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August 22, 2024
“Look! I’m doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it? I’m making a way in the desert, paths in the wilderness.” Isaiah 43:19
“I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other.” John 13:34
“So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
“Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look! I’m making all things new.” Revelation 21:5
According to the Prophet Isaiah, the author of the Gospel of John, the Apostle Paul and John of Patmos, God was doing a new thing. That’s a lot of “new.” Pay attention to all that “new” and it feels like God is leaning forward, the old passing away and something fresh emerging. Be your own theologian. Is this true to what you know of God? Is God continually offering something new, a freshness, like dawn, like resurrection?
I am 71 and from this ripe old age, it is very easy to feel bogged down, as though the old is not passing away but settling down around me. At any age, the routine can become a rut. Life can become the same old-same old and as a result feel hopeless or at least stagnant.
A few days ago, I ran across the first scripture from Isaiah and the word “new” caught my eye. Using BibleGateway, I did a word search and lots of “new” popped up. The word “new” or some derivation of it appears in the Bible more than 350 times. I don’t think I’d noticed that before. Could it be true, that God is (present tense, right now) doing a new thing, even now in my life, and in the world around me?
I volunteer with Women at the Well. Once a month or so another volunteer and I go to Fresh Start Women's Residential Correctional Facility for a program called Well Time. We spend an hour with the women talking about faith. We ask the John Wesley question “How is it with your soul?” We read scripture. We share communion. We pray. We talk. We laugh. By God’s good grace, we enjoy being together.
Last night it was my turn to volunteer. I took these scriptures with me. The group gathered and we read the scriptures together. And then I asked, “Was it true?” Was God doing a new thing?
The women at Fresh Start are amazingly wise.
Oh yes, they said. God is (present tense, right now) doing a new thing. And they each gave examples from their own lives of God offering a fresh way of seeing the world and themselves. New jobs, new friendships, new sense of self, new gratitude emerging. This newness felt strange, and, for some of the women, their first instinct was to resist it. Accepting newness requires courage and surrender. But yes, their lives are a testimony. They could feel God at work in the changes around them. God is (present tense, right now) doing a new thing.
After Well Time, the other volunteer and I drove home. We have been volunteering for more than a year. She is no longer just another volunteer. We have become friends. At 71, I have a new friend. How had I not noticed the new thing God was doing as we rode back and forth to Fresh Start? Look around, Cindy. What other things were sprouting up in your life? What new perspective is God offering you? How is grace giving you a new way to understand yourself and others? What old stuff am I clinging to? Can I loosen my grip so that I might take up something new?
A lot about the world does feel fresh and new right now. We have a new Bishop. The turmoil that resulted from the disaffiliation is passing away and there is a freshness about this time in the church. A new school year will begin in a few weeks. In the fall I will officiate at a wedding and a new family will form as they say their vows. These are just the things I have noticed. How much more is happening, things we humans can’t perceive? God is at work beyond human comprehension, seeds of grace taking root.
I have been watching the Olympics and fresh faces, not always young, but fresh with enthusiasm, race around the track, emerge from the pool, and defy gravity on the balance beam. Many of those athletes have offered wisdom, sharing their stories of uncertainty and mental health challenges. Simone Biles sports a tattoo with Maya Angelou’s words “And still I rise.” Maya and Simone each believe that life offers us restoration and renewal. I don’t know if they would credit God with this, but I do. God is love and where love is at work, God is present.
Oh, yes, the women at Fresh Start told me. Without a doubt, God is doing a new thing. Present tense, right now.
So what’s new with you?
One last scripture.
Sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Psalm 96
May it be so.
Cindy Hickman
The Rev. Cindy Hickman
The Rev. Cindy Hickman is a retired clergy member of the Iowa Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. Subscribe to Abiding in Hope