Sitting with the Sacred

“See, I am doing something new!”

— Isaiah 43:19

For me, the readings from this past weekend are a reminder to acknowledge the past. Acknowledge the lessons it teaches about where hope has been found in bleak circumstances. Acknowledge the lessons it teaches about how — today and beyond — to avoid obscuring who each of us really is: an image of God in a way nobody and nothing else can be. Each of us is a different facet of that all-encompassing, yet incomprehensibly intimate image.

In the Old Testament reading listed above, God advises Isaiah to “Remember not the events of the past” (Isa. 43:18). The full passage reminds me, the reader and hearer, of how God led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt (See Isa. 43:16). Even this story is recounted in present tense. The use of this tense reminds me that God is always present and that I believe that, for God, everything is always present. Maybe, in some way I can’t understand, everything is unfolding at the same time for the Creator. After all, the passage doesn’t say that God will do “something new” but that God is “doing something new” (Isa. 43: 19). God is active and on the move right now. Will I allow this to be true in me and through me?

The use of present progressive tense rather than future tense also reminds me to practice not worrying as much about the future as I’m instinctively inclined to do. And if I’m tempted to daydream about the future rather than worrying about it, I pray that I can bring my mind back to the unfolding present. Because I get the idea that the following items are what’s most helpful to focus on:

1. how the past has affected me and others
2. what I can do about it right now
3. what I am doing right now
4. what I’m aware is going on around me right now
5. how I can respond to what’s going on.

Nothing else. I need the grace to remember this, not just for myself but for others as well. That’s one message to take away from the Gospel reading for this past week.

I make the above list as a reminder to acknowledge the past, yes, but not to get stuck in it. Why? Because God is “doing something new” (Isa. 43:19)! The exclamation point underscores this declaration.

Work cited

The Bible. The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.