Peace

 Isaiah 11:1-10 Advent 2 – Peace December 4, 2022

 

When we say peace, we can mean a couple of things.

Peace can be an inner feeling, a calm

a sense of well-being and comfort.

You can feel  peace in the middle of chaos,

when things are going terribly.

People have often told me that during times of great

upheaval and illness and uncertainty, that’s when

they have felt a sense of peace and known it was God’s presence.

 

But peace is also the absence of conflict.

Either on a personal level or on a community or national level.

A lack of war.

 

The bible uses peace in both of these ways.

And it’s sometimes difficult to know which one

the passage is talking about.

Many times it seems like inner peace

proceeds peace in the home or in the world.

And many times it seems like peace in the

home and in the world proceeds from inner peace.

Which comes first, peace or peace?

 

Many of us have experienced inner peace.

It may come and go for us, but a lot of us know the feeling.

But in our lifetime, this world and our country

has never been at peace for very long.

 

Since 1776, in the 246 years since this

country was founded, the US has had,

technically, only  had 21 years of actual peace.

The other 222 years we have been

engaged in some sort of military conflict.

The longest stretch of peace for the United States,

was after World War I and during the depression.

When we think back on that time it does not seem peaceful.

There might have been a lack of direct military activity on our part,

but everything else seemed to be in upheaval.

There were awful things happening in Europe,

And World War II was a constant threat for the US.

 

So for almost all of its existence, this country has been

involved in one war or another.

And it’s the same for much of the rest of the world.

Whether we know it or not, we are in

a heightened state of alert and worry about potential or current conflict.

Even more so if you have a loved one who is

in the area of conflict or in the military.

 

And I think it’s safe to say that the militarism

and heightened state of alert and anxiety

has contributed to the tension and anxiety at home

in the rampant gun violence, mass shootings,

and even the polarization in our politics.

 

We are on a heightened state of alert, and ready to go off at any time.

Fear and aggression go hand in hand.

Our lack of inner peace has lead to a lack of outer peace.

And our lack of outer peace has lead to a lack of inner peace.

Peace and peace go hand in hand.

 

During Isaiah’s time and for the whole of its history,

Israel was in a very similar situation of constant war.

Israel itself was not itself a very powerful nation,

not a super-power like the United States by any means.

Actually, it was rather insignificant globally.

But, geographically, Israel was between super powers.

It was on the path to get to one place from another.

So it was always stuck between nations

that seemed to be in constant struggles for power:

Assyria, Canaan, Hittite, Babylonia, Egypt, Persia

So someone was always beating up on Israel to get to someone else.

 

So, Israel was in a state of war more than it was at peace too,

the scriptures certainly reflect that.

And no doubt that affected their personal relationships

and the state of their homes and communities too.

Their state of alert was very high, and

they experienced this violence first-hand

it wasn’t seen on TV or heard of in some far off place.

It was in their own backyards.

 

And they knew as well how difficult outer peace would

be to achieve too.

Each side has to want it at the same time,

and peace takes a great deal of vulnerability,

someone needs to make the first move and risk humility and

sometimes life and limb to even start the process.

And a lot can go wrong when there is distrust,

and language differences, and a tradition of hatred.

This is true of global wars and wars in neighborhoods and families too.

 

And if we think of our own country and times,

Even if we don’t have a reason for war,

there is so much of our lives and our economy

that is built around war and militarism.

There are millions of jobs, so much income in weapons,

industries and companies that are built around war.

So many people have built careers around war,

many people find personal fulfillment and a sense of

belonging in their job in the military.

 

Military spending in the US is $734 billion dollars.

An unbelievable amount of money.

If we had an extended time of peace,

that would mean dismantling much of this

and it would cause a great upheaval in many lives.

There is a lot working against outer peace.

It’s actually easier to stay at war.

 

It seems like a great knot that can’t be untied

and true peace, inner and outer, seems like an impossibility.

I’m sure that peace for Israel seemed impossible

in Isaiah’s time too.

But still, with all of these things in place,

Isaiah and the other prophets and religious leaders

promised that God would, one day, bring peace.

 

Chances that Isaiah was writing his prophecies

during one of Israel’s times of  war and siege

in the 700’s, the powerful Assyrian army

stormed through Israel five times,

reaping terror and destruction where it went.

 

And in the midst of this constant horror, Isaiah has a vision

which he shares with us today.

And that vision says this:

that God’s desire for our peace is stronger

than humanity’s addiction to war.

 

And there is an image that shows this.

It is another one of Isaiah’s greatest hits.

So frequently repeated that we probably pass over it:

The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the baby goat,

and the calf and the lion together,

and a little child shall lead them.

It’s a beautiful image.

 

Woody Allen once said,

“The Wolf may lay down with the lamb,

but the lamb won’t get much sleep.”

 

That is really true in our present reality.

If this happened in our world the more vulnerable would be eaten.

The wolf, the leopard, the lion, are natural predators they would not be able

to help themselves around the naturally

delicious and defenseless lambs, goats, and calves.

 

But in Isaiah’s vision, this is all changed.

This is more than just an uncomfortable peace,

this is more than just a strained photo op that

reveals an imbalance of power ready to blow up.

This is a change of hearts and minds and actions.

A change of the natural order of things.

The powerful will no longer attack the less powerful.

The weak will no longer fear the powerful.

 

Of course these animals are metaphors for

human relations and interactions.

Isaiah saw a world changed completely

Violence will not be the way of the world.

 

And this is brought about by the leadership of a little child.

A stump of Jesse. In other words, in the line of King David.

The king who was stellar at warfare would bring a

leader who brought the whole world and all its creatures to peace.

 

And this change starts with righteousness and equity.

With justice for the poor and all people.

As Martin Luther King Jr. said:

“Peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of Justice.”

Real peace, God’s peace, will not be had just by an absence of fighting,

it will be had through an end of oppression,

poverty, and when the rights of all people are respected.

 

So when Isaiah talks about this new leader

and this new reality, he’s not just talking about a leader with

great military strategy or diplomatic skills.

And peace won’t be had just through

the self-control or self-discipline of the people,

or because the powerful have suppressed the weak.

 

Isaiah is talking about the re-ordering of creation

the changing of our very hearts and minds.

This is more than what humanity is capable of.

 

This is the work of the Messiah, the anointed one.

The Messiah who we believe came to us as Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

He has taught us the ways of peace.

They are justice, understanding, openness, forgiveness, repentance.

All the things that give us inner-peace are also the way

to outer peace.

It is taking us a long time to learn these ways.

But Jesus has shown us the way to get there.

One day, God and Jesus will bring peace to our world.

And the choices that we are making today will be

the foundation of that peace that will last forever.

The little child will lead us there.

Peace will come to this war-torn world.

And that should give us inner-peace today.