Year A, Advent 2
Isaiah 11:1-11
Lately
my son has been talking a lot about good guys and bad guys (mostly bad
guys). Not only do humans fall into
these categories, but animals do as well. Once we were playing a game where we
were running from a lion. Joshua decided
to shoot the lion. We don’t let Joshua
have toy guns, but he can make anything into a gun. I explained to him that I didn’t want him
shooting a lion. He replied, “But lions
are mean.” I then tried to explain to
him that while lions are dangerous, they are not innately bad. We then had to discuss whether there would be
any circumstance where shooting a lion would be appropriate and it all got very
muddy. I decided perhaps we should avoid
a safari for a family vacation. I have noticed that in most popular children’s
shows and almost all movies, there is always a bad guy or bad animal. I guess it makes things interesting for a
young mind. But it makes me sad that at
the age of 3, my son is already categorizing people into good and bad and
thinking about injuring people and dangerous animals. I have attempted to explain to him that God
created us all good, but so far, that’s just not working. If a 3 year old is already programmed to
perceive people as good and bad and talk about shooting people, imagine how we
adults have been programmed. Even if we intellectually have moved past that,
it’s still there in the back of our minds lurking, like an unwanted
intruder.
This
reading from Isaiah (our first reading) is often referred to as “the Peaceable
Kingdom.” It’s a beautiful and poetic
passage with a moving message. There are many works of art modeled after the
image that Isaiah paints. The reading
from Isaiah last week was another famous passage. It read: “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their
spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.”
That passage is about peace between the nations, which is a fairly lofty
dream. This
week the dream seems even more unfathomable.
“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.” Instead of peace
between the nations, Isaiah is now envisioning peace within nature. All the
animals are vegetarians. The laws of
evolution are basically tossed out. There is no longer survival of the fittest. Every person—every animal—survives and lives
together in harmony. It’s basically the Garden of Eden before the fall. It’s a place where there are no good or bad
people. There are no good or bad
animals. All are just as God intended,
inherently and permanently good.
This is the image that should be planted in our
children’s mind. I’m not saying we should shelter them from all that is
bad. We can’t. But it’s like we don’t even try to create
this peaceable kingdom in our books or our movies. It’s not even worth dreaming about or
imagining. That’s a sad thing. It means that not only has hope died, but the
dream that carried the hope is buried under our low expectations. You might think, well that’s just too
depressing. There is no point in dreaming or hoping for something that cannot
be. Isaiah didn’t think so when he wrote
this text. And if you think that the
prophet Isaiah was some kind of Pollyanna, just read virtually any chapter in
the book of Isaiah and you will see that this guy was living in a very
precarious situation. He was living in a
land about to be invaded, preaching to a people who were miserable, angry, and
scared. It wasn’t exactly a utopian
paradise. Isaiah called for repentance and spoke of the need for change. He spoke the truth, even when it was
unpopular. Yet in the midst of his dire warnings about the fate of Israel, he
stopped and painted pictures like the one we heard today, a picture of the
peaceable kingdom. He wanted people to
remember that God’s vision for our world was audacious and bold. It wasn’t just meant to be a dream or vision
but a reality, a goal to strive for.
Therefore, we can never stop painting these pictures,
telling these stories of goodness and peace.
You might think, “That’s not effective. Then you’re just living in a
fantasy.” However, consider the resurgence of Mr. Rogers. There are books about
him, a documentary and now a film starring Tom Hanks. Mr. Rogers didn’t fight bad guys. He was just good. He created a world of make believe where
animals and people lived alongside one another in peace and harmony. He invited
people into that world so they could see glimpse of what could be. And he did more than just provide a
dreamscape.
In the late 1960’s racial
tension in America was high. Martin
Luther King was assassinated in 1968 and race riots followed. Segregation was technically illegal, but many
places were still not integrated. One of those places was public pools. Near the one year anniversary of Martin
Luther King’s death, Mr. Rogers invited one of his neighbors over, a friendly
black police officer. They decided to cool
their feet in a plastic kiddie pool.
Then they shared a towel. Mr.
Rogers never said a word about integration or race relations, but the image was
clear. This is the peaceable kingdom.
What is
amazing about that image is that when we look at it now, we don’t see anything
remarkable about a white man and black man sitting beside one another with
their feet in the same water. That’s
because it’s our new normal. I’m not
saying we have eradicated racism, we have a long way to go. But we have made
progress. We’re swimming in the same
water now. I’m not saying Mr. Rogers
fixed the problem single handedly. Many of
our African American brothers and sisters suffered and died in that fight. But,
it played a small part.
Most of the time, a small part is
the best we can do. Yet we fear even
doing that because we think, it won’t make any difference. Despite everything Mr. Rogers accomplished in
his life, he still wondered if he made any difference at all. But we know he did. On Friday, the church commemorated the life
of St. Nickolas. We do every year on
December 6th. He was a bishop
and probably attended the Council of Nicea, which was a big deal. But what he is remembered for his kindness
toward strangers in need. The church is not just hear to worship God serve
others. We are also hear to support one
another be the people who God created us to be and build the world that God
intended, the Peaceable Kingdom.
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