Sermon Tone Analysis

“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.

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!”

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.