God’s instructions to exiled people in Babylon through the prophet Isaiah strike me as highly relevant now.

“Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it?” (Is 43:18-19)

These words help us avoid the trap of old mindsets and ways of doing things so we can re-focus our attention on the new things that the Spirit is initiating in our lives and world.

The “former things” for Jews in exile, included the glorious and romanticized past of Israel’s successes, awesome temple worship and religious feasts, and powerful kings.

Lately, I find myself remembering the early beginnings of Tierra Nueva in Honduras, where we went from village to village on our motorcycle, meeting with farmers in their fields, leading spontaneous reflections on Scripture under trees in corn fields. I think of the many dynamic Bible studies in past years in our local jail, our vibrant worship and gatherings in the months before Covid that brought in the most vulnerable, and many other high points of our lives.

Calling the idealized past to mind stirs up nostalgia and invites comparisons, leading to discouragement and desires to return to the sacred beginnings or traditions that hold power. The Lord prohibits this as distraction that keeps us looking backwards rather than forwards.

“Former things” also include the people’s individual and corporate failures: idolatry, rebellion, refusals to pay attention to the prophets… When I focus on my failures, I can easily despair over things I can’t go back and re-do. It is important to carefully discern how things went wrong, to learn from past mistakes so as to not repeat them. But the replaying of failures must come to an end; otherwise regrets, remorse and discouragement will result, which can be better resisted and overcome through honest confession, repentance, receiving forgiveness and choosing to listen to God’s voice now.

“Former things” can also include past hurts and traumas that have wounded and crippled us, causing us to see ourselves as victims. Israel’s past traumas are called “oppression” (Is 52:4) and “former devastations” (Is 61:4). Blame, resentment, bitterness, hatred towards those who have harmed us can invade our lives. False guilt, shame, self-hatred, and despair can also become installed when we listen to and internalize accusing voices.

Rather, we must learn to identify and carefully name offenses, uncovering the wounds to the healing light and cleansing waters, and engage in the process of grieving, lamenting, receiving God’s healing and comfort, and eventually forgiving.

I don’t believe Isaiah is suggesting escapism, denial or a spiritual smoothing over of past atrocities or brutal ways we were sinned against or participated in sin ourselves.

Right before these challenging instructions of Isaiah 43:18-19, God calls himself “your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel” and describes the destruction of the Babylonian perpetrators and the liberation of the oppressed using the language of Exodus from Egyptian slavery.

The Lord “makes a way through the sea, and a path through the mighty waters. The chariots, horses, army and mighty men “will lie down together and not rise again,” writes the prophet, stating God’s commitment to effectively addressing injustices that traumatize, rather than overlooking them and calling people to forget about past atrocities and traumas. God can be trusted to be 100% about liberation and life.

But everything in the past is included in “former things,” which are not to be called to mind or pondered. We are only to remember God’s past saving actions (Is 46:9), a remembering which is essential so our faith is enlivened so we can watch for the new.

“Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it?”

God promises something new that is underway, in the future and even immediately—now! “Now it will spring up! Will you not be aware of it?” This evokes God’s original creation (Gn 2:9), righteousness (Is 45:8), the living word (Is 55:10); recovery (Is 58:8) and newness of life (Is 61:11).

Waiting and watching for the new in the here and now requires active faith, described earlier in Isaiah 43:10-11.

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, and there will be none after me. “I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no savior besides me.”

In order to become an active witness of the new work of God in the midst of devastation, I am seeing I must surrender and cooperate with the Lord’s choosing and recruiting movement. We are chosen so that we “may know and believe and understand” that the Lord (identified as Jesus in the New Testament) is true and real—the One—and that there’s not other savior options.

Paul writes about this is in his own way in Philippians 3:13-14

“I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Faith in Jesus is required if we’re to identify and attune ourselves to the “something new” that’s springing up. This is how we receive the mind of Christ, rather than leaning on our own way of thinking.

“Will you not be aware of it?” asks the prophet.

Will I not?

