Sermon preached by Rev. Wesley King on Sunday, November 16, 2025
I don't really read the King James version much anymore, but I did this week because it starts this passage with the word, "Behold. Behold, I am creating a new heaven and a new earth. And there's something really interesting and powerful about this word behold because it draws your attention to something. Anytime that the Bible says behold, you know that God is about to do something.
Behold is used approximately 1500ish times in the Bible, depending on what translation you use. And they use it as this command for us to pay attention. In Genesis, and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. In the Psalms, behold, God is my helper, the Lord, with whom my life is held. In Isaiah, behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth. Shall you not perceive it? Behold, I'm making all things new.
From Malachi, behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare a way before me. From Matthew. Behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David. Fear not, take Mary as your wife. Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.
From John on the cross, he said to his mother, "Behold, woman, your son." From the book of Revelation. Behold, he cometh on the clouds, and every eye shall see him. For I am he that liveth, that was dead, and behold, I live for evermore.
Behold, we don't really talk like that anymore. Can you imagine if we did? Behold the Crunchwrap Supreme. Behold, the Titans lost again. Actually, I say that we don't talk like that anymore, but I spent about 24 hours in Alabama this week. And what phrase did I hear? Lo and >> lo and behold. Yes, I heard that one a lot. Maybe we do say it.
Regardless though, this word has been popping up again and again for me this week. So, I want you to hold on to that word behold for the rest of the worship service.
Now most scholars believe that this latter part of the book of the prophetic book of Isaiah was written after they had returned from exile. The Babylonian exile began in 586 BC or now we say BCE before common era when Nebuchadnezzar II, the king of Babylon at the time, destroyed Jerusalem and the first temple and took the Israelites captive. And this period of exile lasted approximately 70 years, an entire lifetime for many.
And so now as we read this passage, they have returned to their homeland. And they are hearing this promise of creation and recreation from God through the prophet Isaiah. For I am about to create a new heaven and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
One commentator put it this way. Here at the end of the book of Isaiah, God is doing what God does, creating and rejoicing. God, of course, does many other things throughout the book of Isaiah, not to mention the entirety of the Hebrew Bible, but creating is one of those things that is paradigmatic to God.
And when God creates, God rejoices. So when God creates a new heaven and a new earth in verse 17 or when God creates a Jerusalem of joy in verse 18, the verb that's there to create is the same verb that appears in Genesis 1. And it's repeated three times in the first three verses of this morning's passage.
And in creating something new, God tells us that the old things shall not come to mind or be remembered. Now, this part of the passage usually rubs people the wrong way, right? They think that this passage is all about change and that the way that it used to be has to be stuffed into some box never to be opened again.
Then, I'm a really nostalgic person. And so, that would really rub me the wrong way, too. But you have to remember who this first audience was, who were the first people to hear this message. These were a people who had suffered for nearly 70 years in exile from the place that they called home. They were held captive by a foreign entity. They had to be born and die. Some of them in exile, never to return, never to be home again.
They faced horrible treatment and enslavement. And more than that, these people were a people who were once slaves in Egypt and would later be occupied by the Romans. These were an oppressed people.
And so when God says, "I am creating a new heaven and a new earth, and the former things shall not come to mind." God is saying, "I will make a place where the pain of your past never lingers in your mind anymore. Where the horrors of your history never cloud your thoughts."
So what God is describing is nothing less than miraculous. God says that the newness that God is creating, there will be no more life that is cut short. Those who were born will live a full life and those who are alive shall not have their time on earth cut short.
God also promises that they shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat. For like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their own hands.
God is talking to a people who have been captive for much of 70 years. They've been working for 70 years building houses for others to live in. They've been working for 70 years planting for others to eat. Not out of the kindness of their heart, but out of the survival of their people. People who were enslaved and occupied by the Babylonians.
And so when God is promising that they will reap the benefits of their own labor, that they shall reap the harvest of their own crop and shall have agency over their livelihoods and their lives. This is miraculous talk to this first audience.
This kind of promise would make you want to go out into the streets and shout to the heavens praising God, thanking God for hearing your cry and bringing you into a life that is more abundant. But what does it mean for us?
Because what we just did, what we just went through was an academic study of scripture. Understanding the sociohistorical context in which it was written. Understanding who the initial audience was and how they would have interpreted and understood this passage.
