Retooling for Peace

"Retooling for Peace"

Sermon Preached December 2, 2007 at First Reformed Church

The first Sunday of Advent, a Communion Sunday

By Bill Levering

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.

Mathew 24: 36-44

"But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

God 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.

Old Testament prophets are not fortune tellers. They do not read tea leaves. Prophets are folks who make take high principles and translate them into particular practical situations. Sometimes they tell people about the logical consequences of their bad behavior. Doing what we are doing now will end in big trouble. This is the Al Gore model of prophesy. Sometimes prophets tell folks how the particularity of God will play out. They will extrapolate divine trends and tell how we can get on board the gospel train.

The prophesies that we read in Advent talk about the coming day of the Lord or the kingdom of God or the coming person who will make everything right. These are insights of spiritual people about the nature of the divine and the application of that to the future. When a great leader was needed by the people, the prophets saw that God provided one. By extension, they understood that the ultimate needs of the people would be met by an ultimate leader, a Prince of Peace.

For the next two weeks we will be considering Biblical images of God's presence in the future that concern a peaceful condition.

Like the civil war general, Sherman, the prophets figured out that war was hell. Peace, by opposition, was heaven and God must be very interested in the latter.

You might imagine that the vision of peace that Isaiah provides is an impractical and overly romantic image with no practical application. Upon inspection, however, this powerful set of verses, repeated by Micah, shows a clear understanding of how peace arrives. As we move through the bible passage, we find a clear progression of particulars on peace. It involves education, mediation, and transformation.

Education

Nations will come to the holy mountain to be taught, out of Zion shall go instruction. Before problems change, ideas change. The importance of the right kind of education is reinforced in the final verse of the passage in terms of what will NOT be taught anymore. "We ain't gunna study war no more."

Since the prophets showed the practical sides of principles, we should also consider how this would come about. How can nations learn peace? Well, for example, the Ford Foundation brings together young politicians from America and in South Africa to talk together about the challenges and solutions of political pressures on principles. Together they form support networks that strengthen the resolve of peace in the face of the pressure to war.

In the wars in our hearts and in our homes, we may also have to consider that some education may be necessary. For example, we may not have learned how to simply be nice to people. We may need to learn how to be considerate of others in a culture that is trying to teach us greed at every turn. We may need to learn about Islam, or we may need to learn Spanish to live in peace with our neighbors.

Mediation

After education begins, but before peace arrives, the Old Testament passage says a forum for judgment and mediation is necessary. This is no saccharin notion of human relations without conflict, but the hard nosed idea that there will always be differences of priorities and ideas. We cannot have peace without a way of dealing with conflict other than war. This often involves a legal system or the mediation of third parties.

In international affairs, this suggests more attention to the world court and to the United Nations and to our government's greater respect for their authority.

In domestic affairs, we need to realize that even in the final days, human relations can be helped by an arbiter, a referee; a trusted third party that assists all kinds of relationships to stay connected. Even in the final times of peace, it appears, there will be marriage counselors. Going to get help in times of conflict turns out not to be a sign of defeat or even of a problem, but the way things are supposed to be handled.

Transformation

Finally, and most interestingly to me is the business of the transformation of resources. Swords are retooled into plows and swords into clippers. There is a great economy in God's plans and this is another example. The tools of war are not thrown into the fire, but transformed into tools of growth and nourishment.

For individuals, the tools of violence are mostly words. This means not that we stop talking, but that we learn how to say things that support people.

For nations, we may need help in forming new directions. Our nation has a vibrant economy and there are many who quietly think that war is required for this vigor. Since 1960, through Democrats and Republican administrations, we have spent about 50% of our discretionary governmental income on the military. We need new ideas about new kinds of pruning hooks, new ways of reusing the resources we have already taken from the earth. Politically, this has always been phrased as decisions about guns or butter. There must be something else besides butter that we need that isn't a gun.

These concepts of education, mediation and transformation for peace reach their fruition in Jesus Christ. Jesus teaches in his parables and in his very life the way of non violence. Jesus becomes the ultimate mediator, dealing with the conflicts between our humanity and the divine. Jesus becomes the final image of the transformation, turning even death into life.

Jesus also makes it clear that our need to attend to these things is not some low priority, either. In the Matthew passage for today and many others, Jesus tries to motivate us to take life seriously with images of the end times. Don't wait for God to fix everything in some distant future. Sign up for classes tomorrow, make an appointment of counseling today, write your congressman when you get home from church. You never know, Jesus says, you never know. Take time to do the important things now.