Because of many events, we've become a nation on edge, "America the Anxious."  (So says Time magazine.)  We're forced to live in a constant state of mild hysteria.  And it's not just about duct tape!  Our buzzers, beepers and flashers remind us of things we "must" do.  Dash lights blink, microwave ovens beep, clothes dryers buzz, warning tags warn, cajole, and "guilt" us into doing all things right.  Manuals insist they must be read before plugging in our techno-toys.  Labels almost threaten us if we cut them off.  And what do they say?  A cup of coffee says, "Caution - contents hot!"  A can of peanuts: "Warning: this product contains nuts."  A sleeping aid: "Caution, may cause drowsiness."  "Do not remove this label!"  Are we people so dumb as to need these?

          Regulations force us to learn more and more about less and less until one day we'll know everything about nothing.  My microwave beeps, and beeps, and beeps, to remind me my coffee's hot.  I think next time I'll throw a hammer at it!  Detroit used to warn us with a little voice, "The door is ajar."  Who cares if the door's open?  Don't they think we can't figure that out by ourselves?  And the ultimate warning:  "Caution - air bags can cause serious injury or death."  Oh great - if the accident doesn't kill you, the air bag will!  One more thing to worry about!

          It reminds me of the mother who worried all the time.  When her children were small, she worried about their health or grades or friends.  When they grew up she worried about their marriages or grandchildren or accidents on the road.  One day her daughter said, "Mom, why do you worry?  99% of the stuff you worry about never happens!"  "And that's exactly why I'm not going to quit!" she said.  There may not be much humor in that story, but there's a lot of truth.  If Moms can't do anything else, if they can't hold danger away, at least they can try to worry it away.

          It's bad enough that we're close to war, but now we have another item to provoke hysteria - a water shortage.  A natural recurring seasonal drought has people and cities in a panic.  Newspapers warn us to take drastic steps or we will pay for it!  (Haven't we been doing that already?)  Journalists tell us our trees will die, animals will starve, and that the earth's water supply is running out.  Didn't any of them take High School science which taught us the earth recycles its water?  We need the truth, not more unnecessary worry.  I think we're not so dumb as they think we are.

          In today's text, Isaiah wrote, "Forget the former things;  do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up;  do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."  The Israelites knew a thing or two about drought.  They had settled in a desert.  They longed for the rain and rejoiced when it snowed.  They prayed for any kind of water.  The greatest blessings imaginable were streams in the wilderness, life-giving, sweet water that turned the wasteland into a paradise.  Streams in the wasteland, like heaven on earth, were something only God could bring them.

          Phoenix is in the middle of what some might call a wasteland.  You won't grow any corn or oats in the desert.  When Carol's Dad first saw the desert, he remarked, "All that land and there's nothing on it!"  Well, cactus, rocks, mesquite grow on it, but not corn or beans.  Yet in the middle of the city they can really grow some green lawns!  Coming from the brown hills of Colorado, Phoenix looked so lovely.  All it took was water.  Of course, I wondered if those green lawns came from Colorado water.  All it takes is water, streams in the desert, and the desert will bloom and grow.

          In some ways this conference was a wilderness in that it didn't provide a single good story to share this morning.  That's why pastors go to these Conferences, you know, to get new stories.  And their wives want them to go!  They're so tired of hearing the old ones.  There was one memorable comment, though.  A speaker for Messianic Christian Jews came forward and talked about how little respect Jews get, even from Christians.  He amazed us a bit when he told of seeing a sign in a window that said, "I'd rather serve 3000 terrorists than one Jew."  We all sat there in shock until he said the sign was in the window of Goldstein's Mortuary!  He had a point, though.  There's a lot of prejudice out there among Christians towards each other.

          The theme of this Conference was "Draw Near to Me."  It was about divisions in the church, how the church is so divided, and how Sunday morning is the most segregated time in our Nation.  We heard speaker after speaker plead with us to find ways to come together, to reconcile our differences, not just between blacks and whites, but between Asians and Hispanics and Jews and Native Americans.  Most of us publicly agreed, but silently we believed it wouldn't happen.

