentioned earlier, the fortunes of the Israelites throughout the Hebrew scriptures rose and fell with a certain regularity. When they turned away from God and went about doing things their own way, life deteriorated into disaster. When they admitted their need for God and followed God’s commands, their lives improved and peace and prosperity returned.

I really don’t think much has changed. The world has seen wars, natural disaster, injustice, oppression, and all other sorts of evil. The glory days of our church were during the years just after the Second World War, when people turned back to God at a time when the darkness seemed ready to overtake the world. Peace and prosperity returned, and life was on the upswing. We now live in a time when people are determined to follow their own way. Sports and recreation are more important than faith or the church. Even ministers in the church are turning away from God and preaching messages that are inconsistent with scripture in an effort to gain popularity and job security. We are almost certainly on the downward slope of the cycle once again, with a predictable outcome if we don’t do something soon.

This is true of society, but I believe it applies to our individual lives as well. If we live by our faith, life might not seem as easy or prosperous as we would like, but our ability to find joy while living it is exponentially increased. Our faith that there are calm seas on the other side of the storm, a light beyond the darkness, lessens the emotional impact that events beyond our control have over us.

If we wish to see God’s new heaven and new earth become reality, though, we must work to help make it so. It starts with us. We cannot impose faith upon others. Even Jesus never tried to do that. But we can set the example by living according to our faith, consistently, with integrity. That means standing up for social justice, reaching out to help the poor and marginalized, living every day by the Great Commandment to love God with all your heart, strength, soul, and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself. It means being here on a Sunday morning must also become a greater priority. We need the strength and support of a faith community to keep doing the things we know must be done. As Jesus told his disciples, following him isn’t easy. We need all the help and support we can get in a world that seems determined to go in a different direction.

We need to live in the world following our hearts more than our heads, thinking more about how we can help than what it will cost. We need to stop persecuting and discouraging those who are trying to make a difference. We must stop posting racist, hateful, demoralizing, divisive rhetoric on our social media accounts. We need to smile more, say thank you more, offer words of gratitude and encouragement more. Hold doors; carry groceries; visit neighbours; look up from our phones and look at the real live people around us. Flood the world we live in with kindness and respect.

We need to treat Creation with the same respect and care that we must offer other people. We are all connected in this web of life, so we must care for all living things, from people to squirrels to birds to fish. John Muir, who was responsible for the first national parks in the United States and was known as the “Wilderness Prophet” stated over 100 years ago that “The earth has no sorrows that earth cannot heal.” However, for the earth to begin healing, humanity must stop wounding it. Out of love and respect for the Creator, we must do better at caring for Creation.

If we work together, and choose to turn to God to guide and help us now, we can turn the cycle of life before the next great disaster sends us running back to God out of desperation, and if, when we find ourselves on the upward slope of the wave, we stop the historical cycle of turning our backs on God when life is good, our trajectory will continue in a heavenly direction, and God’s new Creation will open before us; a world of peace, justice, and compassion where no one goes hungry and the world knows nothing of prejudice, war, or oppression. But if we do not plant, we will never harvest.

Rev. Colin Snyder, MDiv