Rob, Meet Isaiah

Rob, meet Isaiah

I woke up Monday morning to hear about the Fords’ proposed cuts to the Toronto city budget. The bullet points in the newspaper listed what’s on the chopping block:
● new affordable housing
● child care
● long term care
● libraries
● public transportation
● social services
● garbage removal
● police services
● street maintenance
● zoos and farms
● theatres, museums, and other attractions

My first thoughts were not about the “no service cuts” promises in the last municipal election, or how these things are hardly gravy. My first thoughts were about how similar this list is to one of my favorite Scriptures about the city. It’s found in Isaiah 65:17-25. It’s a passage about what the archetypal city (Jerusalem) will look like when heaven comes to earth. It is a picture of God’s dream for the city.

Here it is:
17 “See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.
20 “Never again will there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach a hundred
will be considered accursed.
21 They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the work of their hands.
23 They will not labor in vain,
nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the LORD,
they and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”
says the LORD.

If I were to make bullet points for God’s dream city, based on this Scripture, they would look something like this:

● a people that God delights in. Jeremiah 9:24 says that God delights in people that practice kindness, justice and righteousness. (Is. 65:17-19)
● good health for the very young and very old. This includes good health care, a healthy environment, and, since poverty and illness go hand-in-hand, a good standard of living. (Is. 65:20)
● good housing and home ownership. (Is. 65:21-23a)
● good jobs with livable wages, a connection between work and life and people owning the means of production. (Is. 65:21-23a)
● hope for the future - specifically, hope for our children’s future. This would translate into investment in education and not leaving an inheritance of debt. (Is. 65:23)
● an intimate relationship with God, which no government can legislate, but they can legislate the freedom to have such a relationship. (Is. 65:24)
● true peace and a sense of safety, a reduction in crime and conflict, and unity among all people. (Is. 65:25)

I know the bullet points don’t match up exactly, but they are so close that I couldn’t help but think that the Fords are in danger of de-funding God’s dream for Toronto.
God’s vision for the city is heaven on earth; the Fords’ vision is lower taxes. The two visions seem to be inversely proportional.