November 9, 2025
Isaiah 65:17-25
Introduction
I suspect we’ve all had times in our lives when something happens, and we come to realize at some point—maybe during, perhaps after—that the circumstance is asking something of us. And within that circumstance asking something of us, we come to know something needs to be done in response to what has happened. We’ve been moved and motivated to want to do something.
And while I suspect we’ve all had times when this has happened, I also suspect in many of those times and circumstances—maybe all of those times— we just didn’t’ know what to do.
For instance, I remember September 11th, 2001. I was in seminary, it was Tuesday, and on Tuesday at 11 a.m. we had weekly chapel. It was easy time to know where to go because our weekly chapel worship was already set to happen. But the planned worship service was scrapped because that felt like what should happen. Except no one knew what else to do other than to be together and be in prayer.
But in the days after the attacks, I recall how the American Red Cross had such an influx of blood donations that the nationwide blood shortage had be eliminated—an act that correlated to a professor of mine who told me that’s what he did on 9/11.
I bring all of this up because for a while now I have struggled with, maybe even become obsessive about, what I do, what First Christian Church does, and what followers of Christ are doing in the midst of a hurting, divided, angry, scared, unsettling time we find ourselves in. I think about it every day. My struggle with those questions has left me feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, lonely, stuck, and petulant. (Which admittedly is just a fancy word for “grouchy”.)
Does any of this sound familiar? When have you felt that “something needs to be done” feeling, and what brought it about? Maybe it was 9/11. The pandemic certainly was a time ripe for such thoughts and feelings. Natural disasters are certainly settings for such.
But regardless of the circumstance, these feelings have come up in all of us, and always there’s the questions, “What can I do?” “What could I do?” “What should we do?” and the like that will flood our minds, hearts, and spirits. And these are good questions, because ultimately they will guide us to asking a better question—a question that shows us how to cast, and live toward a Godly vision.
Move 1
This past week I had a meeting at Camp Christian, and during one conversation the focus turned to these “what to do” questions. But as clergy conversations often go, everyone was sharing and listening, and yet the conversation was also going in circles and not really landing on any sort of explicit takeaway of what to do. Then one person, a retired pastor, said, “I think the question we ought to be asking is ‘What do we want the future to be?’”
Admittedly, this question for considering our “what to do” didn’t really make much of a splash for me in the moment. I mean, it’s not terribly uncommon for pastors, or anyone really, to think about what we want the future to be. But then a day later, as I was getting back into my sermon prep, I realized that ‘What do we want the future to be?’ question, is the same question Isaiah is presenting in this passage for today.
Isaiah is asking, on God’s behalf, “What do you want the future to be?” And he is asking it because God is casting a vision of what God wants the future to be.
Move 2
I know we all would love to have clear cut epiphany moments where God reveals to us what it is God wants us to. Unfortunately, that is not how God typically works. But our text for today clues us into what God does do.
Isaiah is a prophet of God—one who speaks on God’s behalf, bringing God’s message for God’s people. But not once in today’s reading does Isaiah tell the people what to do. But what Isaiha does do is offer a vision. And that vision is less about what to do and more about a direction in which to move. Isaiah offers values not just to be believed but to be lived and enacted. And he’s offering this vision instead of telling the people what to do because the vision Isaiah offers never ends, it will never be without validity, without relevance, without hope and new life.
Any response to a “what to do” circumstance can certainly be helpful. But a vision of what can be, that is always with us, always guiding and driving us, always imploring us to work and live towards—that is always unfolding and always enlarging.
Isaiah offers a vision of who God is and the desires, longings, and hopes God has for us. And it’s not just one thing. It’s a huge, vast buffet of beautiful, soaring, and poetic images of what life can be. Each image is an entry point into the divine life, and with it comes an invitation to take a look at the buffet, and see what whets our appetite; what parts of this vision capture our imagination, what ignites our passion; what causes our heart to sing out, “Yes, that is the vision I want to see and help create!”
