Walking Towards New Jerusalem

What’s Happening in Isaiah?
In Seminary I have become fascinated with the exilic literature (Writings during the time when the people of Israel were exiled from the land.). Third Isaiah has always been a source of strength, and hope, for me; a book that weaves beautiful phrases of God’s love and God’s presence. But, in Seminary I have come to love it even more, because now I know what it is saying, what is happening in the story.

Let us begin by going back in the story, we need to remember. During the invasion by the Babylonians, the temple-the place the Israelites believed God resided, and Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Israelites were taken into captivity back to Babylonia. They spent seventy years in captivity when the Persian King Cyrus comes to power. Now, Cyrus, released the captured Israelites and allowed them to return to Jerusalem, a sacked city with a destroyed temple. I’m sure it was a great hopeful place to return (sarcastically), perhaps even desolate as returning to New Orleans after Katrina.

In our passage for today, the Israelites are really unsure about going back to a deserted place. But nevertheless, they begin the long walk back, over 800 miles, it is safe to say they had several months to lament what they were going back too, to remember how far they had come but how far they had to go. The Israelites lament to God about their condition, they mourn that those killed in the destruction of Jerusalem, those that died in Babylonia, and those that had been dispersed to the hills of Judea or to Egypt would not be coming back. But, through the prophet Isaiah, God declares a new order for their return. That one day, all would be renewed. All would come out of the darkness, all would eat and drink, all would be comforted, and all would be restored. The New Jerusalem.

The prophet speaks to Jews in exile, people convinced that their situation is hopeless, people convinced that God has completely forgotten them. And so, the people continue to put one foot in front of another and walk into Jerusalem.

Walking
My best friend is a teacher in Wichita, Ks. Darham is the head cross country coach for East High School, but Darham is also a life-challenger. He pushes his students to move beyond their small world in Kansas, into global thinking. In the fall, he and several students were joking about running across the country. What began as laughter, has turned into a mission, a mission to bring global awareness to Wichita, Kansas. The students will run the 1300 miles from Wichita to Washington D.C. Can you imagine running 1300 miles? They hope to raise $100,000 to bring awareness to the genocide in Darfur. Seven students will run 13 miles a day, rotating across the country. It will take them 14 days to reach D.C. They are walking towards something. Something greater than themselves, something for others, something to bring hope into the world.

Have you ever walked for a cause? Cancer? AIDS? Hunger? Race for the Cure is June 7th. The AIDS walk is in September, Crop walk is in October. All these are walks for awarenes to the world’s greatest problems. Will you participate? Is seems that walking is part of our heritage. We walk towards a goal. We walk to eradicate hunger. We walk to stop AIDS. We walk for those that can’t walk anymore. We walk towards hope.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day and this brings to mind stories my dad told me of his days in the United States Marine Corps. He told me stories of walking in boot camp. They walked and walked and walked, it must have been similar for the Israelites. He said several times he fell asleep while walking and would jolt himself awake and look around to figure out where he was. That’s a lot of walking, when you walk yourself to sleep. On the altar are some boots, boots of a soldier who walked, like my dad walked, like the Israelites walked, like we walk.

We might disagree with the wars of today, or even the wars of the past. But, soldiers have to believe they are walking towards change, towards hope. We might not all agree on how to resolve the conflict of this world. But, might we all dream that peace will prevail.

Hope: Illusive versus Real
I struggle with this word, hope, it teases us into optimism. This hope nudges us to say we can solve the world’s problems.
We can invest time and resources in developing new medicines, instead of new weapons.
We can reduce hunger.
We can get Palestinians and Israelis, Sunnis and Shiites, Pakistanis and Indians, Chechens and Russians, Muslims and Christians to start talking with each other.
We can narrow the gap between the rich and the poor.
But, this hope is an illusion, because we have been working on ending world hunger for 30 years, we have been working on ending conflict around the globe since the world began, and we have been developing medicines since the Middle ages, but disease still runs rampant, people still starve to death, and the war is still here. This hope is illusive, fleeting, and disheartening. But, don’t give up.

Sometimes it is difficult to see hope in our life, to live into the presence of the Almighty.

