I Am About To Do A New Thing; Now It Springs Forth, Do You Not Perceive It?

How will you respond to the new thing that God is doing?  

The caste system in America is cracking open.*  That is the system that was invented to keep white Europeans (particularly males) on top, and African-Americans on the bottom in this land that became the United States of America.  The system was created within a few decades of the first enslaved Africans arriving at Point Comfort (now Hampton, VA) in 1619, when the designation "white" was invented to identify those entitled to full civil rights in the colony of Virginia.

As the caste system cracks open, there has been a great deal of reactivity. 

The murders of George Floyd and Brenna Taylor provoked angry demonstrations in the streets.  

Ironically, the presidency of Donald Trump increased the pressure causing the caste system to crack open.  On the one hand, it is remarkable that so many white folks finally listened to the painful truths that African-Americans have been expressing for years, and who joined their Black siblings in demonstrating against the system of oppression.  But, of course, we saw the opposing reactivity two weeks ago at the United States Capital: the violent demonstration of white supremacy, provoked, in particular, by President Trump, and Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruse, and more than 100 Republican members of the House of Representatives who tried to overturn the election of President-elect Biden.

You do see the Confederate flag, don't you?  Certainly, it is clear by now that that flag is a symbol of hate, not heritage.  The election challenges were to selected states would have disenfranchised Black folks who voted for Joe Biden.

The cracks in the caste system and the resulting reactivity are signs of the reign of God breaking in, in a new way.  That can be the only interpretation if we take seriously the primary revelation of the reign of God -- in Jesus' embodiment, in his words and actions.  In his preference for the poor, Jesus demonstrated what God's desires are and what they look like: in the reign of God, no one is marginalized in a caste system. There is freedom from oppression of any kind, including emotional and physical violence of any kind.

As Jesus embodied and enacted the reign of God, he caused a great deal of conflict.  (The powers that be reacted to Jesus by executing him, after all!)  Among us, as well, the reign of God is breaking in with conflict.  In reaction, we hear voices of people saying "This is a time for healing."  (Some of those speaking those words are the same "leaders" who provoked the attack on the United States Capital building!)  Of course, we are far from healing.  First we must be open to truth-telling that exposes the system of domination.  Healing will only come as we respond with the structural changes that demolish the caste system.

Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu was deeply involved with the dramatic inbreaking of the reign of God in South Africa, when the system of apartheid was demolished, in the 1990s.  I am impressed by his description of how this must work:  

“Forgiving and being reconciled to our enemies or our loved ones are not about pretending that things are other than they are. It is not about patting one another on the back and turning a blind eye to the wrong. True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, the truth. It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing. Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing.”

Do not remember the former things,
    or consider the things of old.
19 I am about to do a new thing;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.

The Daily Lectionary has led me through these words that God spoke through the prophet Isaiah.  These words in chapter 43 first referred to the promised end of the Babylonian captivity, in the 6th century BCE.  But they have timeless value in describing what God is doing at all times and in all places, when a system of domination cracks open so that the reign of God can break through.  People of God who actually read the Bible (as opposed to those who start with a political position and find something in the Bible to support that) have the joyous duty to proclaim that all of this is what God is doing!

Thus says God, the Lord,
    who created the heavens and stretched them out,
    who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
    and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
    I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,[a]
    a light to the nations,
7     to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
    from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the Lord, that is my name;
    my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have come to pass,
    and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
    I tell you of them. (Isaiah 42:5-9)

-- Andy Ballentine

*I use the framework of Isabel Wilkerson in her essential book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.  Yes all the hype about this book is justified!