"Advent 1 - A New Thing"

by Revd Bruce Waldron - 3rd December 2006

Isaiah 43: 15-21

When I was in the Australia, my brother Merv, a Lutheran used to tell a joke about Christians and light bulbs. He'd ask, how many Anglicans does it take to change a light bulb, and the answer was, well, first you have to get a faculty.

How many charismatics does it take to change a light bulb? Well, the whole congregation has to raise their hands in praise and as we all know, many hands make light work.

How many evangelicals does it take to change a light bulb and the answer was, they don't change light bulbs, they convert them.

And then the punch line from Merv: How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb and the answer "Lutherans???? Change????"

I sometimes think that the Christian church talks about this passage of scripture from Isaiah every Advent as though it would welcome a new thing if God did it. I think in reality we wouldn't find a new thing easy.

If God is going to do a new thing, then some old things have to go by the bye.

I remember talking to a development officer from the Uniting Church in Australia, and he was groaning about a church he was working with because they wanted to do something new, to reinvigorate their mission, but they couldn't get anyone to give up all the old things they were doing so nothing new could get off the ground.

It's not difficult to get so busy, so involved, that there isn't room for anything new.
It's not hard to become so much a part of a system of doing things that there is no room for anything to change, even if the change is better.

We have sayings around this kind of thinking. "Better the devil you know."
"We've always done it this way"

I've often wondered, if Jesus turned up in Bungay, and started turning the order of things upside down, would I follow him or get really narked that he was messing with what I knew? Would I welcome him or get really threatened by him?

Isaiah's prophecy is a part of Advent readings, and it suggests that God is going to do a new thing, something that will put water in the desert.

But when we read the story of the Hebrews, in the desert, they grumbled and grouched and suggested to Moses that they really ought to go back to the captivity of Egypt because there was a security in that place, even if they were slaves.

Like most people I find the idea of something new uncomfortable. But Advent is that time of year when our lectionary asks us to do some real soul searching about what we are hanging onto that might get in the way of the purposes of God. To know the difference between what is helpful in being God's people and what is simply habit, requires dedication and faith and God's guidance.

Our theme today is hope. Hope that despite the concerns of our age, God is still at work. Hope that despite so much consumerism and so much cynicism and so much chaos, the Gospel will continue to be heard, and hope that because of our faith, even if it is very mortal and human and at times feels so inadequate, God is at work in us.

Hope that we are, however poorly we may understand it, a part of God's eternal plan so long as our hearts and minds are open to God's spirit. And hope, that through us, by the grace of God, new things might happen in the lives of those around us.

May the Spirit of God find, in our lives, not too much old clutter for the Spirit to find space to do a new thing. In Jesus' name.
Amen