Walking in the Light
Walking in the Light
November 27, 2022
Isaiah 2:1-5
This is what Isaiah, Amoz’s son, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 In the days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
will be the highest of the mountains.
It will be lifted above the hills;
peoples will stream to it.
3 Many nations will go and say,
“Come, let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,
to the house of Jacob’s God
so that he may teach us his ways
and we may walk in God’s paths.”
Instruction will come from Zion;
the Lord’s word from Jerusalem.
4 God will judge between the nations,
and settle disputes of mighty nations.
Then they will beat their swords into iron plows
and their spears into pruning tools.
Nation will not take up sword against nation;
they will no longer learn how to make war.
5 Come, house of Jacob,
let’s walk by the Lord’s light.
I got up this morning and read something that changed everything. I read these words in a prayer written by L. Cecile Adams, “Loving God… May the gifts I want to bring to baby Jesus be the gifts I willingly and lovingly bring to the world. Amen.” (from Upper Room Disciplines 2022) Let me share that with you again, “May the gifts I want to bring to baby Jesus be the gifts I willingly and lovingly bring to the world.”
It made me think of our diaper and formula collection for Advent & Christmas. Is this what the world needs? It made me think of Angel Tree and the crazy gifts the children or their parent/relative/or caregiver will suggest or request. Is this what those children need, or does it meet my need to feel good because I bought something for someone? It certainly made me think of this scripture text and no longer learning to make war. Now, that’s definitely something the world needs!
As much as we may want to be people of peace, we are people who live in a world of war and conflict. The war in the Ukraine has been raging for over 9 months now, and a quick Google search said there are as many as 3 dozen wars being fought around the globe right now. The media communicate everything in the language of crisis and conflict, essentially turning everything into a war that we must fight or at the very least stand against. How do we live as people of peace in a world that seems to reward the opposite of peace?
I would say through practice, lots of repetition. Practice, practice, practice – it’s one of the ways we learn just about anything. Sure, you can gain knowledge in your head, you can have new and good intentions in your heart, but have you really learned something if you are not living it, if you have not put it into practice? Today’s scripture reading invites us into the practice of Advent. Like the house of Jacob, it calls to us, “Come, Mt Salem in Rockford Park, let’s walk by the Lord’s light.”
Light is one of the major themes of Advent, and today is the first Sunday of Advent. Most of us spent time this week stuffing ourselves with turkey, connecting with family and friends, and hopefully being a little more thankful than usual. After the turkey, fixings, and pumpkin pie have been gobbled up, that is usually the signal for Christmas to begin. But wait!
Waiting is the message of Advent. However, that we wait is not what is most important. We have been waiting for thousands of years already. We’re waiting alright! How we wait is the important part, and we wait by walking. We wait by living now as we will when Christ returns.
Advent is a season of waiting, preparation, and anticipation, but it is not really about waiting for a baby in a manger. That part has already happened. On Christmas we will remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus. Advent is really about waiting for the second coming of Christ. It is about anticipating Christ’s return and the ushering in of the fullness of God’s reign. It’s that ushering in part that requires preparation. Advent is like a four-week training camp for living in the Kingdom of God. The prophet Isaiah gives us a vision of that life in today’s scripture.
Today we heard Isaiah speak of God’s holy mountain. This mountain will be THE place. People from everywhere will come to that particular place. Why? What is it that all the people of the earth will seek at that time? What will they all desire or need? The text says they will be coming for God’s teaching and this teaching will enable everyone to live as God desires, making us able to walk in God’s paths. This is pretty much the reason behind every Bible study or Sunday School class. This vision, however, includes not only those already in the church, but all people, people from many nations will flock to this mountain to learn God’s ways.
During this short season of Advent, many Christians will take on some extra reading or studying. We have special Advent devotionals, FREE on the table over here! and a small group study. If you can’t make it on Tuesday evenings, I have a group doing the same study on Zoom on Thursdays. Feel free to join them. This is a time when many of us devote some extra time to learning God’s ways. Of course, once we understand what God wants from us, then we must get busy living in those ways. We have to walk the talk, or as Isaiah puts it, we must walk in the light.
This piece of Isaiah’s vision specifically involves actions that bring an end to war. An end to war? I don’t know about you, but I’m getting discouraged about the war in the Ukraine. Will it ever end? And we had more 2 mass shootings in the U.S. in the last week. How are we ever going to unlearn war under these conditions?
Let’s not forget we are not much different from the Israelites. War was common in ancient Israel, primarily because of its small size and valuable location. It was a piece of land smaller than the state of Vermont, and it was surrounded by nations who wanted to own it. Biblical scholars remind us that in the lives of the ancient Israelites, there was only “wartime” and “preparing-for-war time.” Those prophets who spoke of peace and pacifism showed especially bold faith. Given war is what we have all learned in this world, is it any wonder we often shoot the messenger?
Isaiah proclaims that in God’s new world, not only must the weapons be destroyed; they are to be transformed and repurposed. I love that there are groups doing exactly that. Right now in Philadelphia there is a group called Raw Tools. They take donations of guns and turn them into garden tools – small shovels for planting seeds, rakes, and handheld hoes. Last night as I watched a video about Raw Tools, they spoke of a woman who came to do some hammering on the anvil. Her son had been murdered 20 years ago. With every downward strike she uttered the words, “This – is – for - my – son!” That’s living in the light! Using all that painful energy to produce something positive. That’s beating swords into plows and turning spears into pruning forks.
Share my vision for Mt Salem of Recreation & Recovery where the church and the park experience mutual relationship and benefit. E.g. We host Raw Tools in Rockford Park for a demonstration, taking gun donations, and maybe selling their garden tools at the Flower Market. For more info:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/beating-ak47s-into-shovels_b_3762948
It's not just weapons that need to be transformed though. Even if no gun existed, the sin in our hearts would find ways to kill people. All we need to do is break off a branch, and we can club someone to death. It doesn’t matter if that branch was stripped from the Tree of Life in the garden of Eden, it can still be used as a bludgeoning instrument. God can create and grow beautiful things, and our humanness and freewill can turn anything into an instrument of death.
Advent is about transforming our hearts and lives, and that too takes practice, lots and lots of practice. When we think of Advent we may think of the added time of study I mentioned earlier or added giving to expand our generosity. I want us to go beyond this. I mentioned earlier that light is a major theme during this season. Get yourself some light – 4 candles or at least 1 candle. Spend time with that light each day. One minute even, perhaps repeating that prayer I shared at the beginning of this message. May the gifts I want to bring to the baby Jesus be the gifts I willingly and lovingly give to the world. Let’s see what God can do with any bit of extra time we give.
Lenora Tubbs Tisdale has used this language to describe this text, “The resources what were once used for guns are now used for bread and butter.” I love that because of the reference to money and economics, which are other ways wars are often fought. I also love the image of sustenance and basic food. What would change if we put the emphasis from this text and in our world on feeding rather than on war? What if Mt Salem got involved in feeding people – not because our neighborhood is hungry, but maybe because they are lonely and need companionship? I’m not sure if this is a core issue here, but we can dig into it and find out. Even better, imagine people sitting around a table eating with others who think, vote, and love very differently. That would be a witness to peace!
Stacey Simpson Dike reminds us “It’s so much easier to pin our hopes on Christmas gifts and holiday feasts than it is to open ourselves to the possibility of believing in the seemingly impossible.” A world without war seems impossible. I don’t have the answers, but I do know the way forward is to walk in the light of the Lord. Let’s do the impossible! There is power in walking in God’s light now. Let’s get walking – together.
Amen.