Isaiah 11:1-10, Matthew 3:1-12
Advent 2
Our theme on this second Sunday of Advent is peace. What has disturbed your peace? For many, if not all, our culture of fear and recent acts of hatred impact peace. Peace is broken by our experience of violence, not only against ourselves, but also against neighbor. The peace of shalom means more than just the absence of war or hostility or fear. The peace of shalom means wholeness, harmony and well-being. What disrupts your peace?
Gerald Holtom’s peace was disturbed by nuclear armament. In 1958, he designed his peace sign from a personal perspective. “I was in despair. Deep despair,” he wrote. “I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad. I formalized the drawing into a line and put a circle round it. It was ridiculous at first and such a puny thing.” Gerald later realized that if you turned the symbol upside down, [quote] “it could be seen as representing the tree of life, the tree on which Christ had been crucified…which [is] a symbol of hope and resurrection.”[1]
Our reading this morning begins with this hope. Isaiah tells us, A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Isaiah is speaking to a weary people, a people beleaguered and threatened by war and destruction. Jesse is the name of David’s father, and this family tree will see a hoped-for new stem. From the Davidic line, a king of peace will emerge whose reign will be one of both peace and righteousness. God’s whole creation will participate. The future holds the promise of a kingdom in which the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together. These are the images depicted in Quaker Edward Hicks painting from 1833, The Peaceable Kingdom. Today’s images of the peaceable kingdom come in the form of video clips posted on FaceBook– Bubbles the African elephant plays with Bella the Labrador, Kate the Great Dane grooms Pippin the deer, and Anja the chimpanzee helps feed tiger cubs. In human form, the pictures are Muslims standing with Jews and Christians and Hindus and athiests.
We value peace so much that since 1901, a prize has been awarded to those who work for it. In 2016, the president of Columbia, Juan Manuel Santos, won it because of his efforts to end more than 50 years of conflict in his country. The youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner is Malala, a Pakistani young woman who not only survived but triumphed after an assassination attempt by the Taliban. Malala continues to campaign for universal access to education. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi are notable people who have devoted themselves to peace. Despite their efforts, universal world peace eludes us. As a people, we are not very good at maintaining peace. Humans have been at peace only 268 out of the past 3,400 years.[2]
Reflecting on peace, Frederick Buechner writes:
One of the titles by which Jesus is known is Prince of Peace, and he used the world himself in what seems at first glance to be two radically contradictory utterances. On one occasion, he said to the disciples, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). And later on, the last time they ate together, he said to them, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27).
The contradiction is resolved when you realize that for Jesus, peace seems to have meant not the absence of struggle, but the presence of love.[3]
As some of the 20th century greatest poets sang, “All you need is love. Love is all you need.”[4] Love is what drove Martin Luther King, Malala, the Dalai Lama, and others. In light of their accomplishments, we may not see ourselves as influential, but peace begins with us, right here, right now. Peace is passed from one person to another, and then to another, and another. We embody and enact that in our worship service. After the prayers, we will share God’s peace with each other. Our sharing is itself both a prayer and an announcement of grace. In our sharing, we are the risen Christ to each other.[5] We are signs of peace.
Jesus’ peace, as Buechner implies, is about love shown through relationship, which is always ultimately about justice. It is about overturning tables in the temple, and finding value in those society would call the least. It is about changing social systems that oppress others. It is about people on the other side of the world having access to education and clean drinking water. Peace is about having medical care and shelter. Peace is about gender equality. Peace in our world depends upon the well-being of everyone.
Peace is not about what we accept as normal, which explains and gives credence to John the Baptizer! In announcing Jesus’ coming, he calls people to repent, which means to turn around. Turn around, look at your neighbor, and look at your relationship with your neighbor. In order for the world to be different, things need to change. Forgive someone, maybe even yourself. Help cook a meal for someone without a permanent home. Speak up when people are cruel. Visit someone who lives alone. Hug a person who is grieving. One act of forgiveness, one act of kindness, one act of advocacy begins the healing of humanity. Be a sign of peace.
Even as we pray your kingdom come, we are called to participate in its coming. This is our summons in and through the waters of baptism, as we are joined together with Christ in his life of confrontation, of healing, and forgiveness; as we are joined together in his agony on the cross; as we are joined together in his glorious resurrection. It is through Christ that we receive life and salvation, and through whom the fullness of the peace of shalom will come.
Hope for peace gets its start from a dead, sawed-off tree,–a stump from which an unlikely tender green shoot sprouts. It is announced by a wild looking man in the middle of nowhere. Hope for peace is born in a barn from a young girl of low socio-economic status. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you ay abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13). This Advent season, we wait in hope for Christ to come again.
~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin
[1] https://www.fastcodesign.com/3036540/the-untold-story-of-the-peace-sign
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/books/chapters/what-every-person-should-know-about-war.html
[3] Frederick Buechner. Beyond Words. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. 307.
[4] All You Need is Love. Written by John Lennon and attributed to Lennon-McCartney, 1967.
[5] Brugh, Lorraine and Lathrop, Gordon. The Sunday Assembly. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2008. 172-174.