When I sang in the choir in my youth and young adulthood, one of my favorite songs was from early American music. The composer was William Billings, and I don't remember the date of the song, but it was somewhere in the mid-1700's. We sang it in a Sacred Harp style. That means each person can sing any of the four parts, with the result that each part gets doubled: women sing the bass part an octave higher if they want. Men sing the soprano's tune and octave lower. Sacred Harp style can be very boisterous--losing dynamic subtleties in favor of "everyone sing loud." The song text (from memory, so it might be a little off) went like this:
How long, dear Savior, O how long
shall this bright hour delay?
Fly swift around, ye wheels of time,
and bring the promised Day.
From the Third Heaven where God resides
That holy, happy place
The New Jerusalem comes down
And brings the promised day.
The God of Glory down to Men
Removes his blest abode
We the dear objects of his grace
And He the loving God.
All through Advent we have been praying, "Come, Lord Jesus!" and that is the sentiment here. The image of the New Jerusalem coming down to us comes from Revelation. There will be no crying there. Death will be no more, and sorrow and sighing will be no more. There will be no need for a temple for God is the temple. There will be no need for light, for it is always day. That place comes DOWN to us, we don't go up to it. Revelation is related to the Gospel of John, and in all of the John-literature, Christ always comes TO US. Come, Lord Jesus! Fly swift around, ye wheels of time, and bring the promised day!
Sometimes we don't want things to change because we take comfort in same-ness. I try to manage my life around routines. Same-ole, same-ole is good to a point, but I try to use that stability to help me be open to new things. Get up at the same time, do the same things every day, every week--these routines give my life stability from which I can tackle new problems or work on new projects.
There's a justice problem with same-ness, though. In my privilege, I can ENJOY sameness. Why would I want to change anything if everything's going my way? If my privilege blinds me to how things AREN'T going other people's way, then I have too much privilege. Oppressed people never want things to stay the same. They want things to change. The Hebrew slaves cried out to their God for salvation, and God sent Moses to Pharaoh to change things, to set the prisoners free.
I said that oppressed people never want things to stay the same, but I must qualify that. When the Hebrew slaves were wandering in the desert, they longed for things to go back to the way they were. "Remember in Egypt," they complained, "we used to eat meat, but now there's only the whatsit stuff--Manna, and we're tired of it." Like someone looking a refrigerator full of good food and good leftovers, they say, "Now there's nothing to eat." Sometimes when we have it good and our life is full of blessings and those blessings are causing too much change in our lives, we complain and want things to stay the same and we want to go back.
We sometimes lean on the thought that God is always the same (Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever."), but this idea is meant to keep us steadfast in the faith. When we ask, "What is God like? In what way is God always the same?" we find the ironic surprise: God is always the same in that God is always doing something new. In the beginning, God made a new thing--that is, God made all things at a time when they were all new. God made a new thing of the world when the rains went away, and God gave Noah the rainbow covenant. God made a new thing when God picked Sarai and Abram to be the parents of multitudes. This was so new that they got new names: Sarah and Abraham. God made a new nation out of the freed Hebrew slaves. God is always making new things and doing new things. Even these things that we've just listed, in Isaiah 43, God says "Forget all that, See I am doing a new thing."
We prepared our hearts and cried in earnest all through Advent, "Come, Lord Jesus!" We expected Jesus to be the same, yesterday, today, and forever, but Jesus came to us as a baby. What do we encounter that changes more than a baby? Their brains and bones grow faster as infants than any time in life. They learn what mommy's face looks like and stare in wonder. They figure out that they have hands and feet. They learn to walk and speak. All this is change. Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever is always changing. We, too, should expect change. Life is change.
Isaiah, again, says Sing a NEW song to the Lord. In Isaiah 42, the voice of the prophet says, "The Lord goes forth like a soldier; like a warrior, he stirs up his fury," but then almost immediately after that, the voice of the Lord --the Lord who is always doing a new thing--says, "now I will cry out like a woman in labor." This is a new thing. We used to think of God as an ancient king or general, but now we see God as young woman giving birth. God is always doing a new thing, and here God is creating a new thing by giving birth.
In this new year, when you're making new year resolutions, what are you trying to change? What old things are you holding onto too tightly? How will you open your heart and mind to see the new things that God is doing in our lives. God is the same, yesterday, today and forever; Yesterday, today and forever, God is always doing new things. Expect it.
Blessings in the new year,
--Chas
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