THE TIGHTROPE OF TIME
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
October 5, 2003
Evening Service
Text: Isaiah 43:16-21
For almost my entire time in pastoral ministry, I have served in areas
where churches celebrate some historic events. 100 year, 125 year, and
150 year anniversary celebrations are not unusual. They are appropriate
opportunities to remember our legacies. We remember who we are and what
we are doing by recalling our heritage - both as genealogical family and
as church family. Isaiah, and all the prophets, used the tool of memory
to remind the Israelites of God's past with them - His fulfilled
promises, His laws, His compassion for His chosen children. In chapter
after chapter, Isaiah repeated a literary formula which begins, "This is
what the Lord says," followed by a reference to some past event which
reminded the people exactly which Lord he's talking about.
In 43:16-17, Isaiah has written: "This is what the Lord says - he who
made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew
out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and
they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a
wick..." Isaiah, like so many others, refers to the exodus event. This is
the story of the crossing of the Red Sea on dry land, of the Egyptian
army close on the Israelites' heels, of the waters collapsing over that
Egyptian army as it also tried to cross the sea, of God's ultimate
victory over a powerful foe for the sake of His weak and helpless flock
of Israelite children. Isaiah told his hearers then and his readers now,
"Look! This is the Lord to whom I'm referring. Don't you remember Him?
Don't you remember His laws? Don't you remember His love? Remember God,
chosen people! Remember Him and live."
Isaiah's purpose, though, is not to call the people to a self-satisfied
belief that God has acted only in the past. The people of God walk a
tightrope of time. God is not interested in personal pleasantries of
comforting nostalgia because, when we are not very careful about how we
remember the past, we become trapped in it and cannot move ahead with
God's intended ministries. In one of his novels, Frank Herbert wrote,
"Memory never captures reality. Memory reconstructs. All reconstructions
change the original, becoming external frames of reference that
inevitably fall short." (Heretics of Dune, p. 396).
Keep this in mind as we look at some other events in Israel's past.
Returning again to the time after the exodus but before the arrival in
the Promised Land, we discover that this strange, but common, phenomenon
of distorted memory settles on the people. They become stuck in the myth
of nostalgia, in which past circumstances seem to take on a distorted
pleasantness when compared to present difficulties. In actual fact, the
recollection of the past when facing a present struggle is usually far
from what really happened.
Take a moment and listen how the Israelites "remembered" their days in
Egypt. Exodus 16:2-3: "In the desert the whole community grumbled against
Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, 'If only we had died by the
Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the
food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve
this entire assembly to death.'" Numbers 11:4-6: "The rabble with them
began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and
said, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt
at no cost - also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But
now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!'"
Sure, I'd like to go back to an Egypt like that. Sounds good to me. But
let's throw a little reality therapy into the picture; a little cold
water on all their warm, fuzzy recollections. Exodus 1:11, 13, 14, and
22: "So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced
labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh...
and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with hard labor
in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all
their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly... Then Pharaoh gave
this order to all his people: 'Every boy that is born you must throw into
the river, but let every girl live.'" Exodus 2:23: "The Israelites
groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of
their slavery went up to God."
It is evident to us that the "good old days" of the Israelites'
imagination were nowhere close to the truth of the reality of the
situation. Yet, that's what the people wanted to believe! If it were not
for the presence of God and the faithfulness of His servants Moses and
Aaron, the tribes of Israel would have retraced their steps and
voluntarily handed themselves back over to their Egyptian oppressors!
That's like a POW making an escape and then, after missing a couple of
meals, deciding that things were better in the prison camp because he was
at least fed there.
It should be rather easy for us to recognize Israel's foolishness in
these accounts. We can read the whole story and see it played out in its
entirety. We know that God never let Israel perish; that He led them time
after time after time. We know that if a POW escaped from prison camp, he
would sacrifice whatever was necessary in order to return to friendly
lines. But what about the drama of our contemporary lives? That's not as
easy, is it? We haven't lived it all out; it's not all laid out before us
like the panorama of history. We still have to walk the tightrope of
time.
