Isaiah 64:1-9 “New Year’s Promises”

I am always intrigued at this time of year between Christmas and New Years how it seems that the media starts looking backward. Social media sites offer “Your year in review” reels. News outlets tell of all the famous people who have died this last year. News reels of all the important events in politics over the last twelve months are being shared–that can be a little distressing actually. I was thinking I could do the same thing here in church and just recap every sermon I have given in the last twelve months! Wouldn’t that be fun? Okay, I will not do that.

Because it is the last Sunday of the year, and it is always nice to reflect back on everything we have heard from the Word of God in the previous year, I would like to go backwards through this text and begin with the last word in the Hebrew in verse 9 of chapter 64 of Isaiah. In the Tuesday afternoon Bible study at the Regency Puakea I was surprised when folks asked me about what this one word should mean for us.

What is that word? “All.” The way Hebrew grammar arranges sentences the word is actually the last word of all in this thought, that gives it a certain amount of weight. “Kalnu” in the Hebrew means “every single one of us”! So we should read that last line as “We are all God’s people–every single last one of us.”

“Are you sure, pastor? I know some people who might not belong to God,” one participant in the group contended. Well, I am sure that the Bible says right here that every single one of us belongs to God. “Okay, I guess I will take your word for it,” came the response.

In verse 5 in our pew Bibles you will see that there is a footnote at the bottom of the page marked italic “d.” It says “Meaning of Hebrew.” If you have a different version of the Bible in front of you, generally older versions, it reads “How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?” Of course, Hebrew had no question marks in the day, so it is to be read as a statement instead of a question. Actually, the King James Version of the Bible omits the question mark and makes it a statement–”We shall be saved.” The statement fascinates me because the word “to save” is definitely in the Hebrew but is missing in our bibles here.

The other thing that really fascinates me from the Hebrew text here is that the word “to save” as in “God saves us” is the name “Jesus.” “Yeshuah” in Hebrew. Yes, actually the name of Jesus is right there in the middle of this text in the Hebrew! And, it is not a question. Jesus saves us all! Yes, Isaiah is writing this 700 years before Jesus, and drops Jesus’ very name into it! I think that is significant. Jesus saves us all! That is a promise from the prophet.

Again, I have no understanding why the editors of the NRSV, which is our pew bible, left out all the good stuff and left a weak little footnote at the bottom of the page.

My question is whether we accept God’s promise in 2026 that Jesus saves us all? When we make our New Year’s resolution for 2026, do we say “in 2026 I will be one of the saved people of God”? What should that mean? What does that look like? Do we accept in 2026 that ALL people belong to God? All people are saved by God?

To answer this, let us look at the Apostle Paul’s admonitions to his protege Timothy who was serving in the church at Ephesus at the time: 1 Timothy 2:1-7, “First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all to be saved and to come to the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransome for ALL, the testimony to which was borne at the proper time.”

I remember even as a youth pondering whether Hitler or Stalin were taken up to heaven. The answer is of course that I do not know–yet. One day this will all become clear. But for now, I need to be praying that God would have somehow been able to save even the worst most notorious dictators. If I am supposed to lead a good life here now, then the Bible says that I should be praying that these people will be saved to the truth of our Savior! I do not know how God is going to make that salvation happen, but that still needs to be my prayer.

So, here is a promise, a resolution, for 2026: I will pray for those people in power to be saved to Jesus Christ. Now, you know if you are present during our prayer time here on Sunday mornings that we always pray for our political leadership of this country. Some of you have even questioned why we do that. The bible says we need to. In fact, I am going to put it out there for your consideration that the worse that our national leadership is, the more we should pray!

I will share with you that last year when we hosted the Kauai Association of churches’ Aha Mokupuni that one of the pastors of a sister church addressed me, saying “Oh, I see that you still have the American Flag up in your sanctuary. It took me years to convince my congregation to get rid of it–that it does not belong in worship.” I responded, “WELL, actually when I came to this church there was no American flag, so we put this one up when I came to pastor here.” I thought the other pastor’s head was about to explode. They just looked at me strangely. “We pray for our country and its leadership in the hope that all might be saved to Christ.”

I hereby resolve for 2026 that I will work that ALL might be saved just as Isaiah prophesied, Christ asked, and the Apostles affirmed.

I am still working my way backwards through this text and am on verse 5, the first line of that verse. “You meet those who gladly do right.” Vs. 5 Will you do right in 2026? The promise here is that if we do the right thing in our lives, then God will meet us! Not just that, but that we are supposed to do the right thing “gladly.” We do not just grumble a lot. We are supposed to do the right thing gladly.

I really have to unpack that for myself because I am always wondering “What is the right thing to do?” I will address the “glad” part later. You see, just knowing what the right thing to do is can be daunting. On Christmas Day I was down on the beach with my daughter and son-in-law at Salt Pond. We saw four monk seals on the beach, warming themselves in the winter sun. It was a beautiful sight. One of the monk seals was obviously just born.

Also on the beach was a group of seven Japanese tourists who obviously had never seen monk seals before. They disregarded the signs that the lifeguards had posted. They completely ignored the bull-horned warnings from the tower. One of the men got between the youngest seal and the ocean, in other words if the seal bolted back to the water he would be crunched.

I even turned to my daughter and son-in-law and asked the question “What should we do?” Well, I have to go stop them before the worst happens. I quickly walked over and intervened. I yelled out, “Hey, get back.” I waved with my arms that they should go back. They kept on walking closer with their phone cameras clicking away. Finally one lady in the group acknowledged my warnings and spoke Japanese with the others so that they stopped getting closer to the seals. They were only about four feet away at that point. Again, within striking distance if the seal bolted. I pointed out the signs that the lifeguards had posted around the seals. By that time, one of the lifeguards had come driving up on a four-wheeler too. She actually thanked me.

The one Japanese lady then asked questions about the seals in broken English and translated back to the others about the monk seals. So, finally it became a “glad” moment, but initially there was no gladness in it. In fact I was annoyed that these people seemed so ignorant and obtuse.

How to do the right thing–gladly? Because that is where God is going to meet me! In 2026 I am going try my darndest to do what is right while keeping that smile on my face. Amazingly, that is how I see Jesus in His ministry. Even when he was turning the tables at the temple I imagine him doing it gladly. Of course, not the scourging and the cross, but every other thing that Jesus ever did while here on earth was done in gladness and meeting God.

Up to verses one and two now as we go backwards: In the first pages of the Bible we read that God made heaven and earth, creatures, and humankind; and that when God was complete God thought that it was “good.” God is still “making God’s ‘awesome’ creation” in 2026!

We need to be careful how we read these verses: Some might see the reference to fire and think that God is going to come to burn everything down in 2026. Let us read this again rightly. The fire is kindled to do what? To set water boiling! Why? To cook something. Why else would you set water to a boil?

God is not done creating in 2026. God is still working on us and the entire world. In verse 8 we read the reference to God being the Potter and we are the clay. God is still creating us, still speaking to us, still keeping God’s hand on our lives! We need to allow God to do that work of creation within us.

Verse three tells us that God is doing “awesome” things. Let God do that awesomeness in your life. . . in 2026

In 2026 know that all will be saved. You are a part of their salvation. In 2026 do right gladly. In 2026 be one part of God’s renewing creation! Let us resolve this day to do these thing in the coming year.

Amen.