We approach this first Sunday in Advent...
with the sour taste of disaster in our mouths.
And yet the prophet Isaiah calls us...
to look forward... to that time in God’s future...
when all creation will be reconciled...
and every tear wiped away.
As well in this season... we look back...
to the birth of Jesus...the breaking in of God’s future into time and space. [pause]
If we could actually map out...the time space continuum...where do you think we’d be exactly...
Arrow slide
If we could map out a time line... of our faith history stretching from the dawn of creation...
through human rebellion against God’s good purposes ...through God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah...
the Exodus ...the cycle of War and Exile and Return
...the warnings of the prophets ...
tracing the line...right through...the incarnation of God’s Word made flesh in Jesus... the spread of Christianity to the gentile world...the dark ages...
the Enlightenment...
the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi... industrialisation... World Wars 1 and 2 Korea Vietnam... Iraq Afghanistan ...
If we could trace this time line...
all the way to the future... described in Isaiah’s vision... A future when all nations seek...
to learn the ways of God... and there is peace...
Just where... on the trajectory of Salvation History...
do you think we are... November 28, 2010?
[Ask]
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of course its possible... Isaiah’s vision is less about a particular time in the future
and more about... any time in history
when the conditions exist...that make for peace
I don’t know.
What I do know is that Isaiah 2:1-5... is a prophetic oracle... a poetic revelation. And it occurs again in the visions of the prophet Micah. We heard the same pattern... in Psalm 122.
All peoples go up to the mountain of the Lord
to learn the ways of God...God becomes the only arbitrator for human conflict and there is peace.
And we know we’re not there yet....don’t we?
And if we’re still a long way off...how can this oracle guide us to our destination...
I think there’s wisdom for the journey in its words...
Isaiah’s oracle... tells us what its going to look like. When God’s promised future arrives...
Slide words
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
neither shall they learn war... any more
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And as our planet sails through time and space...
and as we strive to reach God’s promised future...
when there’s peace and wellbeing for all creation...
Isaiah’s oracle exposes... the devastating connection...
between human conflict and human wellbeing...
between war... and hunger....it reveals a sobering truth about God’s good creation...its resources... are finite...
They can’t support both wellbeing and war.
One brings peace...the other... deprivation. [pause]
As a famous general once said...‘Every gun that’s made, every warship launched, every rocket fired… signifies in a final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.’
2010’s been a year of disaster for the South Island ...natural disasters... in the Canterbury earthquakes and the late spring snows...and accidental disaster...in this week’s unfolding tragedy at the Pike River Mine.
But the kind of disaster Isaiah’s talking about...
is neither natural nor accidental. It is unnatural.
the oracle tells us...
War is an unnatural act... war...has to be learned...
In God’s promised future...the unnatural act of war...
is off the curriculum. [pause]
You see Isaiah knows it’s natural for us to grow crops and sheep and cattle to feed our families...
but we have to be trained... to kill in cold blood.
And a farmer can’t grow anything... when he’s been run through by a spear...or blown up by a land mine.
Natural disasters come and go. Accidents happen...
their effects bring acute suffering...
but war is the chronic illness of our planet.
It devours the poor. Its demon is greed...
its god...mammon...its purpose is darkness and death.
The widow the orphan and the stranger...
are its collateral damage.
So as we map out where our planet might be
on the trajectory... to God’s promised future...
let’s listen again for clues in Isaiah’s words.
Slide words
In days to come... the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall arrive there... saying
Slide words
"Come, let us... go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways and
we ...may walk in his paths."
Slide words
God shall judge between the nations and arbitrate
for many peoples and
Slide words
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither... shall they learn war... any more.
O house of Jacob,
slide words
Come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!
We don’t have to wait...the oracle is saying...
it’s possible for the children of God...to walk in the light of the Lord right now. It’s possible...
to learn God’s ways and walk in God’s paths...
to create the conditions that make for peace and wellbeing ...right now...
So come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!
And Jesus said
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Blessed are the peacemakers...
for they shall be called the Children of God.
Blessed are those who create the conditions...
that make for peace.
This Christmas we remember the millions ...
who suffer from poverty…war and avoidable disease.
And… as we give thanks for…our share of the earth’s finite resources… let us bear in mind…our brothers and sisters… who lack even the basics of life.
Despite a world full of food…over one billion people live in chronic hunger. That’s more than one in every six people on the planet…the worst figures since 1970.
And it’s not because of poor food harvests….
but because of poverty and war…and the unequal distribution of resources.
Hungry people can’t live… in peace.
Dealing with the… long term trauma…
of disaster and conflict… is increasingly important
in humanitarian response.
People’s daily routines are disrupted…
when schools and homes are destroyed.
And their suffering is increased… by the death of loved ones…and the loss of everything that’s familiar.
CWS slide
Today marks the beginning… of the 65th Christian World Service… Christmas Appeal.
They’re the official humanitarian aid organisation…
for the Presbyterian Church. This year’s focus…
is on hope and peace. And at our service on Christmas Day…our entire offering will go to this work.
Through our giving… local people… in Africa, Haiti
the Pacific and the Middle East…people who share the experience of trauma with their neighbours…
will be trained and supported…not for war…but
to lead programmes… that bring back wellbeing
in a bleak situation. [pause]
As we sail through time and space on our tiny vessel called earth…As we look forward to
celebrating the birth… of the Prince of Peace…
the conditions that make for peace on earth…
are still absent for many people
Yet God’s word has been revealed to us…
by the prophets and in the flesh in Jesus…
who is the way the truth and the light.
Whether we’ve learned anything…whether we walk
in the light of the LORD…will be revealed by our actions…toward family friend and neighbour…
whether near by or far away.
And into the coming week as we reflect on this…
will we begin to see more clearly…just where we are on the trajectory of salvation history…
as individuals and together as the people of God…
Let us ask ourselves…
Do the conditions that make for peace and wellbeing rule in our hearts? What about our community?
Our nation?
Does our use of resources…
bring wellbeing to ourselves but not to others?
Do our words and actions bring conflict… or peace?
How can we practise walking in the light of the LORD? Well with God’s help…as St Francis of Assisi… summed up in his prayer…
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life..
it’s my prayer…that in everything we do…
individually and together… we will not be standing still… or even worse…
travelling in the wrong direction.
we’ll be working and walking
towards God’s promised future
Let us stand and pray
