CALVARY
BAPTIST CHURCH
Rev. Fred Weimert November 18,
2007
“The New
Jerusalem”
When I was writing
this sermon…
I had forgotten
that this was the Sunday before Thanksgiving…
You
may not be aware of my problem…
but
I do like to sing some Thanksgiving songs this Sunday
because
Thanksgiving season is short
and
I love the songs.
So
if you want to sing the Thanksgiving songs
you
will have to join me on Thursday at 10:00 for worship,
or
wait until next year.
I
did slip one of the Thanksgiving songs in as the closing hymn…
“Now
Thank We All Our God”
But
I did it at the last minute.
The
bell choir could tell you that
because
on their copies of hymns for today
I
included “
Dan
Moor told me on Thursday that the Bells
had
not rehearsed the hymns on Wednesday night
so
it wouldn’t make any difference if I changed
to
a Thanksgiving hymn…
and
I did…
I
had chosen the
because
the reading from Isaiah speaks of
and
our hymnal has two hymns
with
“
and
“
Neither of which I have ever sung,
but
I did know the tune to the one.
Still I wasn’t crazy about singing
either
of them.
They
are so totally other worldly…
and
the reading from Isaiah
has
echoes of that in it…
but
I don’t think that is the whole story.
There
is a song I think of when I think of
when I think of the New Jerusalem…
It
was a popular song…
written
by Carly Simon…
who
probably heard Isaiah read in Synagogue,
Ms.
Simons’ songs made the 70’s and 80’s special
This song was written as the opening and
theme
for
the movie Working Gir”
back in the late 80’s.
As the movie began
cameras focus in on the statue of
liberty’s
head and torch.
Then
pan out to show you the
and
the ferry coming up from
and
ahead of it you see the panorama of
with
the
and
you see Melanie Griffith and Joan Cusack
with
high hair
and high hopes
headed
into the city to work…
and
over it all you hear this song.
the
words are on the back of the yellow sheet.
Listen
to it (Play recording)
Now there is a song
about the New Jerusalem
I
love the song.
Still
in the back of my mind I can hear another 80’s character…
Dana
Carvey’s Saturday Night Live’s
Church Lady—
Drums
in church, now isn’t that special
Percussion
in the presence of the omnipotent
primal,
pagan,
provocative,
prohibited.
And
those sirens singing…
I
don’t think that will be happing
in my New Jerusalem.
Oh,
one more thing
it is not going to be happening
in
Satan’s cesspool,
No It is going to be a celestial city…
a
heavenly hamlet…
Sparkling
like
but
without the sleaze.
You’ll hear
in the opening words of the reading, from Isaiah…
For I am
about to create new heavens and a new earth;
It
certainly sounds as if this is otherworldly…
but
I want you to hear Claus Westermann’s thoughts on this
from his commentary on this latter portion
of Isaiah—
Third Isaiah as he calls it,
He will also speak of second Isaiah or
Deutero-Isaiah:
“In Deutero-Isaiah the verb bara was used in the sense of the new
creation (cf. 41.20). Here, too,
‘new’ means the miraculous transformation, as again in
Deutero-Isaiah 42.9; 43.19; 48.6).
The words, ‘I create anew the heavens and the earth’, do not
imply that heaven and earth are to be destroyed and in their place a new heaven
and a new earth created—this is apocalyptic, Rev. 21.1; II Peter 3.13; and the addition in Isa.
66.22. Instead, the world,
designated as ‘heaven and earth’, is to be miraculously
renewed.”
Think
of that as you hear:
Isaiah 65: 17 - 25
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
and its
people as a delight.
I will
rejoice in
and
delight in my people;
no more
shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
or the cry
of distress.
No more
shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days,
or an old
person who does not live out a lifetime;
for one
who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
and one
who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
They shall
build houses and inhabit them;
they shall
plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall
not build and another inhabit;
they shall
not plant and another eat;
for like
the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my
chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall
not labor in vain,
or bear
children for calamity;
for they
shall be offspring blessed by the LORD—
and their
descendants as well.
Before
they call I will answer,
while they
are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf
and the lamb shall feed together,
the lion
shall eat straw like the ox;
but the
serpent--its food shall be dust!
They shall
not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain,
says the
LORD.
Here
ends the reading.
As I have told you
before my Grandfather Weimert… Gramp…
wasn’t
really very gifted with remembering names…
He
had 18 grandchildren
9
of us living in
seldom
if ever do I remember him
calling any of us by our given names.