I pray that you and I will be spared from ignorance. I pray that you and I will become freed up enough from focusing on the past to perceive the new works that God has prepared for us in this season. I want to notice and step onto the pathway God is making in the wastelands and drink from the rivers in the desert.

May God bless you with active faith so you will become aware so you can fully participate in the new movement of God in these times.

I’ve been moved afresh by Jesus’ authentic and gentle way of engaging with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in Sychar according to John 4. The way Jesus handles his Jewish-male believer status before a woman of another faith in heart of her territory informs and inspires me. How does Jesus deal with outsiders’ perception of his Jewish male supremacy? How does he embody the fullness of grace and truth attributed to him as the Word become flesh?

Jesus first meets the woman when she arrives at the well to draw water. He is already there ahead of her, weary and thirsty from a long journey from Judea. He requests a drink from the woman, provoking her to question why he, a Jewish man, is asking this of her, a Samaritan woman.

Jesus doesn’t apologize for himself and skirts her question. He is secure in his identity and mission. In response to her resistance to him, Jesus shifts from unwelcomed guest to generous host. He offers her living water, a faith-filled move that shows his confidence in what he has to give. After a prolonged conversation where she expresses her reservations and he responds, she finally asks him to give her living water.

When Jesus tells her, “Go call your husband and come here!” the woman denies having a husband. Jesus exercises his power at this point, showing her that he knows what is true about what she’s said, and then brings into the light what she’s left unsaid.

“You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly” (4:17-18).

Jesus first affirms the truth that the woman doesn’t have a husband. In revealing that’s she’s had five husbands and is currently living with a man not her husband he makes use of his prophetic power. I see him revealing this personal background info as a way of addressing her personally, as she’s been keeping him at a safe distance.

Jesus’ use of power does not result in the woman experiencing any visible shame, or admitting the truth of what he’s revealed– though she does acknowledge that he’s a prophet. Nor does Jesus’ use of power keep her from freely bringing up what she considers a serious religious difference that might disqualify her from receiving the desired living water.

“Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

The woman doesn’t state her own opinion about whether God should be worshipped on “this mountain” rather than in Jerusalem, but expresses her ancestor’s (“our fathers) distinct belief. Is she baiting Jesus to see if he agrees with her portrayal of where Jewish men believe they should worship—Jerusalem? Is she probing Jesus to see if he’ll require she break with her tradition and religion should she accept his living water?

Jesus’ response takes their conversation and relationship to another level. He boldly and directly tells her to trust what he’s going to say to her next: “Woman, believe me!”

In John’s Gospel, believing Jesus is essential for entry into his family-community-kingdom: “As many as receive him, who believe in his name, he gives authority to become children of God” (1:12). “Whoever believes in him will have eternal life” (3:15; see also 1:7; 2:23; 3:16,18,36).

He goes on to share revelation that fits in the category of prophetic teaching that includes her and her people directly:

“An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you (pl) worship the Father” (4:21).

Jesus declares to this woman that in the future she and her people will worship the Father, a familial title for God that Jesus uses, which is not attached to a particular, exclusive place.

Jesus states matter-of-factly that the proper location for worship that divides her Samaritan fathers and their descendants who worship on “this mountain,” from the Jews who worship in Jerusalem will no longer be relevant.

In one fell swoop Jesus dismisses a divisive distinctive separating Jews and Samaritans in favor of a more inclusive approach- which I like. Jesus removes the borders, de-valuing his homeland, though he devalues hers at the same time. There is nothing inherently sacred about Jerusalem, which certainly means America or the West are put on the same level as marginalized Sychar (which means drunken town).

But then to my dismay Jesus appears to backtrack from his inclusive approach by directly stating to her that she and her people worship what they do not know- something that would make me very uncomfortable. Then he goes even further by unashamedly affirming the particularity of the Jews as the bearers of the message of salvation for all.

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews” (4:22).

Jesus doesn’t protect the Samaritan woman from non-negotiable truths or minimize his difference from her in ways that make me uncomfortable. He openly includes himself in the “we” of “we worship what we know,” differentiating himself for the Samaritan woman, who is among the “you” of “you worship what you do not know.”

