God Wins

A sermon for Proper 28
November 13, 2022

For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. 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.

Those were the words of the prophet Isaiah today, prophesying a new world in the midst of destruction, hope in the midst of despair, life in the midst of death. The nation is destroyed, the captors have won, but none of that gets the last word, Isaiah says today. God gets the final word. Darkness and despair and violence and sin and evil do not win. God wins in the end–light and goodness and love and faith and virtue win in the end. 

It can feel a little like whiplash to put this reading from Isaiah next to our reading from Luke. Isaiah is giving a word of hope; Jesus is telling of coming destruction. Isaiah says newness is coming; Jesus says the world is about to shake. Isaiah says tears will be wiped away; Jesus says tears are going to come. 

As opposite as they sound, the two readings go together. Isaiah is speaking in a time of destruction, promising the people that God will win out in the end. Jesus is preparing his followers for what is to come–a time of persecution and apocalypse. But he is also giving them the same hope that Isaiah is preaching. “Do not be terrified,” he says. Although the world shakes and things spin out of control and everything goes wrong, “do not be terrified.” Trust in God. Follow Christ. Hold on. 

Isaiah and Jesus were speaking to their specific times, to specific moments in history. Isaiah is speaking to those who are witnessing with their very eyes instability and political violence, the threat of captivity and enslavement, the destruction of their world in war and disaster. Jesus is speaking to his earthly followers, telling them of the persecutions of the early church just around the corner and the destruction of the holy city in 70 AD. But their words echo with timelessness. Their words go beyond the specifics of those historical moments, and speak to every place and every time when violence overwhelms, when fear overtakes, when the dreadful portents of evil seem to win out. 

Their words speak to our own time, do they not? We see instability, the threat of nuclear exchange, the terror of hunger and drought, the unquestioned domineering of prideful despots and greed-filled servants to self alone. Nation rises against nation. Famines and plagues crowd the headlines. All seems to be in the process of being thrown down, stone by stone–even the most unquestioned and unquestionable temples of our civilization. And such turmoil is so often reflected in our own lives–the presence of disease and death, the uncertainty of our futures and the futures of those who come after us, the sorrow of loss, the struggles for peace in a stormy world, for happiness in a despairing world. 

In the middle of all of this, can we hear the words of Jesus? “Do not be terrified.” “By your endurance you will gain your souls.” Persevere. Do not be afraid. Trust in God. Follow Christ. Hold on. 

In the middle of all of this, can we hear the words of God through the prophet Isaiah? “I am about to create a new heaven and a new earth.” “No more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.” “They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain.” Do not be afraid. Trust in God. All of this is passing away and God will make it all new. Hold on.  

It is a bold act of faith to hold on during times such as ours. It is a bolder act of faith to proclaim that God will win out in the end–that this old world will wear out like a garment, and from the ashes God will usher in an unending Day of Peace. It is even bolder yet to live now, in the midst of so many messages to the contrary, as if that day had already come–to allow our lives, already transformed and marked by God’s grace, to be a prophetic sign of the newness that is to come. 

Are we bold enough to allow the promises of God to be written on our lives, like a scroll with the words of the prophet Isaiah? Are we bold enough to proclaim to the world, rocking and reeling: “Surely, it is God who saves me; I will trust in him and not be afraid”? Are we bold enough to proclaim that in the end, despite all claims to the contrary, God wins and will reign over all?