A sermon preached at Kowloon Union
Church on Sunday 8 December 2019, the second Sunday in Advent, by the Rev. Dr. Judy Chan. The
scripture readings that day were Isaiah 11:1-10, Romans 15:4-13, Matthew 3:
1-12.
Around 20 years ago, there was a
meeting that I really wanted to go to in the Netherlands. It was the Assembly
of the World Association for Christian Communication. I’d been involved in the
Asia region of this ecumenical network. And every 6 years they had a global
assembly of all the regions. But the problem was I didn’t have enough money to
go. Then I heard that WACC was running a logo design contest for the meeting.
The theme was “From Conflict to Community”. Anyone who was a regional member
could enter the contest. And the grand prize? A free trip to Amsterdam. Here
was my chance! Now, I don’t know how to do computer design, so my logo had to
be drawn by hand. And what I came up with was a drawing of a lion and a lamb
lying down together and the words “From Conflict to Community” over the top.
The image, of course, is taken from Isaiah 11. Well, my brilliant idea done in
primitive art style didn’t win the contest. The good news, however, is I found
other funding and I got to go the Assembly anyway.
20 years later, here we are again with
an image of a lion and lamb lying down together in the Old Testament reading.
This has captured our collective imagination. If you see pictures of this,
usually it’s a majestic lion lying down on the grass with a gentle lamb nestled
up in front of it. Other artists inject
a bit of humor with a drawing of a lamb and a lion sitting together at a bar
having martinis. But the one image that many people think of for Isaiah 11 is
the famous painting – The Peaceable Kingdom. This was done by the American
Quaker Edward Hicks in the 19th century. Here he takes all of verses 6-8 to include
the different animals and children. And way in the background is the Quaker
leader, William Penn, negotiating a peace treaty with the native Americans. I
didn’t know that Edward Hicks actually painted 62 versions of this picture. And
as the story goes, he became more and more discouraged by the conflicts of his
time, especially within his religious community. So, in the later versions, he
paints the lions and leopards and wolves looking more and more ferocious with
glassy eyes and bigger fangs.
It’s obvious then that this dream of a
violent world returning to the Garden of Eden wasn’t happening in his lifetime,
and maybe not in our lifetime either. There are endless jokes about the lion
and lamb lying down together. Here’s one: The lamb says, “Let’s call a truce.”
The lion replies, “After I have my dinner, thank you.” This peaceable kingdom
then seems no more realistic in the animal world than in the human world. Wild animals
do not live together with domestic animals. Lions are not vegetarians. And
little children do not lead them, much less play near snake pits. So, what is
going on here?
To understand this poem, we need to
look at the setting. It’s the 8th century BC and Israel is under
threat by the Assyrians. Isaiah predicts the fall of the Assyrians like a tree
cut down that will never grow again. But then he turns to the house of David,
son of Jesse. And even though David’s house is falling too, Isaiah says there is
hope. From that tree stump will sprout a shoot whose branches will grow out
from the root of Jesse. A greater King is coming whose reign will truly be one
of peace and righteousness.
Christians of course understand this
passage to be a prophecy of the Messiah Jesus Christ. The King of kings will
save us from our sins. He will protect the poor and the vulnerable. His kingdom
will reconcile and restore all of God’s creation – humanity, animal life and
the land. But ‘when?’ you ask. Jesus came as a babe in the manger over 2000
years ago, and still there is endless injustice and violence. There’s a carol
we often sing at Christmas called “I Heard the Bells”. It’s not just about lovely bells that remind
us this is a season of peace. Actually the 5th verse was written
while the country was in Civil War. Here Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote:
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth,"
I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to
men!" (and women)
Why is there no peace on earth this
Christmas even though Jesus Christ has been born? If Jesus is who he says he is, why do lambs
continue to be eaten by lions and wolves? Is Isaiah 11 just a faraway vision
that will only happen at the 2nd coming of Christ? If so, why did
Jesus come the first time if it didn’t really change anything?
