The Wolf Will Lie Down With The Lamb

Sermon Text for Dec. 17: Isaiah 11:1-10

In Tel Aviv a suicide bomber blows himself up in a crowded cafe killing dozens of his enemies. "The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid."

In Afghanistan a dozen children die when a wall falls on them as U.S. troops launch an attack against the enemy. The children are the unintended victims. "The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together."

In Baghdad, insurgents – possibly Al Qaeda loyalists – attack American troops with rocket propelled grenades. Two U.S. Army Rangers are killed; others are wounded. "The lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall put it's hand on the adder's den."

In North Dakota, a young woman is abducted from a shopping center. Her DNA is found on a suspect’s knife. Friends, police, and even the National Guard, spend weeks searching the frozen ground for any signs of her remains. "They shall 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."

God's vision for humanity is very different from the reality that we live, and sometimes our reality can be very discouraging. God may seem distant and uninvolved in human affairs. Sometimes it feels as if God created us and just set us free to wreak whatever havoc we want on one another and the environment. And yet believers have always held out the hope for a time when the peace of God will reign on the earth.

Years ago my wife and I were a part of Presbyterian Marriage Encounter. Though I am not musically inclined, I have always remembered these words to the theme song: "There's a new world somewhere, they call the Promised Land. And we'll be there someday if you will hold my hand. ..." The song, like the scriptures, looks forward to a better tomorrow, and invites people to enter the Promised Land together.

The song reminds us of many of the promises in scripture around the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah and other prophets look forward to a time when profound peace will come over the world and hatred and destruction will become a thing of the past.

In today's lesson God tells Isaiah about someone who is going to come and bring about this profound peace. The new world according to Isaiah will look very different from the old world and everything we think we know about the natural order is turned upside down. Even natural enemies will discover peace with each other.

Isaiah probably thought he was prophesying about the immediate arrival of a Messiah. He could not have known that twenty-six hundred years later we would still be waiting for the prophesy to be fulfilled.

According to the prophecy, God will revive the house of King David to whom God promised an everlasting kingdom. But by the time Isaiah lived the House of David was already in a shambles. It must have seemed irretrievably damaged. So the prophesy goes all the way back to the foundation of the family – to Jesse – David's father, to find something worth building on. In effect God was beginning again.

“A shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of the knowledge and the fear of the Lord."

The One who ushers in the new world is from the family of David and he is filled with the Spirit of God. In the Spirit he will exhibit wisdom and understanding. It is no surprise that the early Church decided that Isaiah was foretelling the coming of Jesus. Jesus lived the power of the Spirit and his wisdom and understanding often left his opponents and his friends dumbfounded.

Isaiah went even further in describing the One who was to come. Isaiah describes him as one who judges with righteousness and equity. And the result of his ministry of justice on earth is profound peace that the Hebrews called "shalom".

Shalom is more than the absence of conflict. It is a profound harmony – a special coming together of parts of life that seem to be forever at odds with one another. "The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid. ..."

It is a wonderful vision but we need to acknowledge a kind of "disconnect". All of the characteristics of the One who is to come are parts of Jesus' life. In faith we can say that Jesus of Nazareth is the One whom Isaiah foretells. Yet the passage leaves us feeling incomplete. The prophecy has not come true, the job isn't done. So far, chaos has overcome Shalom. In the new world the "wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid ... and they shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." And we are still waiting.

Some commentators dismiss these prophecies as utopian, pie in the sky, impossible dreams. Maybe so. But it is hard to deny that the promise of a new world based on harmony, is gripping. The promises allow us to believe that even when we experience conflict and anxiety, God's plan for us is quite different. We are created for shalom and the promise is that one day the world will experience peace and harmony.

Two things keep the promise from being impossible. First God can do whatever God chooses and second, you and I have something to say about the prophesy coming true. I don't believe that we can do anything to usher the new world in, but we can live our lives without adding to the conflict. We can claim for ourselves what the gospels call the "peace of Christ which passes all understanding." And we can begin living in that peace.

We can also help to bring shalom by telling others that it is possible. According to the prophecy peace comes through knowledge of the Lord, and when we help others know him we become partners with God in bringing the ancient promises to fulfillment.

So it's decision time. Let us decide that so far as it depends upon us the Messiah's shalom will be a part of our lives and help us join hands with one another and walk confidently into the future God has prepared.

Copyright © 2006 by Dwight R. Blackstock

Waiting, Hoping, Expecting

Sermon Text for Dec. 3: Jeremiah 33 and Luke 21

A Palestinian mother was deep in prayer when she was jarred by the staccato sounds of gunfire. Fear gripped her heart as she looked around the room wondering where her two teenage sons were. In a panic, she ran outside the modest home she shared with her family, and looked up and down the street hoping to see her sons. And in an instant she knew. Her children had defied her orders and gone to the freedom rally. The sounds of gunfire and the smell of tear gas filled the air as the defeated mother went back inside to wait for her sons’ return.

She waited with a mixture of hopeful expectation and dread. Too many of her friends had lost their children in the latest outbreak of hostilities. She sat on a mat with her eyes fixed on the door, waiting, watching and hoping. She longed to see her children come home safely.

We know about waiting. We wait in lines. We wait for the lights to change. We wait for children to grow up. We wait for an important anniversary or graduation. We wait in hospital rooms for a doctor to give us needed information.

We know about waiting and that’s why we know about Advent. During the Advent season we wait with our eyes on the door for Christmas to come in. We wait for God to make the world right; we wait for the Christ to be born within us anew.

The scripture lessons we read this morning are all about waiting. In our Old Testament lesson we find an imprisoned Jeremiah. He is being punished for preaching an unpatriotic message. The sounds and smell of war are all around, as a marauding army from the North threatens to breach the wall around the city. Mothers feared for the safety of their children and hoped for the best while preparing for the worst. They waited in the hope that God would not allow the heathens to sack the Holy City. They waited in hope that God would spare the Chosen People.

From his prison cell Jeremiah looked beyond the siege, and he heard God’s promise that one day order will be restored and Jerusalem will be saved. The Savior was to be a descendant of David who will reign with justice and mercy and be the instrument of peace.

Imagine how difficult it must have been for Jeremiah to wait faithfully for the promise to be fulfilled. Already the armies were coming. Those who could flee were evacuating the City. But Jeremiah could not run away. From his cell he could only listen to the fearful voices and wait for the drama to unfold. While others panicked, Jeremiah watched and waited steadfastly for deliverance from God.

Jesus speaks about the importance of waiting expectantly for the Son of God to come again. His prophetic word reminds us of the last days of Jerusalem before the Babylonians defeated Israel. Jesus speaks of distress among the nations, and of people fainting from fear. But unlike the days of Jeremiah, the distress that Jesus described was actually good news, because it signals the day when Jesus will return to the earth and salvation will be near. In those days Jesus cautions us to look up, raise our heads, and watch and wait for the coming of the King.

We know about the mood of Advent because we know about waiting with expectation. Sometimes we wait with joy and other times with sorrow. But always our deepest hope is for the coming of the Lord Jesus into our lives. So our Advent prayer is, “Come O long expected Jesus.” Come!

Copyright © 2006 by Dwight R. Blackstock