Peace & Play
Peace & Play
December 4, 2022
Isaiah 11:1-10
A shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse;
a branch will sprout from his roots.
2 The Lord’s spirit will rest upon him,
a spirit of wisdom and understanding,
a spirit of planning and strength,
a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.
3 He will delight in fearing the Lord.
He won’t judge by appearances,
nor decide by hearsay.
4 He will judge the needy with righteousness,
and decide with equity for those who suffer in the land.
He will strike the violent with the rod of his mouth;
by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be the belt around his hips,
and faithfulness the belt around his waist.
6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the young goat;
the calf and the young lion will feed together,
and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow and the bear will graze.
Their young will lie down together,
and a lion will eat straw like an ox.
8 A nursing child will play over the snake’s hole;
toddlers will reach right over the serpent’s den.
9 They won’t harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain.
The earth will surely be filled with the knowledge of the Lord,
just as the water covers the sea.
10 On that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a signal to the peoples. The nations will seek him out, and his dwelling will be glorious
Last week we heard from Isaiah, and I preached about learning war no more, turning swords into plows and spears into pruning fork. At the time, that felt like talking about peace to me. However, the first week of Advent’s focus was hope, not peace. We hope for, maybe even long for, that world where war is no more. We sit in an active waiting for that vision to materialize by living that way right now. We heard of one example that involves turning instruments of death, guns, into garden tools.
So, this second week of Advent, the focus actually is peace. As I began to think about what I might say to all of you today, I felt as if I was likely to be on repeat, preaching about peace both last week and this week. Then one morning I had a little insight… no war does not necessarily look like peace, and peace is possible even during war. Ah… now I had something new to talk about.
The scripture passage we heard this morning is known as the peaceable kingdom. Let’s review the text and get a better idea of what the prophet is saying to us, what is coming in our future, what may be arriving in the manger this year. First, we have the image of a shoot coming from the stump of Jesse. Jesse is David’s father, and a stump is something that has been cut off, left behind while perhaps the good wood has been carried off somewhere for another purpose. Some might perceive a stump to be finished or even lifeless. But ah… from this seemingly lifeless lump will come a green shoot, a sign of life and of things to come. In this text the shoot will be a just leader doing right for the needy and for those who suffer.
We too find ourselves in need of this kind of leadership today, but beyond exercising our right to vote and helping to encourage and ensure everyone has access to cast ballots, there is not a lot we can do to impact big government. Maybe instead we need to examine our own lives for lifeless stumps? Where do you feel cut off? Where is that unexpected place, the one you are pretty sure is done, dead, the door is closed? I’m sure that’s how the Israelites felt about the throne of David when they were in exile and Isaiah was speaking these words. It’s right there that place, the one that looks dead, that God may be nurturing something new and good.
Some might view our churches today as lifeless stumps. Much of the world, and especially in North America, people see our practically empty church buildings, and they see old, lifeless shells. Many people consider Christianity or certainly our religious practices as dead. Can we ask and grapple with the question, “Can a shoot come from the stump of the church?” Can a new growth spring forth from this faith community?
Sharing about survey and Fresh Expressions of faith.
This is exactly how hope gets started. It emerges as a tiny speck in unexpected places. Keep looking in your life, in the life of this faith community, in our denomination, in the Church (big C), and in those unexpected places in the world. Look for the tiniest sign of new life, new growth. And I will keep giving us space right here in our worship to share where God is breaking through.
Speaking of those unexpected places those places where perhaps we perceive lifelessness or upcoming ending, loss, or death, sometimes those places are too difficult to look at or acknowledge because it’s too painful. We remember when the tree was beautiful, full, and very much alive. We can’t bear to acknowledge that only a stump remains. So instead of seeing what is ahead, we only see what is missing. We grieve and remain stuck focused on the loss, our eyes glued to what was, yet is no more.
It's difficult to be playful, imaginative, childlike, or creative under those circumstances. We get caught in a vicious cycle. We are miserable about what we no longer have, and so no one wants to play with us. When no one wants to draw close to us, we become even more miserable. Soon even our closest family and friends can’t take the negativity any longer and they leave our side too. We need to be able to play and experience peace no matter what is happening around us.
Do you see how this vicious cycle applies to small churches? Small churches most often get even smaller.
However, if we look beyond the stump, beyond what we think is lifeless, we can see through Isaiah word pictures what is to come. Isaiah describes a peaceful place where even animal instincts of predator and prey are no more. Most of us have the image of a lion and lamb laying down together seared in our minds even though Isaiah never paints this pairing for us. What is important is all these animal pairs are potential feeding frenzies. Kind of like that world without war, these images of co-existence without harm are hard for us to image.
I want to focus on the one image that involves human flesh, a child, more specifically, a child and a snake. I am a grown woman, and I am afraid of snakes. The idea of a toddler reaching over a snake’s den seems ludicrous to me. I would never have my grandchild do that. However, this is what kind of peace and safety we are talking about in the realm of God. There will be no fear. There is no need to fear because nothing causes harm. That’s amazing to me for a few reasons:
1. I cause harm even when I don’t intend to. It would be wonderful if that would no longer happen.
2. I have been hurt – a lot!
3. Hurt and harm have happened to each of us, and we don’t like it. So, we learn to stop reaching, to stop trying. We stop taking risks. Why? Because we think we know what’s going to happen. Because we got hurt in the past, we expect pain in our future. Well… we’re not going to do that again; so, we stop trying.
This is why I love this image of the child reaching over the serpent’s den. In their play, the child reaches without fear. Oh, if we could be like that child again, having no memory of the hurt we have already endured. That is an incredible image of peace. My mind and my heart would be in heaven!
Imagine if you did not know pain, you have never been hurt, harmed, embarrassed, or made wrong. You would be confident. Maybe we would remain playful, imaginative, adventurous, creative, and courageous throughout our lives. This is what is possible. This is what is coming. This is what is available to us when we allow Christ to be born is us yet again. Today we can start all over again as we come to the table, consume some bread & juice, and allow Jesus to consume us. Or we can wait until we wake up and start a new day tomorrow; we can open our eyes and invite Jesus in to take over, to make us over, and to make us new. We might even choose to wait until Christmas We can receive Jesus anew as an infant in a manger and begin again as infants ourselves, with a fresh start and no baggage. The choice is ours.
What might Mt Salem do if this faith community had no fear? No fear of people or pastors leaving? No fear of people or pastors dying? No fear of spending money? No fear of what others might think of us or that crazy church in the park that really isn’t a church in their eyes? No fear of being and remaining small? What might we fix, spruce up, risk or launch? How much might we value, support, and even pay a pastor who is already middle aged yet seems like a child to many of you octogenarians and beyond?
Someone once said, “Peace - it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.” (Unknown). A child is coming who will lead us into peace. A peace beyond our current understanding, a peace that will enable us to play with confidence in spaces where we would have expected harm, a peace that restores our reach and risk taking, a peace that allows us to sit side by side, alongside those who have eaten us for dinner in the past.
That time is coming for all of us. One of the ways we experience peace is by coming together, like the wolf and the lamb, like the goat and the leopard, like the calf and the lion, like the cow and the bear, and like the lion and the ox. As different as we all are, we are one in Christ.
Peace is possible, even though we have hurt one another or simply been hurt in the past. We can worry ourselves to death or we can play this thing into the ground, hoping to leave behind a new shoot. Recreation & Recovery. I say we play. Let me know if you want to be on the team.
Amen.