This Too Shall Be Made Right

“This Too Shall Be Made Right” by Derek Webb

As we hear, the song tells of a long list of all that is undone, all that is aching. We are reminded of the groaning of Creation.

To live in the Christian story is to stand within this tension of all that is not yet whole, all that we long for to be restored, and await the promise, the hope of God’s love remaking all things, the joy and delight of the people being awakened.

Let’s hear out second Scripture reading for this morning, from the Prophet Isaiah. The prophets tell us the truth about how the world is and then they do something so important — the point out that a new way is coming. This passage from has been a cornerstone of hope for the people of Israel and the Church universal, an echo of hope out into all that lays ahead, a promise of God’s love fulfilled.

New Living Translation Chapter 65

17 “Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth,

and no one will even think about the old ones anymore.

18 Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation!

And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness.

Her people will be a source of joy.

19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem

and delight in my people.

And the sound of weeping and crying

will be heard in it no more.

20 “No longer will babies die when only a few days old.

No longer will adults die before they have lived a full life.

No longer will people be considered old at one hundred!

Only the cursed will die that young!

21 In those days people will live in the houses they build

and eat the fruit of their own vineyards.

22 Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses

and confiscate their vineyards.

For my people will live as long as trees,

and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains.

23 They will not work in vain,

and their children will not be doomed to misfortune.

For they are people blessed by the LORD,

and their children, too, will be blessed.

24 I will answer them before they even call to me.

While they are still talking about their needs,

I will go ahead and answer their prayers!

25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together.

The lion will eat hay like a cow.

But the snakes will eat dust.

In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain.

I, the LORD, have spoken!”

The New Revised Standard Version The Glorious New Creation

17 For I am about to create new heavens

and a new earth;

the former things shall not be remembered

or come to mind.

18 But be glad and rejoice forever

in what I am creating;

for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,

and its people as a delight.

19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem,

and delight in my people;

no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,

or the cry of distress.

20 No more shall there be in it

an infant that lives but a few days,

or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;

for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,

and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.

21 They shall build houses and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

22 They shall not build and another inhabit;

they shall not plant and another eat;

for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

23 They shall not labor in vain,

or bear children for calamity;

for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD—

and their descendants as well.

24 Before they call I will answer,

while they are yet speaking I will hear.

25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,

the lion shall eat straw like the ox;

but the serpent—its food shall be dust!

They shall not hurt or destroy

on all my holy mountain,

says the LORD.

A New Way Is Coming, but let’s be clear about what we’re not talking about.

Not utopia

Not even world peace or complete nuclear disarmament, or an end to hunger — certainly, these are markers of it, pieces of what is promised, but they must not be looked at as the whole in and of themselves. These are small visions compared to nothing less than the complete restoration and New Heavens, New Earth that we anticipate in God’s reign.

Let me unpack that for a moment. There is a temptation to read this text and hear a promise of some sort of perfect world where everyone loves everyone and where all our governments work together, everyone has an energy efficient home and all our kids go to the right schools and all families eat a well-balanced breakfast every day. Yes, great, yes, this is what we want.

But the promise of utopia has always been laced with an underbelly of some sort of rigidity, some sort of loss of autonomy, some sort of denial of the complexities of human existence.

And so we have to be careful not to read Isaiah’s words and look for utopia. Because how many times have societies that sought this faltered and fell apart? American history is rich with stories of settlements out in the wild, people pursuing the utopian life. And they all fall apart.

Not the American Dream

Which leads me to another idea about what this text is not. It is not something we could equate to the American Dream. The restoration we hear about isn’t about the Pax Americana, where everyone has 2.5 kids, a job that pays enough for the McMansion, a pension and good health care, a world without strife.

No, this is a farce as well. Or at least, it is a lesser dream, a lesser vision. There is so much good for people when there is economic prosperity, and yet this is a smaller vision for what God is up to in the restoration of all things.

So, we’re not talking about utopia? And we’re not talking about the American Dream? Then what is this all about? This passage is such such good news for all — there is a much better way, a more true way that resounds through the groans of Creation.

Disease

Before we get there, though…let’s look a little more at this passage.

This text echoes of God’s creative power throughout it. From the chaos of the world, we see God the Creator opening up all kinds of newness in the heavens and the earth.

“Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore.”

Something that our lesser visions often do is they call forth some sort of better world that is in total reference a mirror to the old world. We look at all that is broken and we say — well, I’d like to make this part right this way. Utopia has universal health care. Awesome. Great. And as we await this promised restoration, it very well should.

But you know what utopia doesn’t have — weeping or crying. Dying too young. Said another way — the New Heavens and New Earth that God promises go way further than good health care — they care for the sick, certainly, but they also eradicate sickness altogether. No more disease, no more pain.

Do you see the implications here, right away for the church? Yes yes yes to good health care for all — but our greater work is in the eradication of all forms of suffering, so that we don’t need to worry about health care any longer. We advocate for the needs of the people in such a way as to not simply care for the symptoms, but in the New Way of God’s reign, the whole disease is cured, wiped out.

I’ll make this practical. I hate cancer. I hate what it does to people, to people I love. My hope for the world is that we provide the most amazing care and treatments to anyone and everyone who face this evil disease. And…and…in what God is calling us to as restorers of Creation, as participants in the new way — cancer is no more. It doesn’t exist anymore. The problem is undone.