But what does it mean for us devotionally? How are we as people of the way or as Reverend Marchie called us last week, children of the resurrection. How are we supposed to understand this passage?
I must also note that behold isn't just used for good things in the Bible. Of those 1500ish verses, many are about the judgment of God's people for their lack of humility, their lack of humanity, their lack of compassion, their lack of justice, their lack of love.
And the same is true for us. We live in tumultuous times, don't we? Our political climate can best be described as a hot mess.
This week, our two senators from Tennessee were discovered to have added a provision to the legislation that would reopen the government that would afford them and six others the ability to sue the government for $500,000 each, $4 million total, over subpoenaed records from back in 2020.
Meanwhile, SNAP benefits have only been partially distributed to the 700,000 Tennesseans. And just to break it down, because I don't know if you knew this, I did not know this, but in a typical month, families who are on SNAP only get about $85 a week for a family of four. $85 a week for a family of four. And that's a typical month when the government is not shut down. So, I'll let you guess what partial funding looks like for them right now.
Behold those who are supposed to work for us.
This upcoming Thursday is Trans Day of Remembrance, which is a day that we remember the number of trans people who died this year, not to natural causes, but to violence and suicide.
Trans people don't even make up 1% of our population. A recent poll said that trans folks make up 0.52% of the US population. Yet they are the topic of numerous pieces of legislation and the main talking points on everybody's campaign trail. Such a literal minority yet gets the majority of the hate.
58 names, by the way, will be read this Thursday. Behold, how we treat the disenfranchised.
This week I also saw a little video of a little girl who was one year old who got pepper-sprayed by ICE. This family was sitting in their car. They weren't protesting. They weren't doing anything but sitting in their car at Sam's Club when ICE shot pepper spray into the car. And I see on the video this little girl, one year old, pepper-faced, stained orange face.
Behold how we treat the most vulnerable among us. Those that Jesus said, "Bring unto me."
Last Sunday, I told you that at the beginning of service, I got this text that my great aunt passed away. I also told you she had gotten really fond of her middle finger in the last couple of years. My family was not happy that I shared that story. They're probably not happy that I'm bringing it up again, but we buried her on Wednesday down in Alabama.
By the way, 24 hours in Alabama and my accent is just unrecognizable. But at the graveside, the pastor read two passages and they happen to be from Isaiah. Behold, I am making all things new. And this passage right here, behold, I am creating a new heaven and a new earth.
And I know that these backwood Baptists aren't following the lectionary. There's no way they could have known that these verses were percolating in my mind this week.
Since this summer, I have felt the presence of God working here at Vine Street. Have you felt it? I feel it on Sunday mornings. I hear it in your singing. I see it at work in our church. God is doing something. God is at work here.
16 new members this fall, 21 young adults at brunch last week. We're going to need more chairs for the deeper Bible study if at this rate it keeps growing. But it's more than the numbers. There is a spirit at work here.
My office is full of food supplies. Earlier this year, Weston Middle School supplies drive just earlier this month. Room in the Inn drive, the water drive. My office is to the brim this morning with sweatshirts that we're going to sell so that we can help our neighbors who need help with a car payment or rent.
And I've got bags and bags and bags of canned foods, peanut butters, pasta, cereal that will go to our neighbors who are still waiting on their SNAP benefits.
Friends, God is creating a new heaven and a new earth through you. You are the agents of God in this story. As children of the resurrection, we don't just see this passage as a message for a people who existed thousands of years ago. This is a message to us now in this time and place. Amen.
For they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord and their descendants as well. Before they call, I will answer. And yet while they are speaking, I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together. The lion shall eat straw like the ox, but the serpent—its food shall be dust. They shall not hurt. They shall not destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
Friends, I have to believe that God's promise of a new heaven and a new earth rings true today. And it wasn't just a promise to a people a long time ago, but that God is creating a here and now through the work of our hands, through the strength of our feet, and through the courage of our minds and our hearts.
This week, I pray that we behold what God is doing in our lives, in our church, and in our community. Behold, I am making a new heaven and a new earth. The former things shall not come to mind, nor shall they be remembered.
Behold. Let me hear you say, "Behold." >> Behold. >> Say, "Behold." >> Behold.
May it be so. And may we make it so with our living and with our loving. Amen.