Hope

First reading – Isaiah 2: 1-5

Gospel - Luke 1: 5-25

Monologue  Elizabeth – [from candles and conifers p 204-5] 

Proclamation of the Word

In Advent we talk about Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. Today I want us to look at the images we have of Hope in today’s readings. This may not have been the first word you thought of, but to me these are hopeful passages.

This first 39 chapters of Isaiah are predominately about divine judgement. Jerusalem was the site of the temple, and therefore an important religious centre. But Jerusalem was also the political capital, the seat of the throne of the house of David. This first part of Isaiah, is about God’s judgement on the people of Israel, about how the land will be desolate, the people in exile, yet interspersed, there are some passages of hope. Jerusalem was the site of many battles, and was overrun by other nations. The Israelites saw this as punishment from God. The five verses we heard today are one of these passages of hope, promises of God, hope for a future.

A future that will be different to there daily experience.

Imagine if the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, were told that their future would be one without war – how easy would it be to believe that some time in the future, fear and violence would not be part of daily life?

Many people have attempted to update these verses for Isaiah, especially the section about they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. This was an agricultural society, so if you can turn your fighting implements into farming tools, life is about life, not fear and death.

Some modern phrasing*: 

 -They will turn weapons into welcome signs
........and bombs into tools and toys.
 - They'll turn their swords into shovels,
       their spears into hoes.
 - They shall turn their bombers into flying doctors,
        and their warships into food freighters;

- a song by Willie Dixon, talks of the money spent on war could be used to feed and house and educate people.

- how would you phrase this for your life?

A hope for peace, living in peace. For us war and violence may seem a long way away, but try getting into an airport and you have to go through security procedures because the world is not at peace.

The hopeful image from Isaiah seems like a dream, but sometimes dreams come true.

Zechariah and Elizabeth had given up dreaming about a child. Zechariah was a priest, that means he took his turn serving in the temple.  One day an angel appeared, and the angel said: do not be afraid. Your prayers have been answered and your wife will bear a son.  That sounds nearly as far fetched as Isaiah’s peaceful future.

The son of Zechariah and Elizabeth will grow to be great in the sight of God. God works through Elizabeth and Zechariah, not just for them, but for Israel and for God’s purposes.

This story from Luke isn’t about hope fulfilled, Zechariah and Elizabeth had given up hope long ago.

These two passages are about God’s future, a future so far removed from our experience of life it is hard to even imagine.

What kind of kingdom can we imagine, one of accusation, blame, shame; one of consumption and corruption; one of pride and humiliation; power; deception; oppression? These are the kind of kingdoms we live with, kingdoms that are not in line with God’s kingdom, kingdom’s that make God’s kingdom of hope, peace, justice, righteousness sound like a pipe dream.

BUT, there is one whose birth we celebrate in a month, one whose life showed  a different way, one whose death revealed love, one whose resurrection holds our resurrection. We prepare for Jesus to come as a baby, but also as the prince of peace, the ruler of a new kingdom.  

What is our part in all this – are we waiting, praying, ready to respond when God sends and angel? Are we turning swords into ploughshares, or the other way around?

Isaiah says: God will show us the way he works, so that we can live the way we’re made. Come, people of God, let's live in the light of God.

* modern phrasing form Laughing Bird, Bruce Prewer and The Message

Peace and Division

The people of Jerusalem had been in exile, when they returned to the devastated city, they set about cleaning up the rubble, and rebuilding. Imagine what is must have been like, you have seen images of war from the middle east, eastern Europe a few years ago, Vietnam. We have seen devastation by earthquakes and cyclones, so imagining a ruined city is not all the difficult. But imagine this is your city, your street, your place of worship that has been destroyed. After years in exile you are excited about returning home, but what is it you return to?  

What do you build first?

The Temple. It isn’t as grand as Solomon’s Temple, and the rebuilding of other buildings is slow. Life is hard, food is not plentiful, the vegetable gardens were destroyed in the war, the vines, the fruit trees are gone. Life is hard.

Will things ever be the same?

Then Isaiah, the prophet, the man who speaks God’s word, says

God is creating a new heaven and a new earth, the past will not be remembered, there will be rejoicing instead of distress; every person will live a long and full life; people will eat from the trees they plant; people will live in the houses they build; death and devastation will not be part of this new creation. The new creation, the new thing God is creating will be so harmonious that the lamb and the wolf will lay down together, and neither will be in danger.

A beautiful image of the kingdom of God, the kingdom that God is creating. A word of hope for people who are struggling.

I often think of Jesus as the fulfilment of that vision of a new creation, a kingdom of justice and peace and harmony.

Yet when we read the Gospel passage, there is a temple destroyed, wars, earthquakes, famines, and plagues. People being persecuted for being followers of Jesus, people being betrayed by family and friends, people being killed for being associated with Jesus. this hardly sounds like a kingdom of peace and justice and harmony.

What can we make of the story of hope from Isaiah and the story of division in the gospel. Both are real in our lives. The passage from the prophet Isaiah reminds us that that the kingdom God is creating is a kingdom of peace and justice, and we are called to be part of God’s activity in creating a new kingdom. We are indeed people of hope.

But, not everyone shares this vision, because a kingdom of peace and justice doesn’t sit with values of pride, individualism, wealth for its own sake. In a kingdom of peace and justice there is no room for wars, no space for overcharging, for treating people badly, for putting profit before people. So there will be division, and persecution. The persecution isn’t just because we say we believe, it is when we live out God’s kingdom values. When we live out justice, that is threatening to some people; when we live as God’s people, when we stand with those who have little, when we speak on behalf of refugees, people with mental illness, the elderly, the young, when we speak on behalf of those without power, then we will be chastised.

A quote : When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist. Dom Helda Camara

The man who spoke those words was a Bishop in South America, he spoke out for the poor, and in 1970 the military leaders banned him from speaking in public for 13 years, during that time even his name was not allowed to be published.

The Kingdom of peace and justice does not sit comfortably in our modern society. It didn’t fit too well in Jesus’ day either. He was killed by those in power, both religious and civil power.

And after Jesus died, some thirty years later, the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.  Did it make any difference to God? If we didn’t have this building to worship in, would we still be people who meet together to worship, people who acknowledge God’s reality in our lives, people who are intent on living in God’s grace and God’s power? God doesn’t live in the building, God lives in our lives. God isn’t building a kingdom in the sense of fences and barricades and knights and castles. The Kingdom God is building, is being built in our lives.

And we are called to live out God’s kingdom where we are. To be agents of change, to live as God’s people, living in peace and justice, living in harmony with all creation. In our actions, our working, our speaking. Sometimes that means we will be unpopular. When the Uniting Church started up the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in Kings Cross, there was vocal opposition from within the Uniting Church, from some other churches, and from many in the community. But the people who were given the task of getting it up and running, persevered. Many lives have been saved, and many people have been referred to drug rehabilitation facilities. At other times the Church has been at the forefront of community change, such as the abolition of slavery. In the US today there are Christians hiding illegal immigrants, not to break the law, but to show the unfairness of the law.

Sometimes we can speak about our faith, but we need to always live our faith.

And as Luke records Jesus speaking in the passage we heard today, this will lead to persecution. And persecution allows us to testify about God. This is seen as a positive. Persecution is an opportunity to testify about God. I had not thought of persecution as an opportunity. But looking at anti-slavery campaigns, the networks that hide illegal immigrants, the people who proposed the Medically Supervised injecting Centre – they all had the opportunity to speak up for those without access to the media, and they had the opportunity to speak of God’s creation of all people, of how we are all made in God’s image; that we are all broken people, that we all need compassion and grace, and we all need to show compassion to others.

The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of peace and justice, a kingdom where we know our brokenness, where respect is offered to all people, where God’s love is the standard we live. We work with God in the coming kingdom. A kingdom of peace and justice. We live the kingdom; we take risks; we offer hope; we trust in God.

The kingdom of God is near.