This sermon was shortened significantly due to a weather-related closure, and preached online only.
First, a reading from Isaiah 2:1-5:
The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
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 come and say,
“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 that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
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, come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord!
What if I told you that someday, every world leader, every powerful person, the head of every armed or violent group on the entire planet, were all going to meet together in one place. And when they came out of that meeting, they will have met with Jesus himself and worked out all their differences. They will immediately stop every war and conflict. They will go to their armies, their governments, their networks, and tell them what they learned. That knowledge will flow out into the world, and everyone will lay down their weapons. Every heart will be transformed. They might hold on to them for a little while, but eventually they decide that rather than collect dust, all that metal might as well be put to good use – so they melt down all the guns and turn them into tractor parts. Swords are reshaped into kitchen knives and garden tools. Nuclear weapons are dismantled and every nuclear facility becomes a power plant. Every fighter jet becomes nothing more than a fast and efficient way to deliver food, medical supplies, and other relief aid to disaster areas, to places where famine or disease take lives.
It sounds amazing, right?
And it also sounds absolutely unrealistic. Like, if you wrote that into a fiction novel, all of your readers would roll their eyes and say “yeah, that’s totally how the world works.”
I surely cannot be the only one who has occasionally daydreamed about putting a bunch of powerful people in a room together and telling them very bluntly to get it together, stop killing each other, and deal with their issues like adults.
But Isaiah’s vision for world peace does not rely on irrational, yet powerful people suddenly having a lightbulb moment all on their own and fixing the world. The nations go up the mountain of the Lord together, and there they encounter the living God. God teaches them and mediates all their issues, and they take all of that back to their people.
Only after that do the people decide “eh, we don’t need these weapons anymore, let’s make them farming tools instead.”
The hope of Advent is not that the world will suddenly decide ‘hey, let’s NOT do that.’ The hope of Advent is that God is taking human history in a particular direction – and the great end God has in mind is not endless war, destruction, dystopia. It’s peace. It’s humanity thriving. It’s a healed and whole planet. It’s every need met.
Advent also reminds us that the Triune God’s interaction with humanity did not end when Jesus ascended into heaven – the great rescue plan is not yet finished. The story of God and humanity that began with creation in Genesis only ends with the redemption and re-creation of all things, and we live every day in that in-between.
Rev. Dr. John Burgess, a Presbyterian pastor and theologian, says it this way:
“To live between the times is, above all, to trust and hope that God has begun, and will continue, to transform us more and more into the stature of Christ, in whom all of God’s mercy and loving-kindness becomes manifest. Advent calls us into a continuing history of relationship with the Christ who meets us whichever way we turn, whether toward the past, the present, or the future. …Living between the times, we give thanks to God for the Christ child, even as we plead with God to realize, once and for all, the kingdom that Jesus declared to be at hand.”[1]
In the gospels, Jesus consistently warns his disciples away from being too focused on his return and neglecting their life and living and calling in the meanwhile. Rather than have them spend all their time sitting around, staring at the sky, waiting for him to return, he gives his them a mission.
And two thousand years later, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we continue that mission until Christ comes again –to love God and love our neighbors with all that we are, all that we have, and all that we do.
One of my favorite Advent and Christmas poems comes from theologian and writer Howard Thurman. It embodies the hope we embrace in this season, that brings us light and life all year round.
It’s called ‘Candles for Christmas.’
I Will Light Candles This Christmas
Candles of joy despite all sadness,
Candles of hope where despair keeps watch,
Candles of courage for fears ever present,
Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days,
Candles of graces to ease heavy burdens,
Candles of love to inspire all my living,
Candles that will burn all the year long.[2]
[1] Bartlett, David L.; Taylor, Barbara Brown. Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) (p. 58). (Function). Kindle Edition.
[2] Thurman, Howard. Meditations of the Heart (p. 113). Kindle Edition.