Sermon "Are You Ready for Y2K"
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, November 15, 1998
Are You Ready for Y2K?
The book of Isaiah is in many ways a miniature Bible. It divides like the Bible. The Bible has 66 books, and Isaiah has 66 chapters. The Old Testament has 39 books, and the first division of Isaiah has 39 chapters. The New Testament has 27 books, and the second half of Isaiah has 27 chapters. The theme of the last of Isaiah is the theme of the last of the Bible: the end, and yet a new beginning. A new hope. We have described here the beautiful conditions of the millennium, beginning with the promise ultimately of a new heaven and a new Earth.
Isaiah 65:17-25
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their children with them. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord."
In the silence of the stars, in the quiet of the hills and in the heaving of the sea, you speak O Lord. In the words of the prophets and the message of the apostles, you speak O Lord. Now we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth..."
I saw a cartoon the other day which a had a woman standing with a notepad in her hand talking to her husband who is working very intently on the computer. It's obvious that the computer has his undivided attention. The wife says: "I'm preparing for the year 2000 computer crisis. I'm making a list of all the things we can talk about after your computer dies."
Computers have become as much a part of modern life as the telephone, television and automobile. We've become so dependent upon computers that it would take a lot of adjustment for us to get along without them again. That's why the year 2000 problem that has been talked about in the computer industry and the newspapers is so frightening.
Y2K or the year 2000 or the millennium bug as some are calling it, seems to be a major threat to industry. If you don't know what it is, let me briefly explain. Back when computers were first created and the code was hardwired into mainframe circuitry, to save space and money, programmers only left two spaces for the year in the way computers read dates. Consequently, when a computer reads 1998 it really only reads 98. When the year 2000 rolls around, some computers will actually shut down. Others will spit out bad data or start sending erroneous bills, all kinds of things.
The fear mongers have painted scenarios of the electricity and phone services going off and staying off. They say everything from the irs to social security will quit working because of this problem.
Some glitches have already been related to the Y2K problem. One system that schedules appointments for three hospitals and 75 clinics in Pennsylvania shut down in April because someone attempted to type in an appointment for the year 2000. In 1996, the Visa credit card organization had to recall 12 million credit cards with expiration dates in 2000 because credit card authorization systems were refusing the cards. Experts say that anything which has computer circuitry could be effected.
Some even claim that the computer is the antichrist and that the year 2000 is the beginning of Armageddon or the end times and judgment day is just around the corner. You may have seen it, several months ago someone even had a numerology list that proved that the names Microsoft and Bill Gates came up to the dreaded 666, the mark of the beast. The end of time fear is even being capitalized in movies like "Armageddon" and "Independence Day" and "Deep Impact" to name a few.
We know that the Bible does not shrink from describing the magnitude of the end of the age but it also declares that the end is not the end. As Paul Harvey would say, "and now for the rest of the story ... " Isaiah declares: "I am about to create a new heaven and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind." John in Revelation foresaw it: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the former things had passed away." For God the end is just the beginning. And God can be the beginning of personal broken ends today.
No matter what happens we know that God will have the last word.
Computers can crash, the earth be polluted, and asteroids rain down and we know that ultimately God's future is not diminished. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to clean up the environment, track asteroids and reprogram our computers. But it does mean that we don't have to live in fear.
In God's hands the end can be the beginning. God can take the old and make it new. God can take the tattered shambles of our old life and make them so new that the old will not be recalled.
So as you face the year 2000 and all the other impending upsets of life, remember one thing. God can replace the old devastated parts of our world and our lives and make them new.
Are you ready for Y2K? Are you ready for the all God can be in
our lives and this world?
