December 2, 2001
First Sunday of Advent
CHRISTIAN GOSPEL: In Days to Come ~ Isaiah 2:1-5
Sometimes when you want to understand the meaning of the scripture, you can begin by working through it slowly, reading it over and over again, beginning to understand that the way the story is told, the way the words are shared, are important. The author has chosen carefully one word over another. In the first sentence, we see the word, which Isaiah saw, concerning Judah and Jerusalem. The word, the written symbol, which Isaiah saw. So the knowledge of God, the teachings of God, Isaiah is seeing in his mind, a vision. A vision of what the world can be like. A vision of what God is doing with God’s people. “It shall come to pass in the later days.” That has a little bit of the feel of “once upon a time.” “It shall come to pass in the latter days.” It SHALL come to pass. It’s going to happen, there is no question about this. God is at work in the world and God will do these things. But when I don’t know. It will happen sometime in the future, sometime yet to come, at a point not yet determined, or not yet made known to us. It shall come to pass in the latter days. That the mountain of the house of the Lord. The mountain of the house of the Lord. Mountain imagery is important in the scriptures. Mountains are an important symbol for many ancient peoples. We know that if we want to see how things look in the bigger picture, we can get ourselves a ticket on an airplane and from the airliner we can look down on the patterns of the cities and highways and farms. What was it like before you could go up in the air and look down on everything from the perspective of a bird? What was it like before there were hot-air balloons? What was it like before there were skyscrapers that gave you a vantage point to look out onto the city? Well, the highest point was a mountaintop. If you wanted to see as far as you could see, you would climb up to the top of that mountain and get a view. A view of the world in its larger scope. So when people talked about where God would dwell, the natural assumption was that God would live on top of the highest mountain. The city of Jerusalem itself is built up on a mountaintop, then the temple on a rise within the city of Jerusalem. Pilgrims who were coming there to worship had to go up to the city of Jerusalem, up to the temple mount to worship God. For the ancient Hebrew people, the place that God dwelt was in the temple at the highest point in the city of Jerusalem.
The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, shall be raised up above the hills, everything surrounding it, and all of the nations flow to it. Now for the citizens of Jerusalem, this is a powerful idea. Jerusalem, while once having experienced a time of splendor and power, is now at a point in history where they are weak and vulnerable. The armies of Assyria and the armies of Babylon can sweep through at anytime, causing havoc and disrupting the life of the people who live there. If you take a downtrodden city and say, “it shall come to pass in the latter days that all of the nations of the world, all the peoples from all over the planet will come and flock to you”, it is an important word of encouragement.
But as Isaiah speaks further it is not the city of Jerusalem that is going to experience this rise in political power, not the city of Jerusalem, but instead it is going to be the house of God, the Temple, the place where God dwells. “We’ll go to the mountain of the Lord. To the house of the God of Jacob, that God may teach us his ways, that we may walk in God’s paths.” Even though these people are experiencing political oppression, the prophet says, “Don’t worry about the future. Don’t worry about achieving greatness as a city, as a society. God will be at work with you. God will be with you and God will do new things. God will teach you how to live. God will judge between the nations and shall decide between many peoples.” The idea of a judicial body that has authority over all the people on the planet is one that is very appealing. Especially appealing to pacifists, to those who don’t want to enter into war any longer, “Why don’t you just bring those people to trial?” But, we know as humans that the justice that we create is always going to have a bias to it. So, the ones who get to administrator the justice are the ones who have military power, the victors get to decide what the justice will be. What would happen to the United States if we were defeated in a war and there was a war tribunal taking place somewhere else that would bring us up to account for the things that we have done over the years. Amnesty International can give you a list of the ways in which the United States of America has carried out human rights abuses. When we, as citizens on this planet, look for an authority that could judge conflicts between peoples and nations, we know that our justice will always be incomplete, always flawed because it’s influenced by our own way of looking at things. But, Isaiah says, “The time will come when God will judge. When God will make decisions between peoples, and there won’t have to be anymore conflict. No more war, because God will bring justice and mercy to all people.” When God judges the people, they will beat their swords into plowshares. Their spears into pruning hooks. There is a bumper sticker; I think it’s from Albert Einstein, that says, “You cannot prepare for war and peace at the same time.” You have to make your choice as to which is more important. That doesn’t say that you can’t ever fight a war, but you can’t be preparing for war and say you’re preparing for peace. It doesn’t work that way.
The question for us in this Advent season is “What are we preparing ourselves for?” Are we preparing ourselves to live cynically for the rest of our days on this planet? Saying that we believe in God, saying that we believe in love, saying that we believe in harmony, but instead working to assure that “I get mine,” that I have a comfortable life. That my family is well taken care of. That I get my share of the blessings of life. What are we preparing ourselves for?
There was a sad story of Public Radio this week out of New York City. A woman was interviewed. She said that she used to travel all over the city. Go to the library, museums, visit friends, but now she stays close to her apartment. In her apartment, she has stacks of supplies. Gallons of water, cases of Ramen and other foodstuffs. Then plastic and duct tape so that if necessary, she can tape all of her windows closed. If anything happens, if there was a gas attack, if there was poison sprayed into the city, she can go into her apartment and seal herself off. She can live on the things that she’s stockpiled there. She talked about the way that she used to travel around the city, “Now I’ve drawn a line. I can go north five blocks and east four, south to the railroad tracks and west.” She doesn’t go any farther than that. She’s afraid that if anything happens, she can’t get back to her apartment in time. That is the only place that she feels safe, there in her apartment with her windows sealed off with plastic and the food that she is going to need to survive for a period of time, before everything will be safe for her to venture out into the world again.
What is she preparing herself for? Certainly not interaction with the world. Certainly not learning about other people. Certainly not working for peace or for love. She’s preparing herself for isolation from the world. To protect herself as long as she is able, from all of the evils that are somehow “out there.” Isaiah says, “When God judges the world, there won’t be any reason to fight anymore.” We can take all of the implements of war and get rid of them. We don’t have to prepare for war anymore. We can put them to good use. Raising food for people. Learning to live together in harmony. Isaiah says that, “Nations shall not lift up sword against nation.” They won’t have to learn about war anymore.
In the closing words, “House of Jacob. God’s beloved people. Let us walk in the light of the Lord.” “Let us walk in the light of the Lord.” The prophets call all of us to live according to God’s ways, to organize our life, to motivate our actions, not by a desire for security, or superiority, or comfort, but to live our lives anticipating God’s love. God’s mercy. God’s justice for all the world.
May God’s Spirit be with us. Amen.