Isaiah 65: 17-25
Mark 16: 14-15
The
reading from Isaiah, comes from the second part of Isaiah, this was written
when the people of Israel were in exile. For the people of Israel, being
defeated and taken into captivity signified that their God was not as powerful
as the Babylonian God. After years in exile, the captives are economically
better placed than those left in Israel. However, there is concern that they
are losing their identity, assimilating with the people around them.
And they
blame God.
I am sure
you have all met people who blame everything in their lives that has not worked
out as planned on someone else. Nothing is ever their fault.
The
prophet is telling the people of Israel to quit blaming God and take
responsibility for their situation. The
prophet points to their self-centredness[1].
sound familiar??
This
passage from Isaiah is about a peaceful future on God’s mountain, it is a
vision of a new earth and heaven, a new way of living as God’s people, in
harmony with all creation.
Do we know
that peace and harmony?
Isaiah
writes about peace with all creation, the original talks of the lamb lying with
the lion.
The modern
version we heard this morning talks of love, life being grounded and based in
love, fullness of life, no more destruction, no more selfishness.
Friday was The International Day of Peace, Isaiah
writes of the peaceable kingdom, what is peace? The absence of conflict and
violence, yes, but more than that. The word “Shalom means completeness,
wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety soundness, tranquillity, prosperity,
perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord.” [2]
That is
the kind of peace the prophet speaks about, peace that is a life lived with contentment,
in harmony, at peace with creation, with each other, with our self and with
God.
Where does
this peace come from?
What might
the Mountain of peace be?
Earlier we
thought about Mountains in general, what Biblical stories that include
mountains come to mind?
- Noah’s Ark
- Moses and
10 commandments
- Transfiguration
- Sermon on
the Mount – beatitudes
- Elijah and
the still small voice
- Mount of
Olives, where Jesus wept over Jerusalem
- Calvary
-
amazing
things happen on mountains, people talk with God, God talks with people,
visions, teaching, …
Mountains
are places where the interaction with God somehow seems closer.
We talk
even today of ‘mountaintop’ experiences. Moments and times that are special, often so
special we can’t find the words to describe them.
Times of
peace, of calm, of being totally present in that moment and space.
In some ways
the Mountain of peace, the vision of Isaiah of shalom, wholeness and harmony, does
not exist. Not only are there wars and violence in the world, but people live in
ways that diminish them, due to poverty and oppression; there are places where the
water is not suitable for drinking, the air makes people and animals sick such is
the pollution; there are animals and plants that are extinct or near to
extinction. The Mountain of peace seems like a distant dream, pushed further
away by our self-centredness, just as it was for the people of Israel.
Yet, we do
have hope, we can live in peace, peace within and with God, that will show in the
way we live. This is because of an event on another mountain. Calvary,
Golgotha, the place of crucifixion.
It seems
bizarre to me, that death is what leads to life, yet that is our experience of the
gospel. The life and death and resurrection of Jesus, gives us hope, peace and
joy; the life and death and resurrection of Jesus allows to live fully, to lives
selflessly; the life and death and resurrection of Jesus is a sign of the
coming kingdom, a kingdom of shalom.
What do we
do with this peace, with the invitation to life?
Mark
records Jesus as saying that the disciples should proclaim the good news to all
creation. We rarely read this part of Mark, we read the commission to the
disciples in Matthew, go into all the world and make disciples. Here in Mark the
commission to the disciples is telling, living the good news, for the whole
creation.
For the
past 4 weeks we have looked at some areas of creation, at Genesis one and the
story of creation out of chaos, a reminder to people in exile that God can
create order out of the chaos of their lives. A reminder of the interwovenness
of all creation. And God saw that it was good. How do we think about God’s creation?
Then we
looked at humanity, and how people are part of God’s creation, and God named people
as good. All people are made in the image of God, fat people, brown people,
broken people, babies and old people and everyone, all made in the image of God
– WOW!!!
And last
week we thought about the sky and how the sky tells the glory of God, where do
we see God’s glory, in what ways does our living show God’s glory?
And then
today Mountains, and peace.
We are
made in the image of God and God declares us to be good. A good part of a good
creation. A part of God bringing order and beauty out of chaos.
May our
lives speak of God’s glory, God’s love, mercy and grace to all people and to
all the creation.
Let us
take some time to reflect.
