Just this week there is a major meeting of the UN to discuss progress in limiting carbon emissions and also to update progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is not much good news to report. Cuts to global emissions are happening too slowly to limit warming to the 1.5 degC target of the 2015 Paris Agreement. Already in July and August of this year this threshold was crossed, with 2023 destined to be the hottest year in recorded history. Fossil fuel usage needs to be phased out urgently but is beholden to powerful market forces.

How are we doing as a global community in providing justice to the poorest as set out in the 2015 SDGs? Again, not well. Of the 170 targets grouped under 17 key areas (e.g. poverty, hunger, access to education, affordable clean energy), only 15% are on track to be met by 2030. Partly this shortfall is caused by the Covid pandemic and more recently the ongoing war in Ukraine. Both of these crises indicate, however, that the wealthy nations of the world can work together and can find the money to fund major challenges if these pose a threat to their own people or way of life. Sadly, the needs of the poorest people don’t generate the same urgency or generosity of response.

The reading in Isaiah 43 was written at a similarly bleak time in history for the people of Israel. They were living in exile in Babylon with no real hope of any change to their situation. Wealthy and powerful nations were firmly in charge and had no mind to help the poor Israelites. Into this gloom the prophet speaks a word of hope, that God is not oblivious to their suffering and will soon do something new and unexpected. God will open a new path for the people to return home to Jerusalem and will make rivers flow in the desert.

Such a bold and subversive pronouncement is part of what OT scholar Walter Brueggemann calls the prophetic imagination – looking at the world in a new way with current constraints removed. How our world needs a similarly bold imagination! There are selfish vested interests, of course, that want the status quo maintained – so that they can continue to hold onto their power and wealth. But the way of God offers a surprising challenge to the status quo. New ways of thinking and new priorities are possible if people have the courage and will to make it happen.