Loving God, in spite of how fickle we can be, you stand ready to save and to heal and forgive. Open our hearts and our minds to the power of your Spirit, that we, too, might be recipients of your salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

There is a pattern that shows up in the first reading today from Isaiah. It is a pattern which seems hard to believe, and yet it happens over and over again in the Scriptures. It all starts with the announcement that God is "about to do a new thing" (Isa. 43:19). God is poised, ready to rescue the people of Israel from exile in Babylon - ready to lead them through the wilderness to their own country. God is all set to work some miracles to provide for the people: There will be water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert!

God is all ready to do all this, but nobody is calling upon him! The people have actually gotten tired of God, and don't bother to pray, and don't bother to ask for deliverance, and don't bother to bring any offerings to God, either. In fact, instead of the prayers and offerings that one might expect from a people who belong to God, the only thing God has been receiving is the people's sins! And yet, did you hear God's response to all of this? Did you hear what God is going to do for the people who keep wearying him with their sins? - God is going to forgive them! God responds with a promise: "I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins" (Isa. 43:25). How hard it is for us to figure out a God who is so gracious! - and patient, too!

After all, by the time of Jesus, the pattern seems to be the same. There God is, already doing a new thing simply by the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, is here and living on this earth. Once again, God is poised and ready to rescue, not just his chosen people, but all people! And afterwards, it will be just like rivers of living water, flowing from the hearts of believers (Jn. 7:37-39) in the midst of the wilderness of this world. Yet, just like in the Old Testament, people have grown tired of God. They call upon the Lord in prayer, or at least they think they do, but they are only piling up empty words and phrases (Mt. 6:7). They are going through the motions, and they are neither listening to God nor are they open to the new things that God is doing through Jesus. The ones who are particularly doing this are the religious leaders - the scribes - the ones who always have problems with what Jesus is doing.

Now - in Isaiah we were reminded that the people weren't bothering to give any offerings to God. In the New Testament, all of the "respectable" people are giving offerings, but not anything remotely close to what would be acceptable and pleasing to God. Remember when Jesus drove the money changers out of the Temple? Buying and selling animals was not pleasing to God! Rather, Jesus reminds people of God's message through the prophet Hosea, where God says, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" (Mt. 9:13). Jesus is constantly having these discussions with the Pharisees where he comments about how careful they are to tithe (to give 10% of) things like mint and dill and cummin. They actually measure out 10% of their spices and give it to the priests and the Levites! Yet, Jesus reminds them that they are neglecting the most important things in God's Law: "justice and mercy and faith" (Mt. 23:23).

And so we have this same pattern playing itself out in the people around Jesus, as God is doing a new thing in Jesus and is poised to save them. Yet, many of them, and especially the religious leaders, have actually grown weary of God and have stopped listening and do their own versions of prayer and offerings rather than having hearts that are open to God's leading and God's love. Instead of calling upon God and seeking God's guidance, there is only sin and injustice and judgment and trampling upon the poor and the outcast. And God's response once again? - Forgiveness! "I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins" (Isa. 43:25). And Jesus says, "Son, your sins are forgiven" (Mk. 2:5).

Thankfully, in the New Testament, not everybody has closed hearts. In the gospel that we heard today, it is only the scribes that repeat the same attitudes that are described in Isaiah. The paralyzed man and his friends are very open to what Jesus is doing, and have such faith that they will even dig through the roof of the house in order to get to Jesus and be healed. There are those in the crowd, too, who see what Jesus is doing and can only respond by giving praise and glory to God (Mk. 2:12).

Yet, the question for us has to be what our response is going to be. In Isaiah, the "new thing" that God was going to do was still going to happen. The people had served their penalty for their sinfulness, they had finished their time in exile, and they would be released and sent back to the land of Israel. In the gospel, the "new thing" was already happening: Jesus was here on this earth, revealing the love and the power of God and teaching the people what kind of a life is pleasing to God. For us, it is both past and future. God has already done a new thing in sending his Son, Jesus, to live and to serve and to suffer and to die for our sake and for the sake of the sins of the world. God has done a new thing by raising Jesus from the dead and opening the way for all who put their faith in him to share in his resurrection and in his life. Yet, at the same time, the "new thing" is still to come.

The "new creation" is still underway, for all those who belong to Jesus Christ continue to learn and to grow and to become more and more Christ-like. The Holy Spirit is constantly at work to renew our hearts and renew our minds and fill us with new life. As with many things in Isaiah and the other prophets, the message applies not only to the time it was written but also to right now.

"Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" (Isa. 43:18-19)

God has done and is doing a new thing, and how are we going to respond? We could close ourselves off so that we will not see what God is doing. We could put on our blinders and walk backwards so that we can see everything that is behind us. We could just go through the motions of praying and not bother with any offerings and just live for ourselves. There's certainly biblical precedent for all of this - the same behaviour that landed the people of Israel in exile in the first place.

On the other hand, we could bring our sins and our infirmities and all that paralyzes us to Jesus. We could come to him in faith, ready even to dig through the roof of the house if that's what it's going to take to get to him. We could welcome his forgiveness and his healing, glorifying and praising God for this marvelous gift that has been given to us.

Just as in the past, God is poised and ready to do a new thing. God stands ready to free us from our paralysis, to forgive us our sins, to lead us through the wilderness, and to give us streams in the desert. God stands ready to set us free from all that keeps us in bondage, if only we would hand it all over and allow God to do it!

God stands ready to set us free, but it might not be as comfortable as being paralyzed or even being in slavery. After all, some hard work was required of the people afterwards. Those who went back to Jerusalem after their exile had to rebuild everything. The man who had been paralyzed had to pick up his mat and carry it and then go home and try to figure out how to be a contributing member of the family again. Being set free isn't necessarily easy!

Yet, there is no comparison to living our lives in the presence of God, guided and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, and leaving our sins behind us as we follow Jesus Christ. It may be uncomfortable at times, and it may not fit in too well with this world at times, but being part of God's new creation is infinitely and eternally worth it! Amen.

Epiphany 7(B) Isaiah 43:18-25
February 19, 2006 Mark 2:1-12
St. Luke's Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison Moore
? 2005 Lynne Hutchison Moore All Rights Reserved