“God wills justice and
peace for the world”

(Isaiah 11:1-10)

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall
grow out of his roots.

The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of
knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

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 oppressed 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.

Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist and faithfulness
the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with
the kid; the calf and the lion shall feed together, and a little child
shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down
together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the
weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not
hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of
the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the
peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be
glorious.

The Message Bible version

A green Shoot will sprout from Jesse’s stump, from his roots a
budding branch.

The life-giving Spirit of God will hover over him, the Spirit that
brings wisdom and understanding, the Spirit that gives direction and
builds strength, the Spirit that instills knowledge and Fear-of-God.

Fear-of-God will be all his joy and delight.

He won’t judge by appearances, won’t decide on the basis of
hearsay.

He’ll judge the needy by what is right, render decisions on
earth’s poor with justice.

His words will bring everyone to awed attention, a mere breath from
his lips will topple the wicked.

Each morning he’ll pull on sturdy work clothes and boots, and
build righteousness and faithfulness in the land.

The wolf will romp with the lamb, the leopard sleep with the kid.

Calf and lion will eat from the same trough, and a little child will
tend them.

Cow and bear will graze the same pasture, their calves and cubs grow
up together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens, the toddler will
stick his hand down the hole of a serpent.

Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill on my holy mountain.

The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive, a living
knowledge of God ocean-deep-wide.

The separation of church and state in America comes from our
founders who were writing into the Constitution that there is to be no
state religion and that people are free to practice their own
religion, as long as public safety, ethics and morals are not
violated. So, persons in our country are free to practice their own
religion.

In contrast is Isaiah’s nation, Judah, in which religious and
political institutions really paralleled one another. But the beauty
in Isaiah’s words, especially in today’s text, is that all
behavior and all institutions will be evaluated in light of the
conviction that God wills peace and justice. As God-fearing people, as
we religious folks say we are, peace and justice are foundational.

The beauty of Isaiah’s illustration of animals, predator and
prey–existing together in peace, is stunning. It’s memorable, and
it’s visionary.

This amazing scene with which we are presented all happens on
God’s Holy Mountain. We know that God’s Holy Mountain is a sacred
place where we human beings are to meet God, where the divine and the
human come together.

…Now, we dare not get too literal with our discussions of the lion
lying down with the lamb and the child playing over the rattlesnake
pit and all those other illustrations. That’s not the point. The
point is that, what may seem impossible gives us a vision for what we
humans can work toward—a world of peace and justice, a world in
which we are always aiming higher than we will ever be able to
accomplish, a world in which we respond to our higher angels instead
of knuckling under to our base instincts. And churches and synagogues
and mosques and other places of worship must be calling us to that
higher spiritual plane, one in which we imagine “The Peaceful
Kingdom.”

Our hope for a New Creation goes beyond any one nation or its laws.
It is God’s vision for humanity, a world, a universe, in which there
is no fear and violence. It is a place where the intersection of
justice, mercy, peace and harmony is the foundation upon which we
ought to stand.

…And yet, in every generation, rather than working to keep the
vision before us, we’re all busy making excuses, saying “You know
all that’s impossible.” And, in fact, we act in opposition to
living as though God’s vision could become reality. How we conduct
ourselves, how we make excuses for our behavior, how we manipulate
facts in order to only serve ourselves–just places us further and
further away from bringing humanity closer to God’s vision, which
is, “They will not hurt or destroy on God’s Holy Mountain.”

…We have a saying at our house when someone steps over the line of
kindness into hurtfulness. “That’s not how we act here.” Would
that in every household, every school, every church, every
institution, every governmental office, there would be someone whom we
admire and look up to who would say, “That is not how we act
here.” And would that the folks who are out of line could listen and
align themselves with a culture that is kind, that is caring and
compassionate, that is respectful. “That is not how we act
here….”

Folks, everyday in the news here in our nation and across the world,
we see behavior that is not caring, is not kind, is not respectful, is
not compassionate, does not align with our principles. But, are we
listening to the people who say, “That is not how we act here?”
No, we are not listening. We are coming back with excuses and lies and
mean-spirited responses.

It is so very simple, folks. Isaiah has laid it out in God’s
words: “They will not hurt or destroy on my Holy Mountain. For the
earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” If you can’t
believe that the lion will lie down with the lamb, you can at least
understand that we are not to be hurting or destroying life on God’s
Holy Mountain. If you can’t believe that the earth will be full of
the knowledge of the Lord, you can at least agree that we in this
church, maybe even in this state and in this nation, can agree that we
wish to live in peace with justice.

As the Message Bible puts it: the whole earth will have a living
knowledge of God ocean-deep and ocean wide!

Having a living knowledge of God means that we understand that God
wants us to live in harmony. The more that we know God, the more we
will be convinced that we are to live in peace with justice. Here we
are not to act any differently, and when people are mean,
grudge-holding, violent, vindictive and murderous, we will stand up
and say, “This is not the way we act.”

And we’ll mean it. Isaiah’s language is not just pretty words
that we throw around at Christmastime. Those of you who are or have
been teachers know that there must be consequences when kids act in
such a way that goes against the rules or hurts another person. We
parents know that if we don’t back up our easily-said words, the
behavior will continue. The follow-up to “This is not the way we
act” is, if it happens again, there will be consequences.

So we can spend all day reading Isaiah 11 aloud, putting forth
God’s dream, but if God’s people aren’t committed to this world
of peace and harmony, if we just like the pretty picture, if we’re
not ready to put ourselves on the line for the Peaceable Kingdom, the
war and cruelty and strife will continue because human beings,
unfortunately, will almost always choose to act in their own
interests, to line their own pockets, to gain more and more power, to
tramp on whomever gets in their way. But, folks, that is not how we do
things on the Holy Mountain of the Lord. There creation will be at
peace because we want it, we’ll stand up for it, we’ll not settle
for a world in chaos and ugliness. The life-giving Spirit of God will
lead us and make us into believers and actors and peace-makers and
justice-seekers. Each morning we will be inspired to pull on sturdy
work clothes and boots, and get busy building righteousness and
faithfulness in our land. This is the way we God-followers act. Amen