PEACE ON EARTH
Shortly after the birth of Jesus, angels appeared to some shepherds and declared, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Peace on earth!
Peace is elusive today. They can’t find it in Ukraine. They can’t find it in Palestine. They can’t find it in the world of trade where tariffs are being fired out like torpedoes at hapless nations.
If peace is shalom, a balance of harmony and well-being both within our hearts and between us in our relationships, it is hard to find there too. We want it. We desire it. We can’t seem to find it, even within our selves.
As Michael Marsh says, “I want to live with more balance and harmony. I want the divisions and contradictions within me, the parts of myself that often argue with or fight each other, to find reconciliation. I want my heart to be at peace with you and others. I want my wolf and lamb to live together.”
Why is peace hard to find? Why am I finding my college students grappling more and more with social anxiety? I had one student transfer from being in our live class to online learning because he can’t handle being in public. Another student suffers constant nightmares and other results of trauma. I wondered what was causing this seeming epidemic of fear, so I researched it.
Three roots of fear, the enemy of peace, have been identified by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). First, the rise of social media. No surprise there. It is so easy to connect digitally that face-to-face interactions are less necessary. We avoid the stress of conflict by texting and DMs. But because of over-reliance on our devices, people are becoming socially anxious – they are not practising relationship and are less able to function socially.
Second, and I had not thought of this, there is less pressure for survival than much of the world experiences or than previous generations knew. Our attention has shifted from finding the basic necessities of life (food and water) towards stuff, money, appearance. And the lack of satisfaction we find in these pursuits leads to anxiety and depression.
And third, the Pandemic’s effects. We talk about this one, but the reality never hit me till now. Young adults are still feeling the effects of the extended quarantine. They learned to socialize through tech and study by zoom. Now, re-entering the workplace and schools, they are still struggling to acclimate. In-person education leaves children with higher anxiety than in previous generations.
The remedy, NIMH says, is learning to think differently through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). They say that socially anxious people are happier interacting with other people than being alone. More social avoidance deprives socially anxious people of a major source of well-being.
Isaiah’s prophecy in our text today describes with one word how socially anxious people feel right now: stumped. Israel had great potential and great hopes for their kingdom. They had the LORD their God behind them and before them. They had a line of kings in the family of David. But they took their eyes off of the LORD and chased after stuff. If the legacy of the kingdom were a great tree, it was cut down to the roots by self-destructive behavior, by sin. All that was left was a stump of that tree.
What is a tree stump good for? Sitting, but that’s it. It has no branches for birds to nest in or people to find shade and relief under. It bears no fruit and gives no seeds. It has no leaves for healing the diseases of the people. A stump is a hopeless sight. That was Israel. A people without hope. A people who did not know peace or shalom.
Isaiah prophesied in the midst of gloom, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit,” (1). This is a remarkable promise. Out of something dead and hopeless, life emerges. I have a tree in our garden that died, and I hacked it down as deeply as I could. It still wants to send up shoots.
Out of the stump of Jesse, out of the family of kings, a shoot will emerge. Not just another king, but another David. The force of this saying is more emphatic than we read in English. David was the ideal king, a man after God’s own heart. He was the original “King Arthur of Camelot.” His era was the highwater mark of the kingdom of Israel, the “good old days” that everyone referred to wistfully. Isaiah says there will come a king who will make you forget the “good old days” and bring in a kingdom of justice and peace.
Isaiah colors in the frames of peace with images that stir the imagination. Reflect on these images of peace:
“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf 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 cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den,” (6-8).
What is this a picture of exactly? Eden! It is Paradise before sin entered the world. With the coming King, the world returns to the time before there were predators and prey. Imagine a wolf and a lamb cuddling together; imagine a change of nature – what we have always accepted as normal, that a wolf ravenously attacks and eats a lamb – now they coexist in peace. Imagine a cow and a bear eating grass together. This will be the new normal in the new kingdom.
Can you picture it? An eight-month-old child playing near the home of a cobra; a toddler putting her hand into a pit of snakes and not being bit. The wild will be tamed. Wolves, lambs, lions, goats, bulls, and leopards will be under the rule and dominion of a child. That’s what Isaiah saw when he said, “A child shall lead them.” Peace! This is new. This is different. Isaiah saw what was and imagined something different through the leading of the Spirit. Isaiah asks us to imagine something different.
What if imagination were the first ingredient needed for peace? NIMH prescribed CBT: learning to think differently. What does the Bible prescribe for finding peace?
In preparation for the coming of Jesus, the King, John the Baptist cried out, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” (Matthew 3:2). What is John saying? Imagine your life different. Imagine something new. Imagine something as possible which before seemed impossible. Change your mind. Turn around. Go in a new direction. Imagine. Repent. Think differently.
Isaiah’s vision of the King and his Kingdom seem like an impossible dream. A wolf and a lamb dwelling together. As impossible as it seems, the life of peace is coming near to you. The kingdom of peace comes to wipe away social anxiety, fear, and division. Advent always promises that something is coming, something new and unexpected.
Jesus has come and he said, “My peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid,” (John 14:27). His peace has come. The kingdom reigns in your heart when you let the King of peace rule your inner wolves and lambs. The kingdom reigns in your relationships with one another when you let the King of Peace reconcile you to your former predators. Imagine that.
Advent is a time of waiting. As Israel waited for the Messiah to come, they no doubt grew impatient for the peace in Isaiah’s vision to become reality. We are in the second advent now, waiting for Jesus to come again to bring all things back to Eden with one little word from his lips. We grow impatient too waiting for Isaiah’s vision of a day when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. Everyone in the New Earth will have an ever-expanding knowledge of Jesus. No one will not know him. And there will be peace on earth. It will not be elusive, and everyone will know it.
Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Imagine, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Be at peace with yourself, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Be at peace with one another, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Be at peace with all of creation, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Be at peace with God through Christ, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Peace!
AMEN
Various quotes, thoughts, and ideas are borrowed from Michael K. Marsh, Interruptingthesilence.com “Peace for our Wolves and Lambs – A Sermon on Isaiah 11:1-10” Dec. 5, 2022.
NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) – National Library of Medicine (NIH)
https://seattleanxiety.com/psychiatrist/2023/2/24/exploring-the-recent-rise-of-social-anxiety-disorder (Seattle Anxiety Specialists)
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