Even though we know better, we still get caught in this same trap. We
remember the "good old days" as if they will keep us safe and secure. We
remember full churches as if they were the norm. We remember people
coming to church first and then to other things second. We remember full
nurseries and Sunday schools. We remember every effort having a payoff.
One discussion held just this past Thrusday morning Bible study was about
visiting someone who expresses all kinds of enthusiasm about attending
church on the next Sunday, but never shows up. We all wonder why they
even bother to act as if theyre going to come.
While I recognize the hard work and dedication of those who built the
church buildings and taught the Sunday school classes - and who still
teach - and who brought neighbors to a saving knowledge of the Lord;
while I recognize all of that, it still needs to be said that we simply
cannot focus misty-eyed onto a nostalgic past of greater glory and expect
to grow in God's blessings. It just will not happen!
The point that Isaiah makes in this portion of Scripture is not that God
led His people out of Egypt - He did that, certainly. The point is to
tell what God has said, which is: "Forget the former things; do not dwell
on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not
perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the
wasteland."
If I were not a Christian, I would have lots of reasons reason to return
nostalgically to some former glory days. I might have a need to set up in
my mind some lost days of old which recapture inaccurately some piece of
history which cannot be repeated. Think of high school athletic stars who
end up pumping gas after graduation, forever trapped in their memories of
what it was like to have adoring fans screaming support at their every
move. I think of my own generation - the baby boomers - who have been
caught for sometime in nostalgia trips as they try to explore the "what
if" possibilities of living in a '50s like world again. And if I were not
a Christian, I would have cause to get caught up in my glory days, too.
But with God, there are no such things as "glory days." When we live in
the presence of the Lord, we can receive anew His glory every day. Thus,
He says to His people, "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up;
do you not perceive it?" The sad truth is that no, most of the time, we
do not perceive it.
There was a time, about 536 BC, when the Hebrew people began to be
released by Cyrus, king of Persia. They were allowed to return to
Jerusalem to rebuild their temple. The account is in the book of Ezra.
Looking at 3:11-12, we find, "with praise and thanksgiving they sang to
the Lord: 'He is good; his love to Israel endures forever.' And all the
people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation
of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the older priests and
Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when
they saw the foundation of this temple being laid..."
They could not rejoice over being freed or over the new temple being
built; they could only weep as they remembered the glory of the old,
which was no more. They had fallen off of the tightrope of time. They
failed to see the new work of God. They failed to support the new people
whom God had called to rebuild His temple. They failed to trust God for
the future which was unfolding.
Little wonder, then, that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians in
3:13-14, "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it
[perfection]. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining
toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for
which god has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." I used to read this
verse with the attitude that Paul meant not to get bogged down in past
failures. We are to pick ourselves up and keep striving toward Christ.
But a Bible study helped me see the two-sided nature of Paul's message.
Not only do we press on in spite of failures, we also press on in spite
of successes. To dwell exclusively and destructively on past successes -
on past "good times" and "glory days" - means that we fail succeeding
generations. It means that we fail to develop meaningful ways to reach
out in Christ's ministry. It means that we fail to continue to trust God,
since we rely on our past.
Imagine the witness of Paul telling fellow workers, "you guys go on
without me. I've already started a couple of churches; I'm successful.
I'm going to take it easy for a few years. Besides, I don't understand
these young people anymore. So, you just go on and do the best you can."
In a way, this is what Christ warns us about in his parable of the rich
fool in Luke 12. The rich man looked around him and was satisfied,
because he had all that he needed. He said to himself, "Take life easy;
eat, drink and be merry." But God thought differently and said, "'You
fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will
get what you have prepared for yourself?' This is how it will be with
anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
We cling to the past because in it we find assurance of security,
familiarity, and popularity. But in the past, we cannot find a future. To
find the future, we may have to tread the fearful ground of insecurity
and unfamiliarity and unpopularity. But we can find something better;
something more powerful; something which is alive and growing. In the
future, we find the promises of God. Have you found the promises of God?
Have you received the promise of salvation through the death and
resurrection of Christ? Have you asked him to be the Lord of your life?
If you have, are you now letting his Lordship rule in your life?
"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a
new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"
Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN
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