“But I might need my sword”

(Isaiah 2:1-5I)

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.

People who have known me over the years are sometimes surprised that my 2 children have been connected to the military.  Dylan served in the Air Force for a time, and my son-in-law was a career Naval officer.  When my daughter announced in 1993 that she would be marrying her high school sweetheart who, at that time, was newly enlisted in the Navy, my reaction was less than favorable.  I pointed out that he would be in harm’s way whenever there was conflict in the world, and, it was clear that there would always be some kind of unrest somewhere.  I asked her if that’s the life she wanted.  Obviously, it was because they have been married for nearly 32 years.  We have come to love and respect our son-in-law who had a very honorable career in the Navy.

            The thing is, my concerns were not unfounded.  Our nation was in conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan for many years, and my son-in-law was in harm’s way more than once.  I take no pleasure in being right about that. 

I no longer sit on my high horse, though, acting as if I know it all, at least on that topic.  I no longer think I know much of anything about the military.  Though I have not completely left my peacenik self behind, I now see the issue of war and violence and the military from a different, more personal standpoint.

            In some ways it makes me more opposed to war, and surely more of an advocate for peace.  Having our own children in the military causes me to have a more intense reaction to the news of war casualties and people who are placed in dangerous situations.  The issue of our nation at war became much more than a theoretical topic.  It no longer was an ethics discussion in a classroom.  We’re talking about all our country’s young people.  It is the parents of children here and throughout the world whose hearts are ripped out of their chests when their children are killed, injured or left with PTSD for the rest of their lives. 

Age has taught me to never say anything that would undermine the morale of any young man or woman serving our nation, especially in a war zone.  I’ve learned this because I know how our daughter and son-in-law have heard and received such comments.

            I know what it’s like to be a parent with a heart heavy for her own children and for all the people who put their lives in danger in regions of war and unrest, whether military personnel, police, security officers of any kind.  …At the same time… I’m a preacher who must interpret with integrity the Word as I hear it in a Biblical text.

            And so, I come today, hopefully with humility, still working to proclaim the Word of God as I hear it from the prophet Isaiah.

            One of the things I often hear said about peace-makers and those who advocate for non-violence is that the position is not practical, it’s not realistic.  “You’re livin’ in a dream world,” we are told.  “The best defense is a good offense because the enemy will get you if you don’t get them first.”  But today’s text tells us a different story about God and about what we might want to consider for ourselves.

            Isaiah has been given a vision from God about the days to come.  Through this oracle, he shares that picture with his audience at a point some 700 years before Jesus’ birth.  Studying the Isaiah scrolls was undoubtedly an important part of Jesus’ learning and training as a young Jewish man, and it’s part of who we are as well.  Isaiah’s words describe what is often called in prophetic literature, the Day of the Lord, a time in the future when God truly will reign, when our world will reflect God’s vision for us. 

In the Day of the Lord, people will long to listen to God, and God, then, will teach us to walk in his path.  God is not only Judge but, also mediator among the nations and teacher to the people.  The people will have a response to God’s work as judge, teacher and mediator.  They will respond by turning their swords from weapons of war into tools for farming.

            And then, if that’s not amazing enough, nations will no longer lift their swords against other nations.  They won’t have to learn about war anymore.

            Now, I know there are those who interpret this stuff to mean that all this will happen when, in the future, Jesus comes, which, said another way, means in the sweet by-and by.  So, we think, never mind.  We don’t really have to pay attention to this beating-swords-into-plowshares business.  We can just keep going as we have been: learning war—and making war.  Or we may just feel hopeless about how dangerous and violent the world is.

            …But I don’t agree.  This sort of thinking takes us off the hook, it gets us out of working on the hard stuff, it removes our responsibility to take seriously the Word of God.  We cannot push God’s Word off into some unnamed time in the future.  It is clear that making peace IS God’s will in this time and place.  AND, as we are invited to walk in the light of the Lord, we are to participate in the coming of the Day of the Lord.  God intends that we are to be in the business of making peace.

            Now, no one is saying, least of all God, that there will be no conflict, that everyone will just get along and agree on everything—and sit around the campfire singing Kum Ba Yah.

            There WILL be differences among nations, among groups, among people.  It’s a given.  There will be disputes.  This is what happens with people.  It is inevitable.  The distinction is, we are to work to solve these conflicts–but not through war.  God is described as judge, mediator and teacher in this text, so we ought to be listening carefully to God, looking to find peaceful solutions for our disagreements—those among nations, those within nations, those among groups and among individuals.

            And this problem-solving begins right here and now.  It’s not some pie-in-the sky-by-and-by that allows us to keep thinking we have to beat into submission the people with whom we disagree, shouting them down, arguing until they back down, sometimes even resorting to violence… kind of like what’s going on today in our nation and in our world.  No… when God is running the show, when God is truly at the center of our lives, we will find that there are other ways to solve differences.

            Now, I know there are situations in which action is imperative.  America learned about that in World War II.  We learned how horrible Hitler and the Nazis were and how the attack on Pearl Harbor pushed us into the war.  I know about the World Trade Center Towers and about terrorists.  …But I also know that there are lots of situations everyday when nations have the opportunity to negotiate, to strike compromises, to avoid armed conflict.

            I know that there are times in our nation, our state, in our religious denominations, in our churches, our jobs and in our personal lives when we can choose to avoid stand-offs and all-out social warfare.  This is not to say we don’t stand up for our beliefs (this is more important now than ever).  But it is to say that we can respect others of good will by hearing their thoughts and beliefs and the stories about who they are and what they have come through.  It is to say that there are ways of working through differences without destroying those with whom we disagree.

            Yes, there is meaning to be made from this text.  There is a message here that I wish our leaders would hear and take seriously.  There is a message for every political party, every state, every religion, every school, every church, synagogue and mosque, every leader within each of those groups, and there is a message for us.

            That message is hope—hope for a peaceful world—yes, maybe even in our lifetimes—if we’re vigilant, if we believe and act accordingly, if we elect people of good will and good faith and demand they seek peace and justice and that they work for the good of all people.

            And, folks, this is the season in which we prepare for the coming of the Prince of Peace.  This Isaiah text is read on this first Sunday in Advent for a reason.  It’s because we understand that our celebration of the birth of Christ ought to be a giant step toward the day “when nation shall not lift up sword against nation nor will we study war anymore.”

            Let us not be among those negative voices, those voices without hope who say, “It’ll never happen.  Those are just pretty words.  It was all great on that silent night 2000 years ago, but we know that that just makes a nice Nativity scene.  Besides, we might be needing our swords.” 

If that’s what we think, we will be content to let God sit in a box 11 months of the year.  Instead, let’s take God’s Word seriously and be among those who fervently believe that, with God’s help, with each of us making the intention and living it… that even the miracle of peace on earth could happen… that all our children will be cared for with the love that we have for the Christ Child….  That is our hope in this season of Advent.

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