A Sermon preached from
Isaiah 11. 1-9 and Matthew 5. 1-11
at Mount Tabor UMC in Winston-Salem, NC
by Ken Carter
Vision leads to peace.
In these days there are wars and rumors of wars. We read and hear about hiding in caves and friendly fire, about special operations and prisoners of war. We know what war looks like. There has been a continuous war for almost one hundred years, somewhere on the planet. At the end of the day we almost dread tuning into the television, for somewhere there has been an explosion, a suicide bombing, an assassination. In detail we hear the story, and because of our advanced technology we hear it with graphic precision. We know what war is like.
The biblical writers asked a different question: "what does peace look like?" For the prophets of the ancient middle east also lived in days where there were wars and rumors of wars. They could also describe it in vivid detail. Yet they had a different focus, an alternative vision, when they asked the question, "what does peace look like?"
The vision of the prophets is found in our Isaiah passage. Its a compelling vision: A shoot will come from a stump. A stump is a tree that has been cut down, destroyed. But the hope is that life will come out of destruction. The One who is to come will bring gifts, they are listed for us in three pairs. They are six gifts of the spirit, given to the One who is to rule. And then the vision of a new heaven and a new earth: the wolf and the lamb will lie down together, no one shall hurt or destroy on Gods holy mountain. Paradise will be restored. All nature will sing in harmony. This is what peace must look like.
This vision of the prophet Isaiah has always been inspirational. You can see it, and of course, that is a part of what makes it so compelling. In the 1820s there was a deep separation within the Quakers of our country. It was a church fight. Some of us have been through church wars. I could make a list in my own nineteen or so years. You could visualize it too.
Edward Hicks was a Quaker preacher from Newtown, Pennsylvania, and he was in the thick of the division within the Quaker church. He began to draw oil paintings based on Isaiahs prophecy in chapter 11, especially verse 6: The wolf shall live with the lamb, a little child shall lead them. He drew the same painting over and over again. We know it now as the Peaceable Kingdom. One version of his painting is just a few miles from us, at the Reynolda Museum of Art. It is called, specifically, the Peaceable Kingdom of the Branch. It is a painting of Isaiah 11. 6, and there in the background is the Natural Bridge, also not far from us in Virginia. The curious thing about the painting is the bridge. What does it mean? Most scholars believe it is a symbol of unity, the holding together of people who are fighting each other, the joining together of God and human beings. It is a vision of peace.
What is our vision of peace? Is it a restored relationship? Is it a decision to help those who have been treated unjustly? Is it an acceptance of Gods will for the future? What is our vision of peace?
Patience sustains peace.
It is one thing to have a vision. It is another to make our way toward it. And this requires patience. I preached on patience in a series of messages last summer on the fruit of the spirit.
Patience is actively waiting, keeping the vision before us, living toward the vision. Henri Nouwen, one of the great spiritual writers of the last century, said it this way:
The prophets criticized the people (at least in part) for giving up their attentiveness to what was coming. Waiting finally became the attitude of the remnant of Israel, the small group of Israelites that remained faithful.
A remnant remains faithful. A remnant actively waits. A remnant keeps the vision alive. A remnant is patient. Ruth Graham, the wife of Billy Graham, remarked recently that she had decided what she wanted on her tombstone. She saw the words as she and her husband were driving on the interstate. They had made their way through several miles of road construction, which had become a single lane. Finally they came to the end, and there was the sign that caught her attention.
She saw the sign and she said, "thats it. That is exactly what I want on my tombstone." The sign read,
END OF CONSTRUCTION. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE.
Wouldnt that be a good description of all of us? The way to Gods vision for the world, Gods vision of a peaceable kingdom, requires patience. And a part of being patient is being the bridge that holds people together, that connects us to the vision of what a world in peace might look like.
It is easy to get discouraged, and thats why we live with patience. I remember being in Israel once. I have been there several times, each a different political situation. At that time there were peace talks going on, and they were making the papers, theirs and ours. I asked our guide what he thought it all might mean. He said, "In the middle East, things are never as good as they seem, and things are never as bad as they seem". It was a reminder. The construction is still going on. We need to be patient. One of my favorite scriptures is from the Prophet Habakkuk, near the end of the Old Testament. It reminds me to patient, but to know that Gods vision will become a reality:
Still the vision awaits its time. It hastens to the end, it shall not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come.
A person---Jesusoffers peace
The New Testament writers understandably saw Jesus as the fulfillment of the word of the prophet.
Peace is found in this person, Jesus Christ. That means a couple of things. First, through Jesus Christ we have peace with God. We dont have to justify ourselves before God. This is the meaning of Romans 5. 1-11. Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God. In this way Jesus is the bridge that connects God and humanity, a bridge that overcomes all that separates us from a relationship. This peace comes to us as pure gift. We dont construct the bridge. It has already been built for us.
Second, we have peace with each other. This is the meaning of Ephesians 2. In Christ those who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace. In his flesh he has broken down the dividing wall, that is the hostility that is between us. This peace we have to work at. This is the ministry of becoming peacemakers, which Jesus taught about in the sermon on the mount. It is the ministry that Jesus accomplishes through us. And at this time of year we are reminded that peace comes to us in a person, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
Peace is always about a person. Charlie Brown misunderstood this when he said,
"I love humanity & its people I cant stand."
Peace is not a principle, a concept. Peace is always a person. Do the Israelis understand that the Palestinians are persons, who have hopes for their children, who take joy in the small things in life, who love and want to be loved? Do the Palestinians understand that the Israelis want the same thing?
In this troubled part of the world, peace is no longer about a person. And yet this is the peace God offers us in Jesus Christ. It is knowing that when God looks at us, God sees not our sin, not our guilt, not our imperfection & God sees Jesus Christ. It is knowing that when we look at other people, we see not their sin, not their guilt, not their imperfection, not their race, not their class, not any barrier, but we see Jesus Christ in them.
It is easy to get discouraged about peace in a world continuously at war. And yet there is a shoot that goes forth from the stump. There is a remnant, in every nation, in every church, in every family, even in every human heart, that keeps the vision alive, the vision of a peaceable kingdom. And to this remnant, Jesus spoke on the mountain:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
In these days we need peacemakers. And to know what a peacemaker looks like, we await the coming again of a person, Jesus Christ. In these days, of wars and rumors of wars, we keep our eyes focused on the prince of peace, who was, and is, and is to come.