A New Thing

Here is my first of many sermons with Shepherds Community United Methodist Church. I am so grateful and so excited for the work ahead. Thanks for joining me on this journey.

Good morning church. My name is Michael LeBlanc and I have been appointed to be your pastor. And I am so grateful.

Thank you so much for being here and being a part of this service. I am humbled by this celebration and am so grateful that all of you have decided to be a part of it this morning. I am made better, simply because you are here.

This morning is a long time coming for all of us. For me and my family this is the result of a call I felt in my life when I was baptized at the age of 6. I grew up in a tradition where you were baptized after you made a profession of faith and also you had to get quizzed by the pastor before you got dunked. So I am stood there in my robe, all of 6 years old, when my pastor starts asking me these tough bible questions. One of them got answered with a shrug and a grunt and everyone in the congregation laughed. My pastor called me “Reverend LeBlanc,” and from then on things just felt different for me.

I started in the process to become commissioned as a pastor in the UMC 9 years ago. I have served in ministry my whole career, but here I am-- fulfilling the promise I made in my baptism.

Our passage this morning deals with promises being fulfilled, looking towards the past and dreaming about the future. 

The prophet Isaiah is a central component to the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible is the part at the beginning written before Jesus shows up. Its a library of books written primarily to the people of Israel as they continuously mess up, kind of like all of us-- or at the least, like me.

Isaiah wrote to Israel in a time of war and upheaval, around the 8th century BCE. Assirya ruled the world and Israel was a small backwater nation ready to be conquered by the global power. The people of Israel felt pressure from every side to surrender and submit to what Assirya wanted from them, which was essentially to act like everyone else and to forget all that their God had done for them.

A prophet speaks for God and Isaiah is doing that in our passage here.

A few important things to see here-- first is that it is very strange for Isaiah to be talking about new things. The normal thing for a prophet to do is remind their readers about the works that God has done and then talk a little bit about what needed to change in the here and now. Instead, Isaiah does the old bait and switch.

In previous verses, Isaiah talks about all the good things God had done for Israel and then tells his readers to forget about those things, launching into talk about the new things ahead for Israel.

It is the shock of this juxtaposition that made me want to be guided by this verse today. This last year has been nothing but shocking, right? A global pandemic, a divided country, an election, dozens of marches and protests in every major city… any one of those things would have made 2020 a banner year. And yet, we took on all of them. This church has gone through many challenges and changes. And yet, here we stand. All of us. We made it.

And within and throughout all of this, there has been plenty of joy and reasons for gratitude. Babies have been born, people experienced God’s love, weddings, times of great unity and people thinking of others more highly than themselves.

It is easy to think that 2020 was unique in the human experience. But human life has always been a collection of highs and lows, peaks and valleys. The one thing we can know, we must know is that God has been the constant throughout all of those highs and lows.

Now, I am new in town. Most of my childhood and teenage years have been here in Polk County. When I was a student at USF, I drove along 60 almost every weekend, not knowing there was a church a few miles north who would one day welcome me and my family so well. I never knew that God would use me in Lakeland.

We are finding a new Publix, meeting new neighbors and learning the DNA of this church community. What I have already learned through conversations and phone calls is that at the core of who we are as a people at Shepherd’s Community United Methodist Church is generosity. In a time of great change and uncertainty, you have chosen to make the mission of God’s love the center of all that you have done. Your shawl ministry, partnerships with Medulla, Viste, and a sister church in Cuba. I could go on with all of the things you all have done, but what I have already seen is exactly who you all are. Giving. Loving. Serving.

And so we read our passage and we could think, are all of those things over? Is God doing a new thing with a new pastor and changing what we love about our church?

And yet looking closer at the passage, we see the “new things,” God promises isn’t truly new for the God of Israel. God’s promises may be new to us, but they are not new to God.

God promises paths in the wilderness. Just like God gave the people of Israel when God freed them from Egypt--they had no freedom and God showed up. Paths in the wilderness just like God gave to Ruth and Naomi--they had no hope and God showed up. Paths in the wilderness like Christ found during his time of trial. Paths in the wilderness like Elijah and Elisha found when they were on the run. Paths in the wilderness just like we will find as we seek out where God is calling us to serve and to make God’s love real in the world around us.

You see in all of the stories I just listed, there was no hope-no freedom-no life-no future and God showed up.

In our passage, God promises all of creation will know of God’s love for them-- even the ostriches and jackals. Just like when God saved Noah, his family and all of the animals. Just like when God acknowledged the plight of the animals of Nineveh at the end of the book of Jonah. Just like Christ told his critics that the rocks would cry out if the people of Jerusalem were silent. All of creation has been professing God’s great love for us and that will not be changing any time soon.

In our passage, God promises water and sustenance for God’s people. Just like God sustained the church when she was being oppressed. Just like God sustains the church in other parts of the world that still suffers oppression. God sustained the people of Israel in the wilderness with water and manna. God sustains all of us now with bread and cup. 

So you see, God is doing a new thing. But this is also an old thing. God is working in us, the people of Shepherd’s Community United Methodist Church just as God has been and will continue to do. Things will change and the most important things will stay the same. We will remain a generous people. This new guy will learn from all of you, listen to you, make and take suggestions.. From humility I hope to teach as well.

And most importantly tne thing will never change-- God will be faithful. We will remain obedient. This world will continue to change and God’s Kingdom will come-- may it begin here.

And so my challenge to all of us gathered today is this--may we be people of expectant prayer. May we pray in such a way that we know God is about to show up. May we pray in such a way that we know our God will make paths in the wilderness. May we pray with our whole lives, eyes and ears opened to take in all that God has to teach us in the coming season. And may we pray that above all we will be obedient to what God has called us to.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirt. Amen.

Let’s pray.

Almighty God help us to own up to the call you have placed in our lives as the people of Shepherd’s Community. You are our good Shepherd and we know that you are leading us towards a new thing. God we pray you would fill us with the sort of courage that we could only attribute to you. Go we pray with expectation for what is about to happen with this church. God we know that what is ahead will only be because of your great power and your great love. Be with us we pray, Amen.