Rivers of Renewal: Our Collective Hope and Vision | Jeremiah Lepasana | Implication #5: Beauty for Ashes, Isaiah 61:1-4

This past Sunday, we finished our Rivers of Renewal series, by talking about Cultural Beauty. We began by reviewing a key idea that unlike a modern culture that merely loves as a response to what it finds lovely...God's presence makes lovely! This contrast is important because a dysfunctional culture--that merely responds to what it finds lovely--creates a world of pretenders and strivers, who spend endless energy looking to manufacture loveliness. In Isaiah 61.3, we see that instead of seeking to manufacture loveliness through things like work, we are invited to trade for beauty. We do this by excavating the ashes of our souls--the places of loss, plain, and alone-ness--and offering them to the Lord for a promised "crown of beauty" that allows us to be mirrors for his splendor.We believe this to be possible because when Jesus arrives, one of his first public acts is to quote this passage from Isaiah (Luke 4) and to say he is the fulfillment of this promise. Because of the Cross, we can know that there is no pain we experience where we have been left alone. And because of the Resurrection, we can know that there is no pain that will ultimately not be redeemed.