- Isaiah 11:1-10
- Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
- Romans 15:4-13
- Matthew 3:1-12
What will it look like when we will have peace? “The wolf will lie down with the lamb, the lion will eat grass with the cows, a child will play over an adder's den” It doesn't look very natural; that's why it's so hard to picture what it would look like. Bumper stickers are fond of saying "without justice there can be no peace." This vision of peace from Isaiah comes only after "He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked." Maybe it's hard for us to picture peace because it's hard for us to picture justice.
Nelson Mandela could see what his country might look like in peace. He knew it was not natural for white South African racists to live in peace with black South Africans. He knew that the natural thing for black South Africans was to seek revenge on their previous oppressors. He knew that reconciliation was bigger and better than that. He knew that it would be hard work. Under his term as President of the African National Congress, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created. It was created so that peace would not be based on sweeping past crimes under the rug, but would be based on truth. It was not created for punishment of offenders, but amnesty, reparation and rehabilitation. I think God's justice transcends our sense of justice. I think when God issues judgement it is a joyful thing, not a depressing thing. Some might think that God's judgement will be a good thing because the bad guys will get theirs and the victims will be avenged; I am not talking about God's judgement being a good thing in this way. I believe that God's judgement will be like the truth in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It will help us reconcile with those who differ with us and not decide for one side or another, but find a better way where both can live into the peace we hope for.
John the Baptist was preaching a baptism of repentance. When the Pharisees and Saducees show on the scene you can almost tell that John tastes a little bile before nearly cursing them. "You brood of vipers," he calls them. The poison of these snakes is well know – they "tie up heavy burdens and lay them on the shoulders of others," the are cold-blooded hypocrites and "blind guides," they care more about outward appearances than inward cleanliness (Matthew 23). No one knowing what they are would let their little children play in the pit of these adders. Yet, to some extent the Parisees are caricatured. Their origins lie in the stories of Ezra and Nehemiah when the people returned from exile and rediscovered God's word and rebuilt their lives. After such a wonderful rediscovery, no wonder they work so hard to preserve God's law. This zeal cannot be all bad can it? The truth is more nuance than caricature. God's judgement is clear and the Pharisees and their kin, the Saducees, are clearly in the wrong. John, God's prophet, speaks God's judgement and something amazing happens: like the repentant people of Niniveh in the story of Jonah, some of them repent and take on the baptism of John. Perhaps he doesn't trust them. Perhaps, like Jonah, John is disappointed and in a foul mood because he was hoping for the vengeful God to pour gasoline down the snake holes and set the fields on fire. Still, there is room for Grace in what John says to them. Instead of cursing them, he holds them accountable to their new baptism: "Go and bear fruit worthy of repentance." If we are to live in the peaceable kingdom of Isaiah, then there have to be vipers still around, though granted they must be repentant vipers. The fruit of their repentance is that reconciled relationship with God where they enter the kingdom and help others into it, where they live reconciled relationships with those who they might have condemned.
Perhaps the Pharisees had forgotten something. Paul writes, "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope." During the days of Ezra and Nehemiah the written Word of God was rediscovered and it encouraged the people and gave them hope. After John the Baptist, the Word of God incarnate "became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy." The Pharisees thought that because they were descendants of Abraham and the patriarchs that they would be judges over all, but the promise given to the patriarchs was relationship with God for them and for the many nations that would be their descendants, both Jews and Gentiles. That relationship with God is not possible without reconciliation to God, and what God wants is reconciliation with each other. As we've seen, reconciliation is not easy to get; it is also hard to hold onto. That's why Paul emphasizes steadfastness and encouragement. Getting reconciled to one another is hard and requires truth and conviction-but-not-condmenation and repentance and hard work, and all that certainly requires encouragement. On the way and once we get there we have to be steadfast to hold onto that purpose and that relationship. It's hard to picture us doing it on our own, but the Good News is we don't have to. Our God, the God of hope, "fills [us] with all joy and peace in believing, so that [we] may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." With the power of the Holy Spirit and with Christ's encouragement and God's steadfastness, we can find the better way and live into the hope for peace that Isaiah pictured for us.
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