I wish to begin today by speaking about ‘race car movies’.
There seems to be a defining race car movie in each generation – one recent example is the 1990’s street racing film ‘The Fast and The Furious’, which has been popular enough to generate 3 sequels, of course imaginatively titled ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’, ‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’, and the latest simply ‘Fast and Furious’.
Younger people, and the young at heart, will know of the animated film ‘Cars’, and its hero ‘Lightening McQueen’.
I guess we could recall a race car film in most decades, back maybe as far as the silent movies and the Keystone Cops who chased each other around in their old jalopies.
Older movie goers like myself might recall one such race car movie that epitomized the genre from the early 1980’s – called ‘The Cannon Ball Run’, which was based on an illegal cross-America race from coast to coast – no holds barred – winner takes all. It featured Burt Reynolds amongst the stars.
Anyway, in this particular race car movie it begins with the various race car drivers secretly meeting up in a warehouse where their cars are assembled and where the race will begin. One competitor is an Italian driver who will compete in this brand new convertible Ferrari – red of course! He jumps into the car, and the first thing he does is grab the rear vision mirror in both hands and breaks it off, throwing it over his shoulder across the warehouse floor and he says: ‘The first rule of Italian driving – what’s behind me is not important!’
What’s behind me is not important!
Which is perhaps a long way around to the Isaiah reading today, and our theme of ‘something new’, but I hope you’ll see the connection shortly.
Here Isaiah says some quite startling things to a Jewish audience, let alone to us as a Christian audience, when he writes ‘Thus says the Lord … do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?’
Or put another way – ‘what’s behind you is not important!’
Yet, for the Jewish people of the exile, who might have first heard this, and for that matter Jewish people still today, let alone we Christian people today, that is a shocking suggestion. The suggestion that we forget our past, we discount our history, we don’t look to our tradition, or consider our heritage and our forebears in faith – but rather that we only look forward, to the new thing springing forth.
I had dinner last week with some friends who are a Jewish family here in Auckland and they were preparing for Passover, which begins for them this week, and they were cleaning the house, clearing out certain food items, getting themselves and their home ready for the Passover – as they set out to celebrate this central festival in their faith, which involves ‘a looking back’, a remembering, a considering of the past event of the Exodus. It is a festival which has involved doing this kind of ‘looking back’ for their people for millennia. The idea that God might tell them ‘don’t remember the former things, do not consider the things of old’, is something of anathema.
As it seems it is for us Christians too, as we go through this Lenten season and get closer and closer to the remembrances of Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Day itself. We too are increasingly focused on looking back, on remembering, on considering the journey of Jesus to the cross and then on to the empty tomb. We are relying on our proverbial ‘rear vision mirror’ – but unlike the Italian race car driver, ‘What’s behind us is important!’ – it is very important!
How then can we stay true to the message of Isaiah today, and to the theme of looking for ‘something new’ – the thing that God would have spring forth amongst us?
Well, I think the difference for us is in the realization that while we do look back, while we recall, remember, consider the past in the journey of Jesus, we do not do so by reliving it as those who first experienced it lived it, but rather we do so by reengaging with the history, the past, the tradition, the story of Jesus, in light of what we know came to pass, and what we know now for ourselves, in our own lives and faith – that is, the truth of the resurrection, the birth to new life, the wonder of restoration, reconciliation, transformation and new beginnings. For as Christian followers that is what we know and what we celebrate, not only in Easter but all the time, right through the Lenten season – we celebrate the experience of lives renewed, of lives re-enlivened.
This is the ‘something new’, the new thing God is about to do, is now doing, and has already done. This is what ‘springs forth’ and what we are to perceive - the ongoing resurrection life, even in the midst of remembering the passion and death of Jesus - as we are about to do over this next two weeks.
And we can find such signs of this new life, of this ‘something new’, all around us, if we only look: in our own lives, in the life of this community of faith, in the wider community and church of which we are a part, and in our world.
Certainly, in my new work for the wider church I get to see and experience some of this newness, some of these signs of new life, of resurrected life, and I believe the same signs can be found everywhere.
Examples for me have been; the ordination three weeks ago in Dunedin of a new bishop, and all the excitement and anticipation that the cathedral, the diocese, and the whole community there, were feeling and expressing as they celebrated this ‘something new’ that was springing forth amongst them.
Similarly, two weeks ago I was in New Plymouth for the consecration of a new cathedral, the first new cathedral in this church for over 80 years, and it was once again a great celebration of ‘something new’, something exciting and energizing, something that God was bringing about, something that was ‘springing forth’ amongst them.
In a maybe smaller way, the week before last a number of people from St Johns were able to share with me and others in a service at the cathedral in Auckland, as I was liturgically welcomed by the wider church into my new role as the General Secretary for this church, which is not so new anymore,. Again I felt, and I trust others did too, a sense of ‘something new’, something exciting and life giving springing forth – certainly for me, and I hope for the wider church which I strive to serve, as we work to bring about the way of God in this land.
And for each of us locally such signs of ‘something new’ might be found, in our experiences of the New Year we are well into now, or the experiences of a new group, or course, or commitment we are involved with this year. It maybe in new relationships we are beginning with those around us at work, or play, or in community or church, in our neighborhood, or voluntary groups, or school. It maybe in a new job, or a new task, or a new ministry, or a new interest.
There are these signs of new life all around, of God bringing forth something new, we have only to perceive it – as Isaiah challenges us.
(Certainly here at St Johns we see many signs of new things springing forth – both in fabric and in people. We have new road side signs, which went up this week, a newly painted hall and church, plans for a new portico to be built over our main doors; we have new families joining our community, we have had baptisms, weddings, and a new vestry about to be elected at our AGM)
And for each of us personally, we have the opportunity for new expressions and new experiences of faith. New insights into scripture and God’s call on our lives. New challenges to welcome all who come to worship, or to our studies, or to our groups, or to our community in a myriad of ways.
Isaiah writes of this newness being like ‘a way in the wilderness’ – so helping the lost find a path in life. Or like ‘rivers in the desert, water in the wilderness’ – so bringing refreshment and sustenance to those who need it. Or ‘like wild beasts bowing down to honour God’ - as that which was uncontrolled chooses to recognise the one who is the source of all life and newness.
So, we can look around us for the examples and opportunities to find for ourselves, and to offer others, such ‘a path’, and a way forward with God in life and faith.
And we can look around us for examples and opportunities to find for our selves, and to offer others, ‘life giving water’ – that which spiritually refreshes, sustains and cleanses all life – as our baptismal liturgy puts it.
Such newness, such life, such opportunity for growth and transformation, is always before us. God is always doing a new thing amongst us; we have only to perceive it.
And sometimes that will require some looking in the rear vision mirror, some reflecting on the tradition, the history, the past, some acknowledging of our forebears and where we have come from - but we cannot get stuck there!
For as the Italian race car driver was suggesting, at least some, if not most, of our attention needs to be forward, needs to be on what is around and in front of us right now, for it is there that I believe we will perceive God at work – God bringing in the ‘something new’.
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