Where might we see the “new” in God?

Where might we see the newness of God?
On Sunday, March 17th, I talked about the way that God works newness into the lives of believers. Isaiah 43:16-21 was the text. A careful reading of Isaiah’s prophecy prompted me to think further about where God might be doing some new things.
I just cannot get over the idea that God asked God’s people to forget about the former things. How could God ask God’s people to simply forget about what happened in the past? How could God ask God’s people to forget about the parted waters, the crossing on dry land, or the destruction of the Egyptian army? Instead, God instructs the people to look to the wilderness and the desert as locations for God’s new work.
The power of the new thing that God would do is located in the shock of Isaiah 43:25 where God says that Israel’s sins will simply be blotted out for God’s own sake. Given this kind of new thing, where might we look to see God doing new things?
My first suggestion is a good piece of negative definition. If we are to forget what lies behind, we have to quit looking in all the old places. New wineskins, not old ones, are necessary. God, whose mercies are new every morning, prefers to be found in the newness of the moment. God prefers empty tombs to venerated ones. Looking for the “new” in God requires a decision to turn away from that which is decidedly old. Of course, that means different things to different people.
My second suggestion, as this is in the middle of Lent, is to look to the places where we’d least expect to find God. I was reminded this week that the Jesuit order has been termed “God’s Marines” because of the military background of St. Ignatius of Loyola who pursued ministry after a battle wound ended his military career. Part of the genius of the Jesuits is that they are bound and determined to take Jesus to the most difficult places. This is the reason why Jesuits are found in schools, communities, and areas of poverty. The Jesuits are the foot soldiers who can take Jesus where no one else would dare to go. The irony, of course, is that God is always there before us.
God’s work is done best when it is done at the margins of society. When God uses Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Peter, and Paul, God is just showing off his penchant for the unexpected. It is at the margins of society where redemption is so sorely needed and appreciated. It is the friendless who understand and value the nature of a true friend. As individuals and as a church (local and catholic) we should be about the business of exploring what it means to go looking for God in unexpected places. We will always find God there ahead of us. Specifically and intentionally targeting areas of our world that most people look at as marginal is at least a step in the right direction.
My old professor at Princeton, Dr. Ulrich Mauser, was giving a lecture on the epiphany narratives at the end of the gospels. The narratives show the resurrected Jesus interacting with disciples, travelers, and doubters. Dr. Mauser was educated in Germany and was a dedicated church man. Teaching New Testament at Princeton, he was well aware of the ways in which New Testament scholars can historicize a piece of the biblical witness until it is nearly unrecognizeable from its canonical context. During one such lecture, Dr. Mauser let his heart show. He was talking about the empty tomb and he began to weep. He said, “No matter what else the narrative shows, fundamentally, the reality of the story is that Jesus cannot be found among the dead. He is not dead. He lives. Looking for him in the dead places of the world will only produce futility.”
The thing about Jesus and the thing about Isaiah’s prophecy connects is the fact that God is always about the business of bringing life out of death. Go to the dead places, not because you know CPR but because you know that when you get there, God is about to do a miracle!
I wonder what your favorite “dead” places are and where God might be leading you to discover new life?