Move 3
So let’s start to figure out what vision it is we want to see and help create. As I said, Isaiah offers a vision of who God is and the desires, longings, and hopes God has for us as a huge, vast buffet of beautiful, soaring, and poetic images of what life can be. So let’s step up to the buffet and decide what looks good.
Is it the part in which God says, “I am about to create new heavens and a new earth?” If that’s what sounds good, why does that grab you? What possibilities do you imagine from a new heaven and a new earth? What needs to be created anew in you? How might you be a co-creator with God of the new heavens and earth? What kind of place do you want to leave to those who will follow you? What is this vision asking of you? Where and in what ways can you make a difference and bring about such a newness?
Or maybe it’s the part where God says, “No more shall the sound of weeping be heard … or the cry of distress.” Wouldn’t that be amazing? No weeping, no cries of distress—just the heartbeat of life which resounds with hope. Is that your vision for the future; for yourself, others, the Church? That day of no more weeping is coming but it begins today with our compassion, love, healing, and grace for ourselves and one another. Is that something you can give yourself to? If that is your vision for the future, then what is being asked of you today?
How about that part in which God says, “…we shall not labor in vain and that our children and descendants will be blessed”? Is that the vision that’s important to you? If so, why? What do you see when you imagine work, the daily acts we do—whether paid or not—that are meaningful and makes a difference in the lives others? What would that look like in your life? What’s the blessing you want to give others? How might you become that blessing?
And there’s that part of the vision Isaiah casts where God says, “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together…. They shall not hurt or destroy.” That is an image of nonviolence and reconciliation. Is that your heart’s deep desire for the future? What if we lived in a world of nonviolent families, schools, and workplaces; nonviolent political, economic, and justice systems? Is that what you want the future to be? If so, how might you begin to cultivate nonviolence toward yourself, others, and creation? What relationships are in need of reconciliation? How would you live a nonviolent life—but not just in your words and actions, but in your thoughts, your prayers, your perceptions of others?
Conclusion
When we are confronted by circumstances that have us asking “what to do” questions, it is then that we need to realize we are actually searching for a vision for the future. So what is that vision, what does it involve and include? Where are you in that vision? How can you help create that in the here and now? Is that vision spilling out of you?
Imagine if we all found our vision, and then gave it our prayer, time, and energy. Imagine if we gave that vision roots in our lives and relationships. Imagine if we let that vision be the lens through which we see one another. Imagine if we let that vision guide how we think, what we say, and the actions and work and ministry we do.
Now… Imagine the possibilities that could come from your vision.
What does that look like for you today? What feelings does it bring up in you? What does it inspire in you? What is it asking of you?
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The vison Isaiah gives us today is an invitation to see what is possible, but also to know it is possible because it is among God’s vision as well. And responding to this invitation to see what is possible is our chance to know what we want the future to be. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, November 9, 2025
Creator God, whose word brought forth the heavens and the earth, we come before you with hearts opened by the promise of your prophet Isaiah. We stand on the precipice of a future unknown to us yet fully known to you. Grant us, we pray, a vision for the future not rooted in our own limited imaginings, but in your divine and holy purpose, as revealed in your sacred word. For we are excited for, and longing for, and ready to work for a new thing, a new heaven and a new earth.
We praise you Holy God that the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. So banish from us the cynicism that clouds our hope and the weariness that limits our sight. Help us to find joy and be filled with hope in what you are creating.
Teach us to desire a world where life is not cut short by pain or tragedy, where a parent never has to worry about how to feed their child, nor do the aged have to decide between food or medicine.
We long for the fulfillment of your kingdom, where people will build houses and live in them, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. Give us the strength and the will then to be your hands and feet in this work, to build and plant in faith, trusting that we shall long enjoy the work of our hands.
In a world so often marked by futility and fear let our work be infused with vision and purpose; our families with blessing; and our daily lives with the constant assurance of your presence.
This is the vision we yearn for— the day when harmony reigns and when enmity and strife are driven out of our hearts and communities.
So cast this vison Lord and embolden us with hope and energy to be agents that see what the future can be and then work to make that vision a reality.
Please hear now the prayers of our hearts as we lift them to you in this time of Holy Silence.
We pray all this in name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”