Thursday, December 12, 2019

The Way of Peace Lies Through John

Sermon preached on the Second Sunday of Advent at Trinity Church, Canaseraga:  Isaiah 11:1-10 & Matthew 3:1-12


We begin this morning with another striking image from the prophet Isaiah:

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

Isaiah asks us to imagine a peaceable kingdom. It is the dream of God:  a world living as God would have it live, the garden of Eden restored.

This dream was announced by the prophet in a time of war abroad and division at home. It was a time when the kingdom of Judah was relatively prosperous and secure, but the world around it was increasingly dangerous and threatening.

I wonder how Isaiah’s original hearers reacted to this dream. I wonder what their response was to this call to imagine the possibilities for life that God offered them. I suspect they felt a deep desire touched within them, and yet, also, a profound sadness, even despair, that this dream could never be fulfilled.

Deep within us all lies the desire for peace. But I think we often dare not imagine it. To imagine it is, after all, to invite sadness, even despair, because so many things stand in our way of ever getting to that place. So many things which seem out of our control.

Imagine what your kingdom of peace would look like, feel like. Do you have the same voice inside you that is inside me when I try to do that dreaming? “Don't go there!” that voice says. It is, on the one hand, quite practical advice. Be realistic! Don’t be a dreamer! It’s meant to protect us from despair.

On the other hand, it is a kind of capitulation to despair, is it not?  To stifle our imagination, to refuse to dream seemingly impossible dreams.  Isn’t it true that without an “impossible dream” for our future, our present reality is left being all that there is?

We need impossible dreams of peaceable kingdoms to pull us along into the future and encourage us to take risks to make at least small dreams come true.  And we need impossible dreams of a kingdom of peace to struggle against the kingdom of anxiety that surrounds us and infects us.

But the kingdom of anxiety and its influence over us is strong.  Our inner voice says to the dreamer inside us, “Don’t go there!” That voice is loud and persistent. And there is a mountain of evidence that our dreams of peaceable kingdoms are foolishness.

Sometimes we need to be shaken out of our complacency, shaken out of our capitulation to anxiety and violence as a way of life.

And hence, we need John the Baptist.

The pairing of these readings seems very odd at first, doesn’t it?  Isaiah’s vision of the peaceable kingdom and John’s screaming at us to repent in the wilderness? But the oddness of the pairing puts before us a great truth.  There is no other way to the peaceable kingdom, no other way to true peace in our lives, but through John.

The way of peace lies through John.

What do I mean?

It is that word he uses, “repent.”  Let’s first get out of the way some of its popular meanings that really have little to do with what John or Jesus mean by it.

Repent does not mean “feel bad about or even hate yourself.” Repent does not mean “feel ashamed for things you’ve done wrong.” Repent does not mean “feel guilty.”

Repent means “turn around.” Repent means “find a new perspective, get a new attitude.”  Repent means, “Don’t just stand there feeling ashamed or guilty, do something.”

“Repent” means “change.” Change your mind, change the path you’re on. And there’s no other road to peace than the road marked “change.”

Now there’s a deep irony here. Change is unsettling. Change is often chaotic. Change takes us off balance. Change seems to bring us anything but “peace.”

But like the word “repent,” our understanding of the word “peace” needs a check-up.

Peace doesn’t mean “complacency.” Peace doesn’t mean capitulation to the kingdom of anxiety and fear that controls so much of our lives.

Peace means “well-being.” Peace means “wholeness.” Peace means being in full relationship with God, full relationship with yourself, and full relationship with your neighbor.  Peace means the absence of anxiety and the absence of fear, and the total acceptance of love.

Is this peace truly an impossible dream? Yes. Unless we dream it with God and unless we dream it with one another. Unless we let go of the notion that we must change ourselves. Unless we start asking God to enter into partnership with us to make change happen and be willing for God to use others to show us the way and walk it with us.

Most of us know within ourselves at least one thing that keeps us from peace. Most of us, in fact, know a whole army of inner stuff that keeps us from peace.

What the Scriptures tell us today is that we must dare to dream our own peaceable kingdom. A dream where the wolf lies down with the lamb. A dream where we forgive someone. A dream where we accept a deep hurt or loss that has kept us in despair or in anger. A dream where we stop judging others—and ourselves—so harshly. A dream removing whatever roadblock that keeps us from peace.

We must dare to dream the impossible dream and then we must face John. Face our true selves in the mirror. Face the need to repent, to change, to get a new perspective, to let go of our own need to save ourselves. Embrace the need to partner with God and let God use others to help show us the way and walk with us, knowing full well that the journey to peace most likely will take us through John’s unquenchable fire. But then, there’s no other way to get rid of the chaff—a metaphor for those roadblocks to peace in our lives. And we can trust that on the other side of the fire is truly a more peaceable kingdom.  That is God’s promise.

No comments: