Jesus Is Doing Something New

I love Isaiah's pictures of the kingdom.  He gave us such wonderful word pictures which so graphically illustrated what God was going to do.  The one Mark seemed to be alluding to in this morning's sermon text was from Isaiah 35:5-6:

"Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.  then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.  Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert."

Why couldn't the Twelve understand what God was doing through Jesus?  Why did they continue to miss the point?  Because they kept trying to squeeze God's kingdom into their own preconceived ideas. As Jesus will say later in the Gospel of Mark, they have eyes but cannot see and ears but cannot hear. 

I wonder if my eyes are truly open to see what God is doing.  Do you ever wonder about that? What is he wanting to show me that I keep refusing to look at?  Two things that keep me from looking are fear and pride.  I don't know where Jesus might take me so I am afraid.  I don't know what areas he might require me to change through repentance and so I am prideful.  These same two things keep churches from seeing the new thing God is doing among us.  We are afraid because who knows what he might call us to lose. (One man I heard of was told to sell everything he had and give to the poor!)  We are prideful so we refuse to acknowledge even the possibility that we might be wrong about something.

Which brings me back to the wonderful word pictures of Isaiah.  God wants to do something new in our generation.  The only question that remains is: Will we open our eyes and see what he is doing?

Is Jesus a Conservative or a Liberal?

Today's sermon will surely generate discussion for some time to come.  Calling attention to our need to reexamine our "oral tradition" concerning instrumental music and restrictions on women is no small matter.  It is as though there has been a large elephant in the room that everyone is aware of, but nobody wants to talk about.  Some will surely become very excited thinking that the church is about to change dramatically.  Many will be optimistic about this and many others depressed or even angry. However, calling attention to the elephant in the middle of the room is NOT advocating doing anything about it necessarily, except acknowledging its presence. Then we are in a position to talk about it and decide if the Lord desires us to make any changes, or to leave things as they are.  But for the sake of our teens and young adults especially, we must address the subjects!

Unfortunately, I fear that in the midst of highlighting these two areas in need of discussion we run the danger of missing the heart of Jesus' message; which is the heart!  There is no way we can preserve the unity of the Spirit if evil is coming out of our hearts.  The track record of churches talking about sensitive subjects is not good.  Because of this churches are reluctant to honestly examine controversial issues.  The problem is not in talking about difficult topics but in the arrogance and slanderous manner in which church folks conduct themselves.  If we will all repent of the evil that lives within our hearts we will surely be able to talk about any subject, no matter how controversial, and together discern the leading of God's Holy Spirit.  True followers of Christ would not have it any other way.