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Sermon for Advent 2A

December 9, 2001

Our First Lesson this morning contains some of the most familiar, most well-known words in the whole of the book of the prophet Isaiah:

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. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. 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.

These words are part of Isaiah's vision of the “peaceable kingdom,” the realm of right relationships that will come about as the ultimate triumph of God's will in the world. Isaiah's vision of peace encompasses the whole creation—ancient patterns of enmity are overturned and remade—predator and prey dwell together in harmony—ways of violence and destruction that have defined the very existence of the wolf, the bear, the calf, the lion, the lamb, ways of violence and destruction are transformed into ways of living together in a new ecology of compassion. Isaiah's vision of cosmic renewal even includes the human world: little children and poisonous snakes will play together, the vision says, and neither the children nor the snakes will be harmed in the encounter. “They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” Isaiah hears God promise, but peace will reign as all in all.

It is a beautiful vision, a compelling vision—and for us here today, on the Ninth of December 2001, it is a vision that speaks to us with a poignancy and a power that touches the deepest longings of our hearts. We resonate with Isaiah’s vision of a peaceable kingdom, because we know only too well the vision of a world torn by strife, a world wearied by war, a world defined by predator and prey, oppressor and oppressed, a world where relationships break down even when we want most to build them up. We experience un-peace, we encounter dis-shalom, in so many ways in our day-to-day lives: news of war abroad and threats of terrorism at home; economic hard times and poverty and lack of affordable housing in our communities and among our friends; workers going on shooting sprees in their workplaces and high-schoolers planning attacks in their schools; relationships and friendships strained and torn by hurtful words or careless neglect; injury and illness that hurt and destroy on the most basic physical level. We experience the opposite of shalom, the unraveling of well-being, the reversal of peace, every day, and that gives Isaiah’s vision of a peaceable kingdom a special hold on us, it awakens in us the desire for wholeness, the yearning for well-being, that is God’s deepest yearning for us.

We long for the peace that Isaiah proclaims—but to get there, we need to go the way that John the Baptist preaches. Our Gospel lesson today tells the story of how John appeared suddenly in the wilderness, wild and woolly and uncompromising, preparing the way of the Lord by proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near; bear fruit worthy of repentance; even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” John calls us to repentance, metanoia in the original Greek, and that means not just feeling sorry for bad things we’ve done, but it means changing our way of thinking, changing our way of being mindful, changing the ways we decide how to act, and changing therefore the ways our actions bear their fruit.

And that kind of change isn’t always easy. The ways of brokenness, the ways of un-peace, the ways of self-centeredness and self-defensiveness that we live with every day, can be very hard habits to break. It hasn’t been easy for us as a nation to respond to terrorism with a call to justice rather than a thirst for revenge. It’s not easy for us as a community to respond to poverty with a commitment to change our own consumer lifestyle instead of a flat demand that the poor work harder and do more for themselves. It’s not easy for us as individuals to respond to personal criticism with humility and a willingness to admit our faults and a sincere desire to grow, rather than anger and defensiveness and a quick turn to the counter-attack. It’s no easier for us to change our ways of responding than it is for the wolf to live with the lamb, for the lion to learn how to eat straw, for the kid to lie down with the leopard and not be afraid. The way to the peaceable kingdom requires of us some deep repentance, some deep metanoia, some deep change indeed.

And the good news is that we don’t have to make those changes all on our own power. Isaiah proclaims that the peaceable kingdom begins with the one who brings the Spirit of the Lord: the shoot from the stump of Jesse, the branch from David’s family tree, who will come with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and devotion to the Lord. And John the Baptist promises, “one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Because we have been baptized into the Spirit of Jesus, we share in his wisdom and understanding, his counsel and might, his knowledge and devotion—and it is that sharing in Jesus that opens us up to change and metanoia and the way to the kingdom of peace.

And that is what we have come here for this morning. We lift up our sharing in the Spirit of Jesus as we gather together in song and praise, as we hear the good news in the reading of the Word, as we give of ourselves in prayer and offering, as we confess our sins and receive absolution and forgiveness, as we remember Jesus and are made members of Jesus in the eucharistic offering of bread and wine, as we are sent out into the world to serve Jesus with gladness and singleness of heart. Above all else, we share in the Spirit of Jesus as we build faithful relationships with each other as members of the Christian community. When we can reach out to each other with compassion in need and celebration in joy; when we can care enough to confront each other by speaking the truth in love, and ask each other for forgiveness when forgiveness is needed; when we can name the needs we have and trust in the generosity we show to one another; when we can bear each other’s burdens, and put up with each other’s shortcomings, and rejoice in each other’s abilities; when we can take the risk of letting go of fear and pride and greed and learn to treat each other as beloved in the Lord—then we are bearing fruit worthy of repentance, then we are letting the Spirit transform us, then we are living the promise of the peaceable kingdom of God. And when we take those redeemed relationships out into the world, then we ourselves become part of God’s work to make the world full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

In this Advent season we rejoice in looking forward to the coming of the fulfillment of God’s promises in Christ. Let us rejoice today in the promise of the peaceable kingdom, and let us live that promise abounding in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the Name of God: Yahweh, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. Amen.