Yet he follows this statement with a hope-inspiring prophetic declaration for all people that begins with a “but”- which effectively over-rides his Jewish exclusiveness.

“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (4:23-24).

Here Jesus takes up his earlier prophecy about future worshippers of the Father, but actualizes it into the “now” of the present. In the “now” referring to that very moment that Jesus and the Samaritan woman’s encounter at the well? I believe it is.

I love how Jesus doesn’t present the Father in an exclusive way as “my Father,” which would leave her out. Nor does he assume she’s on board, by calling the Father “your Father” or “our Father.” The use of the definite article “the” before Father frees her and any other listeners to choose to join (or not) the present or future worshippers- accepting to be found by the Father who seeks his worshippers.

At the same time Jesus defines God’s nature as Spirit, and requires his worshippers to worship in spirit and truth.

Despite Jesus’ bold and clear prophecies, the woman doesn’t appear to feel obligated, or to come under Jesus’ control of power. She appears free to set her boundaries, and astutely establishes a sort of checkpoint blocking this potentially dangerous intruder to infiltrate and possibly start up a heretical cult. She wisely says to him:

“I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when that one comes, he will declare all things to us” (4:25).

The Samaritan woman will not believe Jesus’ prophecies without knowing his identity “in truth.” The coming Messiah has the final word, and she affirms her conviction that “he will declare all things to us.”

At this point Jesus does not hold back his identity. He takes of his camouflage and reveals himself to her clearly:  “I who speak to you am he” (4:26).

Here John’s Gospel uses the Greek equivalent of the Lord’s revelation of his name “I am” (ego eimi) to Moses in the desert (Exodus 3:14). Just then the disciples return from buying provisions in town, and the woman leaves her water jar there at the well and heads into her town.

She tells her countrymen: “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”

Even after Jesus’ direct revelation of himself, the woman appears free to contemplate, and is not overcome by his power and influence.

Jesus’ way of carrying himself, of living within in Jewish male body, offers help and hope to people like me. I am not proud of my distinctives: my whiteness, Americanness, associations with Western Christian religion– and other status markers that associate me with what feels like a heap of negatives regarding power and privilege.

Jesus reveals a way that is humble and true. He knows who he is and what he represents. He freely offers living water in a way that is at first resisted but then asked for. The rightly-wary Samaritan woman border guard has interrogated him, but finally invites the people to consider confirming him with her tentative endorsement: “this is not the Christ, is it?”

The Samaritan woman does to not herself invite Jesus over the border into her community. The residents of Sychar come out to him and many believe in him because of the woman’s testimony—showing that the effect of Jesus’ power is to empower and deputize.

The final effect of the woman’s testimony is that the community lets Jesus in, welcoming him to stay with them two days. Many more believe because of his word, which shows that finally the best results of bearing witness is that people would encounter Jesus directly for themselves.

The Samaritan villagers’ assessment of Jesus’ identity goes beyond the woman’s question about whether Jesus is the awaited Messiah he’s told her he is. They confess him to be the entire world’s Savior!

“It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the Savior of the world” (4:42).

For another angle on this encounter check out my chapter “Jesus’ recruitment behind enemy lines,” in Bob Ekblad, Guerrilla Gospel: Reading the Bible for Liberation in the Power of the Spirit, available here.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrLxSXOt4so&feature=youtu.be

I invite you to join us in a weekly online Bible study focusing on Jesus’ core teachings beginning February 5.

During the darkest and most precarious times in Israel’s history God’s presence and words brought challenge, renewal and re-orientation. Right now we need to hear fresh words from Jesus in the face of rising death tolls, partisan divisions, growing hostilities, racial injustices, and chaos due to false prophecies.

Gracie and I are feeling an urgency to experience Jesus’ core teaching afresh for our well-being and very survival. We all need God’s word as “a lamp for our feet and a light for our path” (Ps 119:105), because darkness is real and growing.

