Isaiah 2:1-5 and 11:1-9
1 December 2013
Elizabeth M. Deibert
It is easy this time of year to find
decorations, wall hangings, ornaments, and cards, all announcing peace. But do we really stop to think what an
audacious thing it is to announce peace when anyone can look around and see,
there is no peace. There is no peace
when children are still suffering hunger and want. There is no peace when countries are still
torn apart by warfare and greed. There
is no peace when families and friends are grieving losses, or struggling with
the effects of addiction or estrangement.
There is no complete peace, but in
Advent we dare to dream of peace and to announce peace. We give ourselves permission to imagine a
world at peace, a community at peace, a home at peace. And this year, a worshiping and serving
community, dares to plant a church named Peace on a piece of land, in a great
act of trust, believing that Christ will bring peace, asserting that is worth
our money, time, and energy to prepare for that peace by building a place where
we and others might be blessed by inspiring worship, authentic relationships,
nurturing discipleship, compassionate outreach, and responsive stewardship.. On this peaceful site, where the ibis and
the raccoon and the deer dwell together, we have been working hard to renovate
while we think of all the new people who will surely come to be at peace with
us, to make God known by growing as disciples of Jesus Christ, building a
community of peace, and caring for the needs of others.
Advent is a time for waiting, for
longing, and for trusting in the sure promise of peace, even when we cannot see
it clearly, for working for it, even when building bridges and breaking down
walls is difficult. Paul tells us
Christ is our peace. He has broken down
all the barriers that divide us. Before
Paul, Isaiah imagined the world into which God’s peace would come and transform
enemies into allies, foes into friends, and strangers into supportive
companions.
Hear with me this vision of the
prophet, who wrote at a time of great political turmoil in the southern kingdom
of Judah, around the turn of the 7th century before Christ. In the first thirty-nine chapters of Isaiah,
there are four key themes: God’s holy
and sovereign power, Jerusalem as the chosen city, David’s household as the
elect dynasty, and the preservation of a faithful remnant. We are reading two Advent lessons which
promise peace. The first reading is
best known by the last verse: They shall beat their swords into plowshores
and the spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war anymore. The second reading is
best known by its image of the all the animals living in peace together – often
summarized by the one image of the lion lying down with the lamb. The promise of peace from the prophet Isaiah:
The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and
Jerusalem.2 In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established
as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised
above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 3 Many peoples shall
come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of
the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out
of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall
judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many
peoples they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift
up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
any more…
11 A shoot shall come out from the stump of
Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 The
spirit of the Lord shall rest on
him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3 His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears
hear; 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and
decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with
the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and
faithfulness the belt around his loins. 6 The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall
lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a
little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the
ox. 8 The nursing child
shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its
hand on the adder’s den. 9 They will not hurt or destroy on all
my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (New Revised Standard Version)
The
political situation of Jerusalem is dominated by a “stump.” The longing, the
imagination of Israel is powered by “the
spirit.” The crisis of Israel’s present
and Israel’s future is the deep conflict and contest between the stump and the
spirit. The “stump” is the “stump of Jesse” (Isa.11:1). Allusion to Jesse,
father of David, refers us to the dynastic line of David’s family, believed to
be the carrier of God’s goodness and God’s faithfulness in the world. That
dynasty, however, had come on very hard times. The “stump” symbolizes a
situation of despair and resignation. (Walter
Brueggemann, Texts for Preaching:
Lectionary Commentary on Year A, p. 11)
What is the stump in our time? Have we lost hope in the American
dream? Perhaps that dream has been too
rooted in American notions of success than American notions of service for the
sake of others. And what about you in your own personal struggles? Have you lost hope in the promise of peace? What is God trying to show you, to teach you
in your present turmoil? What we see
in Isaiah is the promise of God’s
life-giving Spirit when despair was rampant.
This Spirit, this “wind of God” is powerful,
irresistible, and beyond human control. The prophet announces that the wind has
come to blow over the stump. We tend to
see only what is there – the stump, not what can be, the shoot bringing promise
by the power of the Spirit. Notice,
church family, the power of the Spirit at work in the life of this church,
bringing us to this exciting day full of promise. There’s a lot more to do, but there’s sure
promise for Peace. Whether you
recovering from something, grieving, or experiencing challenges of any kind, you
can see the glass half empty or half full.
You can see a stretched budget and so
many needs, or you can do as so many have done and give time, money, energy to
fulfill needs. Same with all the
troubled regions of the world where warfare seems unending, where human
trafficking is ruining the lives of children and teens, where greed rules and
the weak suffer indignities unimaginable.
We can despair and see only the stump or we can pray with hope for
peace, sending gifts to those suffering after the typhoon, or taking angels
from the tree to buy for impoverished farmworker families in our neighboring
county.
It is easy to fall into despair, but we
are the people of Peace, who are charged to remember the promises of God. And
we, because we have come so far in our short history as a new church, we of all
people should be able to trust in God’s promises.
The spirit will prevail over the stump!
The wind will win, for the stump is not mentioned again in the passage. What is promised is a new peaceful creation,
in which the brutality is tamed and the deathliness is overcome. The oldest of enemies—wolf-lamb, leopard-kid,
calf-lion, cow-bear, lion-ox—are made friends. We thought it wasn’t
possible, but the spirit of God has transformed death to life. Sound familiar – death to life. In the
midst of this peaceful transformation, three times a child is mentioned: “a
little child” (v. 6), “the nursing child,” “the weaned child” (v. 8). The
little child may be the new shoot of Jesse who will preside over new creation.
More broadly, “the little child” bespeaks the birth of a new innocence in which
trust, gentleness, and friendship are possible and appropriate. (Brueggemann, as above)
The world will be ordered, so that the
fragile and vulnerable can have their say and live their lives. The new possibilities depend on the spirit –
the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of knowledge and deep
respect for God. That wind of the
Spirit is blowing, blowing hard this week at Peace. The little child who comes
to us at Christmas, the one for whom we now wait, is the one who is God’s
promised peace, a peace fully present, even though the peace he brings is not
fully realized. He was the embodiment of this Spirit described
here.
In Advent’s new beginnings we can sink
down into the stump as victims of all the hard knocks of live or we choose to
trust the new winds of Christ’s spirit and shoot up with confidence against the
hopelessness of the this stumpy world.
Believe in the promise of peace that Jesus Christ brings this world. Believe it and live it, people of Peace. Believe it, live it, and rejoice in it. Immanuel is coming to you. He is the promise of peace.