He
usually called us
either ‘gunpowder’ or
‘buckshot’.
If
he ran into me outdoors making a snow fort
he
would say ‘Hey, buckshot, nice
fort.
Are
your parents home?
Good,
here have a Kraft caramel,
and
behave yourself.
Or
if he ran into my sister, Marjorie, and me in the kitchen
He
would say, “Hey, Buckshot & Gunpowder,
Behaving yourselves?
Good
have a Kraft
Now,
where is your mother?”
That
was pretty much a conversation with Gramp.
As
I thought about this passage of scripture
and
that moment back in history
When
this writer who called himself Isaiah
tried
to encourage the Jewish people
who
had been taken away
as captive in
to
come home to
As
I thought of that time…
I
remembered another name that Gramp use to call us.
He
would call us ‘stick in the mud’
He
would say… “Hey, ‘Stick in the Mud’
what are you doing?”
I
don’t know why he would have ever used that name
for
his grandchildren…
Most
of us were pretty active
in dreaming and doing things…
Oh,
we would get stuck,
and
we would get muddy,
but we always had 8 others in
to
get us unstuck or out of the mud.
Buckshot
and Gunpowder may have suited us…
we
were explosive, and could tear things up…
but
Stick in the Mud…
Most
all of my cousins and I
were always ready to try
almost anything new…
We were doers and dreamers.
But Isaiah was
dealing with people who were stuck in the mud.
The
ones who remained in
were
mired in the mud of how lovely that place was.
This
wasn’t like
Even
the Book of Daniel
which
was written much later,
While
it spoke of
the fiery furnace
and the lion’s den…
The
Book of Daniel never tried to portray Daniel
as
being poor, or unsuccessful.
He held positions of power.
Yes, he experienced religious oppression,
But as to living
he was well off in
And
that was Isaiah’s problem.
In
in
the beauty of that city…
The
massive buildings
opulent temples…
The hanging gardens-one of the 7 wonders.
than
Jerusalem/Israel had been,
even in David’s day.
And
Isaiah’s audience didn’t
dream of waking the nation of
or rebuilding it’s capital… the
city of
They
didn’t dream of the New Jerusalem…
They
had settled in and settled for
And
on the other end, in
Isaiah
was dealing with people
Mired
in the mud of memories…
Stuck
in the mud of
“It
will never be as good as it use to be.”
A
marvelous picture of this Israeli audience
comes
to us from probably almost this same time…
In
the Book of Ezra the story is told
of
the day of celebration
when
the foundation for the new temple was laid.
Listen
to the crowd’s response in Ezra 3: 11b-12
And all
the people responded with a great shout
when they
praised the LORD,
because the foundation of the house of
the LORD was laid.
But many
of the priests and Levites and heads of families,
old people
who had seen the first house on its foundations,
wept with a loud voice
when they saw this house,
though
many shouted aloud for joy,
The
old people were stuck in the mud of…
“It’s
never going to be as nice as it use to be.”
In that movie Working Girl, which that song
came from…
Melanie
Griffith, the star, Tess, as she was called,
was
surrounded by people who wanted her to remain
Stuck
in the mud.
Her
friends the sirens of
‘Tess, marry your philandering boy
friend,
and
stay stuck here.’
Her
employers the sirens of
‘Tess,
stay mired in the secretarial pool…
give
up your dream.
But
she went on dreaming… thus the song…
Let the river run,
Let all the dreamers
Wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem.
The
new Jerusalem rises out of the old
because
of the dreams of those who see the possibility of…
a
new heaven and a new earth
Here…
today…
I
am glad that Chris Kirby… has joined our staff…
to
remind me that there is a new sound out there
worth
hearing… Switchfoot and Reliant K.
and
stuck in the mud me says… Who?
I
have never heard of them before.
and
Kirb the dreamer says
“Trust me, this could be good.”
I
am thankful for Ruth Kulkarni joining our staff
To pull me out of the mud of “every thing is fine,”
and remind me of the needs
of long time members.
I
need all of you and your dreams to pull me
and
this congregation out of the mud
we
get mired in from time to time…
Just
like the Weimert cousins helped each other out…
of
their childhood muddy stuck ness.
Why
should we do it…
because the world needs people of hope.
Because
science and technology
do
not meet all of the needs of this world.
The
world needs people who are prisoners of hope…
Dreamers
to wake the nation…
People
who understand that all of us…
are
God’s sons and Daughters.
May
the New Jerusalem come.
May
we be part of bringing it
into
being. Amen.