Scripture shows how God revealed himself and gave the Torah to the people in the midst of desperate and frightening times as they were tried and tested in the wilderness. He called them to total allegiance as his chosen people (Ex 19-20).

During a period when violence and idolatry were widespread among God’s people, someone found an ancient book and read it to King Josiah, who tore his clothes when he heard the words of Scripture. God’s words tenderized and humbled him as he saw how his people were facing serious consequences for failing to listen. He initiated a reform movement that involved removing the high places, exposing and eradicating idolatrous allegiances (2 Kgs 23-23). This didn’t stop the impending exile, but seems to have delayed Israel’s eventual decline.

Years later upon returning from Babylonian exile, Ezra the priest read Scripture publicly with the people, who wept when they heard it (Neh 8:9). God’s words to Solomon are certainly relevant today:

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chr 7:14).

We feel a need for forgiveness, healing, wisdom and clear discernment as we navigate in these dark waters. Paul’s call to action in Romans 12:2 is vital for us now:

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

In our daily reading of the Bible Gracie and I are finding encouragement, strength and continual direction– and hopefully the renewal of our minds. We long to see a movement ignite and grow, fueled by socially-engaged Bible study, prayer and action that will  enlighten and empower Jesus followers.

We experienced this among peasants in Honduras in the 1980s and 90s, with inmates here in Washington State since then, which I’ve written up in Reading the Bible with the Damned, Guerrilla Gospel and Guerrilla Bible Studies. We are experiencing this now in weekly Zoom Bible studies and courses we’re leading with people from all over the world.

People desperately need to be informed from above, to drink from pure streams of God’s revelation—rather than feed on tendentious news, social media and entertainment. We appear to be heading towards still greater challenges and would do well to prepare now so we can endure hardships and advance Jesus’ kingdom in the face of increasing upheaval.

Jesus taught people that if they desired to build their houses on a rock that would withstand floods, they must come to him, hear his words and act on them (Lk 6:47-48).

We invite you to join us for a free weekly Guerrilla Webinar Bible study series “Basic Training for the Jesus Movement,” that will take place from 12:00-1:00pm (PST) on Fridays beginning February 5 through April 23 via Zoom. Sign up here and join us!

In the USA, these days, we are witnessing grave injustices committed under the guise of legality, exposing the fallacy that ‘legal’ means ‘just.’ Presidential pardons of soldiers and government contractors convicted of war crimes, billions of dollars in benefits for the rich and powerful tucked away in the 5,000+ page Congressional Relief Bill, and a rush to execute prisoners on death row, grieve me deeply. The Old Testament prophets are sounding more and more relevant in our times:

“Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; For truth has stumbled in the street, and uprightness cannot enter. Yes, truth is lacking… Now the Lord saw, and it was displeasing in his sight that there was no justice” (Isaiah 59:14-15).

In the 26 years I’ve visited inmates as a jail chaplain I’ve seen grave injustices committed by our legal system against individuals and families that are technically legal. Prosecutors routinely file charges that are higher than what evidence warrants, with intimidating threats that additional charges might be forthcoming. Once someone has a criminal record “points” are added to a defendant’s “score,” upping the minimum amount of time in jail or prison people can expect to serve, if found guilty.

An example from this week involves a man I’ve befriended and pastored for 25 years, who is currently facing 240 months in prison for 4-5 “controlled buys”– sting operations where he was caught selling small amounts heroin. This excessive amount of time is due to his points, based on the Sentencing Reform Act (SRA) of 1981, Washington State’s version of sentencing guidelines that vary from state to state— “reforms” that underlie mass incarceration of indigent people like the world has never seen.

Bail is calculated and set based on current charges, and people’s points. While defendants are usually legally eligible to post bail, or seek a reduction in bail before trying to bail out, only people with financial resources can actually be bailed out and leave custody, fighting their case as “innocent until proven guilty.” Those who fight charges while incarcerated are clearly at a disadvantage: spending months or even years in jail while they fight their cases, losing income, employment, and housing that brings hardship to their families, and appearing guilty during court appearances in their jail-issue clothing. The presumption of innocence, fighting charges from outside the jail, and effective legal defense are largely privileges of the rich.   

