Five hundred years on, how many of these ‘new things’ has humanity made their own? Current global events incessantly challenge and test our capacity think for ourselves and make wise choices, to move from exclusivism, divisiveness and the power of the small clique to service to the whole. They challenge our capacity to understand the true meaning of sacrifice, and what it takes to move from self-centredness to right relationship – with God, each other and the planet - based on agape or right heart. It is exciting that the New Zealand media has recently picked up this challenge and has, in its documentary programmes, begun consistently to include profiles of New Zealanders engaged in heart-based service work around the globe.

At one level we could say that God’s ‘new thing’ being called forth at this time is not new at all. It has been around for at least 2,500 years. However, if we ponder we realise that the current emphasis is quite different. This time, especially in the case of western society, the call is not, as it was 2,500 years ago, about learning to stand free of family and tribal pressure as an accountable individual. That is something we are supposed to have learned over two and a half millennia. Now we are being called to learn, at every level, what it means to be a responsible mature individual within the whole, to learn how to give of ourselves and our resources in true agape love to the whole, and to learn that our attitudes, thoughts and actions reverberate within the whole, for good or ill.

Isaiah had been very clear that God’s ‘new thing’ had two major elements – it would provide a road through the wilderness, to make the way easier for journeyers and prevent them getting lost. And it would create major sources of new life in what had become a spiritual desert.

The clues and signposts to the ‘way’ are there. We do know what gives life and what saps that life. Life comes from personal relationship with God, along with a turning out toward the world in genuine heart-based relationship and goodwill in action. Without heart and the dual focus away from self (toward God and the world) life cannot exist. At the cusp between Aries and Pisces Jesus’ teachings would be very clear about that.

As both the twenty-first century and the Age of Aquarius gains momentum humanity is being fronted up very solidly with the challenge of both individually and collectively giving birth to God’s radical new initiative for this time. Are we up to the challenge?