A NEW THING


“A New Thing”
Isaiah 43:15-21

Message by Pastor Lane Van


As a new elementary teacher, the best advice I ever received was, “Expect the unexpected.”  I’ve found that to be very helpful in all aspects of my life, including when it comes to my faith.  It can be quite freeing.  When I’m not holding on so tightly to my own expectations of what is going to happen, I’m able to receive God’s possibilities with empty hands and an open heart and mind.

The people of Israel certainly needed a deliverer to help them out of the jam they had gotten themselves into.  Through Isaiah, God tells his people that, he will deliver them, but don’t expect him to part the Red Sea every time he does.  Instead God tells them, “I’m going to do a new thing.  Are your eyes open and your hearts willing to see it?”

Life experience has taught us that not all “new things” are good things (case in point:  COVID-19), and some “new things” bring unexpected and unwanted changes into our lives.  New things are risky – we may have to “sit in a different pew” so to speak, step out of our comfort zones, as we’re asked to look at things from different perspectives or change how we normally do things.   Scary stuff!

However, when God leads us to do “new things,” there are always blessings and grace in store for us.  We can be assured that when God does a new thing, it is not contrary to God’s nature and God’s intentional will.  God is and always will be our Lord and mighty deliverer who loves us and is always with us.  God, in all things, acts for our good and for the redemption of all creation.

“I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.  The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.”  (Isaiah 19b-21)

Before I joined you as your pastor, Constantine and White Pigeon United Methodist Churches committed themselves to the leading of God’s Holy Spirit to  begin the journey to revitalizing the life of the church and to find new ways of sharing Christ’s life-transforming love with your communities.   During this time as we wait for the re-opening of worship, I believe God is calling all of us, not just the pastor and a few church leaders, all of us into a time of preparation – a time of prayer, of seeking God’s will and of listening to one another as God speaks his vision of God’s new thing to our spirits.

People of White Pigeon United Methodist Church, now is the time for prayer and opening our hearts to God’s possibilities.  Dare to dream God’s dreams for a revitalized church and the ways God’s transforming love will flow out into your community in word and action.

People of Constantine United Methodist Church, now is the time for prayer and opening our hearts to God’s possibilities.  Dare to dream God’s dreams for new life in your church and the ways it will witness God’s transforming love to your community in word and action.

Always and in every circumstance, God is our Lord and mighty deliverer who, in his love for us, is always working for our good.  God is with us on this journey into God’s future for us. 

Let us surrender our expectations that we might receive the outpouring of God’s rivers of new life with open hands and expectant hearts.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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