          The Gospel of Jesus Christ really is scandalized by all the divisions in the Church.  Over 625 Christian churches in the USA all claim the their truth from the same Bible.  How can that be?  Worldwide, there's a hundred or two more groups.  Christians seem to glory in being separate.  That's why Islam is growing so fast - it's simple and it's unified.  The Church splits hairs and makes things so complex.  Why can't we all come just come together into one Church?

          The answer to that, of course, is sin.  People aren't perfect, and mistakes are made interpreting the Scripture.  Pride gets in the way when one church body believes it has all the Truth, or the right way to worship, or the right kind of people.  Another thing that divides us is fear, fear of people different from us.  Fear makes us circle the wagons around our doctrines, around our little churches.  It makes us think we're special, that no other group is going to get to heaven.  The church is divided because sin separates us.  True, we can't ignore our differences, and we must follow the Bible as we understand it.  But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to get along.  Sometimes I think we fear ecumenism because we might find we don't have all the truth!

          It would be like streams in the wasteland if we should come together with other Christians.  Strange, isn't it?  We always say there are Christians in other churches.  (I mean, surely there must be a few out there!)  We're just not sure we want them in our church pews.  And we sure don't want our pastors trading pulpits with theirs, or holding joint worship services.  Indeed, talk about joint worship is cause for more warning labels.  "Caution: Singing with other Christians might make worship exciting!"  "Warning: Praying with non-Lutherans might make you love them!"

          But I think we're not so dumb as they think we are.  I'm not advocating we abandon our doctrine, tear down every fence, or blur every difference.  Yet some think that might happen, so they don't even try.  They stay separate as a self-defense.  It's too bad, because I don't think God wants us to separate as we are.

          This Conference did advocate something we might want to consider - partnering with an inner city church, maybe one not even Lutheran, one not even white, maybe one where they get excited during worship - maybe raise their hands or say, "Amen."  Think we could do that?  Well, maybe not tomorrow, but it's something to think about, isn't it, Epiphany having a small sister church way up in that big liberal city of Denver?

          They also encouraged us to partner with Christians overseas.  But can we afford to do that, we think?  Wouldn't someone have to go over there, to meet those people?  ("those" people?!)  Yes, but I'll bet we'd have some volunteers.  And the funds would come in.  It takes effort and resources to bring streams in the wastelands.

          Remember how today's text from Isaiah starts out?  "Forget the former things;  do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Does God really mean that?  "Forget the former things?"  What about our traditions?  Won't that hurt our doctrine?  What will others think of us?  Doesn't this text mean God will bring all those streams?  Shouldn't we stick to our own streams?

          God rarely does things without bringing people into the picture.  Streams in the wasteland will happen when people do the digging.  It would mean stepping out in a new direction with a new people.  It would mean stepping on the thorny branches of old tradition, or risk of getting hurt by stepping on some new stickers.  But then how else can we help bring streams into the wasteland?

          If you think about the life of Jesus, He went into the wasteland of humanity.  He spent much time with tax collectors and sinners, people others thought undesirable.  The Bible says, "He died for ALL," (2 Cor. 5:15) not just Lutherans.  It also says, "He came unto His own and His own did not receive Him." (John 1:11)   I'm not sure that means only the Jews.  Sometimes Jesus comes to His own on Sunday morning and they don't receive Him.  Or He comes to them as a Baptist, a Catholic, a Pentecostal, and the Methodist or Presbyterian or Lutheran do not receive Him.  Or He comes to them as an exuberant youth, and everyone told him to leave his loud music outside the door.

          In His mercy, God makes streams in the wastelands.  Question is, are we the wasteland He is getting ready to plow?  Are we the ones He wants to change for the better?  It seems strange to speak of this in so new a congregation.  This is a topic for a bunch of old fogies, not us.  But we're not so dumb as we think we are.  We all need fresh streams to renew us, make us grow, make us alive!  I know I do.  Maybe this Conference was better than I thought it was.  Maybe it will become a spring of living water, bringing new life into a desert or two.  Praise God if it does!  Amen.

Copyright © 2003 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.