The Great Circle of Creation
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 Jerusalem as a joy
and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem
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 who 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.
Sermon
Norman Vincent Peale was a Protestant minister who led the Marble Collegiate Church in New York for half a century. And to round him about a bit, you could say Peale was a bit of a sleazeball. He argued against clergy involvement in politics, but led a national committee to stymie FDR’s policies, stated that electing a Roman Catholic to the presidency would threaten America itself, and later received a Presidential Medal of Freedom. When it came to his career, Peale had no formal training in psychiatry or psychotherapy but established a psychiatric clinic anyway, and would later be denounced as a fraud by the father of cognitive psychology.
But some of this diva’s sleeziness went the extra mile. In 1952, he wrote The Power of Positive Thinking, which was a mix of self-help and snake-oil instructions for success. A few quotes: “Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate.” “Empty pockets never held anyone back.” “When you get up in the morning, you have two choices - either to be happy or to be unhappy. Just choose to be happy.”
In Peale’s world, there is nothing but unbridled happiness. As a preacher of the so-called prosperity gospel, he taught his followers that if we believe hard enough, and trust hard enough, God will make us healthy and wealthy beyond our greatest imaginations.
That glossy positivity is seductive, but the problem is that our Bibles are far more honest. The Bible is a library of stories about the complexity of humanity, and of course, the ways in which we are wounded and wound others. Last week, we heard of Job’s unmeasurable anguish. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus reminds us of tragedies, betrayals, and calamities that will befall each of us.
It seems that having our hearts broken is an occupational hazard of being human. Happiness is not a mere choice. Empty pockets hold a huge number of our neighbors in Newton back. And we will never escape our proximity to death.
…
Today as we dedicate our pledges for 2026—whatever that might mean, wherever that may be—we aren’t doing so because we’ll receive a hundredfold back. Churches aren’t piggy banks, and there’s no dollar amount that will ever quantify our faithfulness. And even more soberingly, money will never keep us safe.
Instead, we pledge because even in the midst of death—even while in the midst of pain and suffering—God is creating a new heavens and a new earth.
Today’s reading from Isaiah says this: “one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will seem cursed.” That is surprising, and perhaps shocking: in this oracle of Isaiah, even as God creates a new heavens and a new earth, there’s death.
We have to leave that in the prophecy and curb our temptation to gloss over it because death does not preclude hope. Death does not preclude peace. Death does not preclude deliverance.
Rather, as we understand through this oracle, God is always calling out to us, trying to enter our lives, and constantly working to bring us beauty and peace beyond all comprehension, even when it seems impossible.
We see this in the way Isaiah echoes the language of Genesis, offering a remixed vision of creation. God is creating again, breaking every curse, and creating a world that is tangibly and concretely beautiful, joyful, peaceful, and perfectly balanced. And just like those first chapters of Genesis, just like the Garden of Eden, God will once again live in the presence of humanity.
Even in the midst of bruised egos, frigid buildings, and silly squabbles, God is engaged in the work of creation. At this very moment, God is still making things new, stirring within us, building new relationships around us, and teaching us each and every day; there is no scar that will ever stop God from the sacred act of creating. God is still, and always, breathing life into dust.
“Death does not preclude hope. Death does not preclude peace. Death does not preclude deliverance.”
This has serious implications for our stewardship. To live as the church of Jesus Christ—and to live as disciples—we will always find ourselves near hospital beds, searing betrayals, and the debris of ecological disasters. We keep Narcan around the building, not to escape the realities of addiction, but to respond when overdoses happen. We keep an AED in the parlor, not to escape the realities of cardiac crises, but to respond when they happen. We clear our schedules for funerals; we welcome strangers knowing the risks; we hope even when it’s hopeless — because God doesn’t promise that we’ll escape anguish, but rather promises to show up in the midst of it. Life happens. We do our imperfect best to become the vehicle for God’s rescue and response of grace.
That is the pattern of Jesus Christ, and therefore, that’s the pattern of our faith.
God shows up in our lives, and we pledge ourselves to join God in that work. God has shown up in our lives through Sunday school teachers, and friends, and winter jackets, and Thanksgiving pies. Now we get the opportunity to continue this great circle of creation and to pledge our lives to this discipleship. Now we get the chance to join God in the sacred, life-giving work of creating. Look! God is doing something new!
