The Peaceable Kingdom - Second Midweek Advent Service
Author: Pastor Scott Schul
December 11, 2024
Tonight’s
lesson contains two separate prophecies. The one at the beginning is, at least for Christians, straightforward. We believe that these verses are God’s
promise to send a messiah, a savior, who would free and deliver Isaiah’s people
from the exile and suffering that loomed before them. And we believe this promise was fulfilled in
Jesus, who was born over 700 years after these words were first recorded.
For
Isaiah’s people, this prophecy was an important source of hope for the future in
a time of turmoil and fear. Christians
likewise draw hope from the fulfillment of this prophecy, because it helps us
better understand who Jesus is. He is
God’s anointed one, full of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. He is faithful, righteous, and entrusted with
power and authority to bring justice and to judge the people. Fortunately for all of us, our judge Jesus will
undertake that work with mercy, empathy, and fairness beyond anything we
deserve.
This is the
Jesus who came to earth over 2,000 years ago, and the same Jesus who we believe
will return again to dwell among us. At
all times, but especially in Advent, God urges us to draw near to this Jesus,
and to do so with hope, confidence, and joyful anticipation. He is the fulfillment of all of God’s
promises, promises that originated thousands of years before our time. As we profess in the Nicene Creed, Jesus, for
us and for our salvation, came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy
Spirit and the virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius
Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures; he
ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will
come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have
no end.
But what
about that second prophecy at the end of the lesson? This is an astounding prophecy of a peace in
which all of creation will live in harmony. Animals usually separated into categories of predator and prey will
dwell in peace. Humans and animals will
no longer live in fear of one another. And implicit in this prophecy is that even humans will learn to get
along with one another, put down their weapons of war, their grudges, and their
biases, set aside their fears and insecurities, and live in a peace not known
since the first day Adam and Eve stepped foot in Eden.
I think we
would all concede that this prophecy has not been fulfilled. It seems so unattainable that it feels more
like a fantasy than prophecy. Yet there’s
also something warm and familiar about this scene. The vibrant imagery of the wolf and the lamb
together has become part of our cultural language. We can at least in part credit a Pennsylvanian
for that.
His name
was Edward Hicks. He died in 1849 in
Newtown, Pennsylvania and was a minister of the Society of Friends, popularly
known as the Quakers. He’s the artist
who created the iconic “Peaceable Kingdom” folk painting we’ve all probably
seen at least once in our life. Hicks
painted 62 versions of the scene described by Isaiah, and the most familiar of
them proudly hangs in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City,
alongside many of the greatest artistic treasures of the world.
But even
Hicks’s iconic painting contains a clue indicating that this promise of peace
was unfulfilled. Take a look at it
sometime. There’s a shattered tree trunk
near the center. It represents a
theological conflict the Quakers were then experiencing, and so the painting
was a prayer for a peace and harmony that did not exist then, and still eludes
us today.1
It would be
wonderful if we could hasten the fulfillment of this prophecy by simply
committing to be a little nicer to one another. Certainly that would help. But
it’s more complex than that. We must
read this prophecy in the broader context of God’s Word. More specifically, we need to hold this
promise of ultimate peace and harmony in theological tension with some very
challenging words Jesus spoke in both Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospel. He said, “Do you think that I have come to
bring peace to the earth? No, I tell
you, but rather division… a sword.”2
This
reveals two important things. First,
fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of peace and harmony will come to full
fruition as a result of Christ’s work, not merely our own. That doesn’t mean we have no responsibility
for our world’s condition and can just do whatever we want. Far from it. But it does remind us to be humble. We cannot bring about paradise by ourselves. We are dependent on Christ and his mercy and
grace. We cannot save ourselves.
Second,
Jesus is reminding us that the peace he has in mind for us, holy peace,
is more than the absence of conflict. We
see this in dictatorships, like North Korea, where perhaps there’s no explicit
violence, crime, or dissent, but no peace. And why? Because there’s no
freedom to act, to speak, or to believe. That’s not peace. Sometimes we
Christians fall into the trap of thinking that “peace” means passivity. Don’t rock the boat. Don’t make any waves. Don’t speak up. Don’t upset anyone. That’s not peace. That’s capitulation. That’s cowardice.
Instead,
Jesus calls us to be active forces of justice and righteousness in our
communities and in our world, people who pour themselves out in love and
service for others, just as Jesus did on the cross. He calls us to oppose evil wherever we
encounter it. He wants us to stand for
something beyond just getting along to get along. And as we do that, some will get upset with
us. Words like grace, mercy, love,
justice, sacrifice, and inclusion often inspire opposition. Jesus, the disciples, and faithful Christians
for the last 2,000 years have experienced that first-hand. That’s why Jesus called us to take up our
cross and be disciples, not merely take up our cappuccinos and be fashionably
comfortable (not that I’m opposed to a good cappuccino!).
And so as
Christ’s saved, forgiven, and redeemed people, we trust in his righteousness, not our own. Transformed
by his love, we recommit ourselves to the two great commandments of
loving God and loving our neighbor, even though we know that doing so may
expose us to ridicule and conflict. But we
take up this call willingly, knowing that each act of Christ-like love and
charity is another step on the road leading to Jesus’s peaceable kingdom, where,
as Isaiah put it, “They will not hurt or destroy on all [of God’s] holy
mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord...” By God’s grace, may that day come speedily. Amen.
Citations
1 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11081
2 See Matthew 10:34 and Luke 12:51.
Copyright Rev. Scott E. Schul, 2024 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
Gospel Text: Isaiah 11:1-9
1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of
Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 The spirit of the
LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. 3 His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his
eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; 4 but with righteousness
he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he
shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his
lips he shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt
around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. 6 The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the
calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down
together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing
child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its
hand on the adder's den. 9 They will 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.
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