Those unable to post bail usually cannot afford a private defense attorney, meaning they must qualify for a court-appointed public defender. While there are many excellent public defenders, most have heavy caseloads, lacking time and finances to represent a defendant as effectively as a high-powered (and expensive) private attorney, especially in a trial. Being found guilty by a jury means judges are required to sentence the convicted within a required minimum-maximum range— which is usually much higher than the sentences offered by prosecutors in plea agreements. This puts pressure on poorer defendants and people of color to plead guilty, even to crimes they haven’t committed, rather than go to trial.

The prospect of standing trial before a possibly mostly-White jury, insecurity over a public defender’s capacity to defend them, and inability to afford a private trial attorney cause many to agree to lengthy prison sentences people with money can usually avoid. In this way millions of men and women from the poorest social classes in America have been legally sentenced to excessive and unjust time in prison, often with big fines and years of probation included.

There’s so much more that can be said about the grave injustices rampant in US legal systems, which are compounded for anyone held in immigration detention, where public defenders are not provided. Re-entry presents near impossible challenges, as ex-prisoners face the stigma of labels such as “felon,” “ex-con,” and crippling debt to pay back child-support, restitution and other fines– often with driver’s licenses suspended until payments are made.

That President Donald Trump can legally act above the rule of law that ordinary citizens are beholden to, overturning legal convictions in order to free his friends (who already had minimal sentences due to well-funded, expert defense), exposes the gross inequities present in American society, making a mockery of justice. The pardoning of US Special Forces soldiers guilty of extrajudicial killings in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the more recent pardon of the four US Government contractors working for Blackwater, who committed war crimes when they killed 14 Iraqi civilians at a traffic stop in 2007, shows the world that US soldiers with friends in high places can get away with abuses of authority and murder. That the founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, is Donald Trump’s Education Secretary’s Betsy DeVos’ brother, is another sign that corruption is rampant in the highest places of US government—a serious undermining of legitimate legal authority and rule of law.

As a follower of Jesus I believe in the power of God’s mercy, grace and love, manifested in actions like pardons, debt forgiveness and enemy love. I am not an advocate for punishment through prison sentences, sanctions and violence. However, if forgiveness is to mean anything to the forgiven and lead to any significant change, it must include confession, deep repentance and lead to conversion and even reconciliation– and it must be available to all.  

Jesus exposed and actively resisted the legal injustice inflicted by the law-enforcers of his day. He broke religious/cultural laws openly and regularly, actively removing sanctions viewed as punishments when he healed the sick, cast out evil spirits, defended the accused and befriended outcasts. He publicly reprimanding law-enforcers, who deprived the most needy people of healing and inclusion through Sabbath and purity laws. He brought justice to the least, and was persecuted to the point of death by execution.

Jesus undoes penal justice through taking the curse of the law upon himself on the cross (Gal 3:13), canceling it forever in his death and resurrection. Jesus’ arrest, conviction, and death expose legal human justice, with all of its religious underpinnings for what it is—unjust and even evil. 

Today the darkness of legal injustice must be exposed as equal to and even worse than illegal injustice. We must strive to bring together what is being ripped apart, reforming legal systems so they are equitable and just so as to benefit the poorest and most marginalized of the earth. Deep reformation is needed in our legal system from the highest presidency to county courthouses to reverse the trend towards increasing mass incarceration. A national moratorium on executions and the death penalty is urgent now, especially for those scheduled to die before January 20. Get involved here.

“Remove the evil of your deeds from my sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (Is 1:16-17).  

As we begin 2021 may we commit to bring together truth and justice like never before, including confession and repentance– the essential ingredients to God’s life-transforming and saving pardon. Only then will we witness true and credible personal and social change.

Sign up for one of our upcoming People’s Seminary trainings at www.peoplesseminary.org