Two weeks ago, I was in Wichita to be evaluated for my fitness to be a Candidate for Ministry. It was an hour and a half interview. I was approved! So, step 8 of 30 is complete. At one point, they turned to me and said, What is your theology of suffering? I’m a first-year Seminary student…this was a heavy question. I responded that in the very depths of grief, it is hard to feel and know the presence of God. It is only in processing that we can look back, with retrospect and see God moving, and even than it is hard to have hope in a God where suffering, pain, and despair are present. I don’t have great answers to this question…hope is illusive and difficult to find at times in our lives.
And yet hope remains. I believe we must lean into this hope.

There is a United Methodist Pastor in Texas, who was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. She was given 6 months to live, that was two years ago. She has leaned into hope, in the midst of pain and suffering. But, she has no illusions, either. During General Conference, she met with some Youth Leaders and thanked them for their work with youth. She said, “I have no illusions I will be here in another three years, my hope is in the future, it is in you, who will help to guide my child and my family, who will provide for our world.” No illusions, but still hope in the future reigns eternal. She walks in her faith, towards God.

There are many views on what the New Jerusalem is. And I’m not trying to tell you what it has to be or what it looks like but I do want you to believe that it is possible to have hope that allows you to move towards that place.

Resurrection Hope
Hope is different from optimism. It’s not that we think the earth will last forever or that we will last forever or that we will be spared the suffering and loss that come with this human experience. Hope means that we live in expectation of another resurrection. There is another hope, a hope beyond this world, a hope that people of faith live into.
Resurrection will unite us with the realized New Jerusalem, a place where there is no need for hope, where all has been achieved, all is realized.

Hope has nothing to do about being optimistic, believing that someday people can learn to listen to each other, believing that someday people will work together for the common good. Hope is rooted in faith, in believing that God can and will do for us what is impossible for us to do ourselves.

Early Christian theologians believed in restoration of Jerusalem, through the resurrection of Christ. Christ walked into Jerusalem; his resurrection marked the fulfillment of hope. Origen, the apologist stated that, “We are not to take the interpretation of the promises recorded in the prophets – especially those of Isaiah-as though we were to look for their fulfillment in connection with the Jerusalem on earth.” New Jerusalem will be fulfilled in the eternal, in the mystery of faith, in the hope of Jesus Christ. I have hope that I will see the world changed in 50 years. While that hope is an illusion, or not, that hope will be realized, one day, in New Jerusalem.

On Aug. 29, 2006, the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a young photojournalist wrote this on his blog:

Today is hope for me. It’s still too enormous for me to get my head around, so I won’t try. Words are often useless for me, so instead a simple photograph of my mom’s New Jerusalem (For her, hope was realized in her home, a place where all things were made whole, restored) She’s sitting on the front porch of what will be her new home. It’s risen on the foundation of the home Katrina destroyed, only steps away from her FEMA trailer, and every day she look out the trailer window and she whispers, “Thank you, Jesus”
It’s been built by the sweat and love of volunteers from all over the country. From all walks of life, they’ve come into the Gulf to help their brothers and sisters. Normal, average Americans, disgusted by their government’s inaction, they’ve picked up hammers and done it themselves.
One day there’s a moldering heap of rubble, the next day hippie volunteers from California bulldoze it and take the old house away. One day it’s a flat slab of concrete, the next a pre-fab home kit is delivered and installed by New Hope Construction. One day there’s a jumble of materials, the next a church group from Oregon shows up and builds the frame. A little later a group shows up from Pennsylvania and paints it my mom’s favorite shade of green, and puts a tin roof on so she can hear the rain fall at night. And not to be outdone, a group from Alabama comes over and sheet rocks the interior, then comes back and builds her a deck for good measure.
We may have far to go, but we’ve come a long way.

This is the progression of hope in our world. We put one foot in front of another, one day at a time; we walk forward to work for change in our world. To realize hope, to bring New Jerusalem.

The importance of New Jerusalem for Resurrection people is that God is present. Present in our hope for this world, and present in the mystery of the next.
In Isaiah, God said I will never forget you. As the Israelites, walked home, God did not forget them, God walked with them. They had hope, walking along the road that God would not forget, that God would remember. That God would be with them.
I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.
I will never forget….you.

Teresa of Avila, Christian mystic, says “The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too”. Resurrection means new life in the Divine. God is on this journey with us, and this gives us eternal hope.

I hope you will take a moment, this morning, today, tomorrow to remember those that you may have forgotten, remember those that have walked towards hope (Touch Boots on Altar), to remember God is with us, and remember that hope is not an illusion but is real in our lives.

The eternal news of Isaiah is: God walks with us into New Jerusalem, into a realized hope.