Impossible, you say? Maybe. But why not? Because this New Way that is coming, it is something that is both off in the future, the anticipated coming of God’s glory. But it is also something we absolutely, most definitely must fight for here and now and be a part of curing and eradicating here and now.

And that’s the punch line of this all, delivered a little prematurely — This New Heaven and New Earth come to life right here and right now through the ways we live into restoring and changing these wicked problems we all face, together here and now.

Economics

Let’s go further into the text and move from disease and death to economics.

Let’s talk about how great it is to cook with food you grew in your own garden or to do your own work on your house.

Last winter, I learned how to install light fixtures and helped my Dad redo our downstairs bathroom. Small fries, sure. But a fresh coat of paint and some new lights and fresh towels and shower curtain and a mirror and shelves and a vanity — that goes a long way to making it feel like home. And every time I walk by that bathroom, every time I shower down there after a workout, I think — hey, I did “most” of this myself!

My mom planted a garden on their property. She grows vegetables and berries. And she is so proud of the ones that come from her yard that she cooks with and can share with others. And they’re so good, because they’re grown with love.

“In those days people will live in the houses they build and eat the fruit of their own vineyards. Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses and confiscate their vineyards. For my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains.”

My friends, in the “perfect worlds” of today that we imagine, is there not always a power dynamic around the goods we create? Don’t we always owe something to Caesar?

You might be thinking — wait, what happened to our progressive pastor, the idea of sharing all things in common?

Utopia is beholden to power, nonetheless.

What we see in Isaiah and we hear promised in the good news of Jesus Christ is something far more radical than this. Instead of even sharing all things in common — which certainly, is done and is absolutely a biblical value — beyond this, deeper than this, more whole than this in the restored creation — everyone already has what they need! Hear this — the restored creation is one where people have gardens and do work and care for their homes because they have enough. There is no worry about scarcity, no fear that someone will take what is yours.

There is no rich or poor — there are just those who have enough. All the people who have enough, enough to live on and share.

You know that part about the wolf and the lamb feeding together? We think about it as “well, I guess the wolf is a vegetarian now.” Maybe…sure…but I think that’s missing the point. I mean, sure, the “lion will eat hay like a cow.” But what’s really being said here is that there will be no need to be predatory of the other. The animals won’t need to kill and destroy each other and neither will we.

At the core of this economic remaking is that all creation has what it needs. Scarcity is undone. Instead, we find a world where wolves and lambs can hang out because there is no fear between them. A world where we can work on our own homes and grow gardens and we can share them generously with each other, not because others have need of our goods, but because in God’s reign, there’s no need for competition: all have what they need.

For everybody

Coming on home, this passage says snakes will eat dust, but no one will be hurt or destroyed on God’s holy mountain, in God’s holy way.

Let’s go back to the list of what shall be made right.

Genocide. Murder. Dishonesty. Bribery. Corruption. Neglect. Selfishness.

This too shall be made right.

Gun violence. This too shall be made right.

Loneliness. This too shall be made right.

Destruction of Creation. This too shall be made right.

Wars between the nations. This too shall be made right.

Broken hearts and severed families. This too shall be made right.

We have settled for lesser versions of what “made right” looks like. A liar is called out on their untruths, exposed and called to repentance — things made right. Big businesses pay to clean up a habitat they destroyed — things made right. Institutions pay reparations for racial violence and prejudice — things made right.

Friends — this is what we’ve said is justice. And sure, in some cases, some of these things can make a difference.

But these are lesser solutions. They are glimmers or foils for what must be. And what must be is a world completely remade by God’s lovingkindness and way of mercy that invite all people into a world of abundance and enough and a place at the table and belonging as members of a family.

So...

Is this just something off in the distance, for when Kingdom comes? Does this ever become realized or does this longing just haunt us.

I want to say an emphatic NO. NO. This is not some pipe dream, something far off, something we sit in huddled church circles and just wait for.

You want to know how this becomes real? How this starts to exist, here and now?

We start doing it.

We start caring for the sick and healing the brokenhearted and advocate for the curing of disease and bringing clean water to everyone and caring for the scarred mother and the vulnerable child and the father looking for meaning and the queer kid who needs an ally.

We start by practicing a life of abundance by trusting God with all we have, by standing up to greed and corruption and our own fear that we won’t have enough. We look out for each other — that’s how we have enough. If I know that you’re ok, and you know that I’m ok, we can trust that there is enough. If you need something, I’ll share it, and likewise. We start changing the story.

We start saying we’re sorry for the racism, sorry for the abuse, sorry for the legalism. And we start listening, inviting diverse voices into our lives, becoming willing to hear where we’re wrong and grow.

This way starts here. It is promised and it is here. It was promised in the restoration of Israel and it is found in the way of Jesus Christ. It is us, living as little Christ’s, but never accepting a small vision — we serve something so much greater.

How about that my friends? How about a new heaven and new earth, right here, right now? Sounds radical, right? And sounds like fun, eh? Good thing this is exactly what we, here gathered as Christ’s church, are meant for! May it be.

Let’s pray.