This morning, I have to tell you we
make a big mistake if we think the coming of Jesus didn’t make any difference.
In fact, his Advent into the world 2000 years ago changed everything for
you and me. How, you may ask?
By giving us three of the most
important things we need:
The promises of God.
The justice of God.
The peace of God.
And you and I receive each of these in
the coming of Jesus Christ. Let’s look more closely at these from our Bible
readings for the 2nd Sunday in Advent.
1) The promises of God: I admit
sometimes I forget Jesus was a Jew. We seem to emphasize so much how he was at
odds with the Jewish people that it sounds as if he disowned them to start a
new religion. As if God had gotten disgusted with the whole lot of them and
decided to give someone else the blessing. But that’s definitely not the case.
As St Paul wrote to the Romans: “For I tell you that Christ has become a
servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might
confirm the promises given to the
patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his
mercy.” What is Paul saying? Instead of feeling smug that we have the Gospel
and others don’t, we need to recognize how we got Jesus in the first place –
through the Jewish people and the mercy of God. I like the way one of our radio
speakers put it. He said, remember, “the Lord we worship and follow is of the
tribe of Judah, the son of David; a Jewish child of a Jewish mother. We call him by a Jewish title, Christ, the
Messiah. The privilege of belonging to
the people of God is ours . . . nevertheless . . . the gifts and calling of God to his ancient
people the Jews, are irrevocable.”
They can’t be taken away.
This morning, then, let us be grateful
that the promises of God to Israel are also ours through the coming of Jesus
Christ. As Paul quotes from Isaiah:
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him . . .
The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him
the Gentiles shall hope.” The promises of God.
2) The justice of God: The 2nd
way that the coming of Jesus changed everything is through the justice of God.
We read over and over again in the Old Testament that God hates injustice and
takes the side of the poor and marginalized and oppressed. And not only is God
on their side, so should God’s people be on their side. We know this. We’ve
heard it and we believe it at Kowloon Union Church. But we also are quite sure
we know who are the lions out there and who are the lambs, who are the
predators and who are the prey. In many situations it’s obvious. But what if
the lion and the lamb are found in the same person? That’s right. What if there
is a little lion and a little lamb inside each one of us? Then we have to come
to terms with the potential within each of us to be an oppressor as well as the
oppressed. To be the bully as well as the victim.
I think that’s why the words of John
the Baptist to the Pharisees and Sadducees are so powerful. “You brood of
vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of
repentance.” Remember, John was calling on all the people of Israel to repent,
everyone to prepare the way of the Lord.
But he held special contempt for those who thought they had nothing to
repent of, that they were faultless.
“Don’t go telling me who your father was,” John says. “If you aren’t
bearing the fruit of righteousness, God is ready to chop down your tree.” Wow.
If that’s what God says to the people of Israel, what’s the message to us
Gentiles? Nothing less than this: God won’t tolerate injustice – to His people
or from His people – and that includes you and me.
3. The peace of God: That’s the
3rd way that the coming of Jesus changed everything by making peace
truly possible. One of the verses we
often quote in this context comes from Philippians 4:7: “And the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus.” I don’t think that means that God gives us a kind of peace that
no one else would call peace – that we passively accept tragedy and violence
and suffering in this life because God will give us comfort in the next life.
Remember we’ve been talking about “peace on earth, goodwill to all”. So the
peace Christ brings to guard our hearts and minds must make some difference now
between his first coming and his final coming. And I say it does if we follow
not only what Jesus said but what he did.
What then has Jesus done that makes
peace possible? We need to look no further than the Cross. For what was his
crucifixion but the most violent, humiliating punishment that the Romans could
dish out to enemies of the state? I always imagine the Cross of Jesus and the
thieves standing alone on Good Friday. But likely there were many more victims
hanging on crosses all along the road. This was the Empire’s way of warning
others “you might be next”. Yet only at the Cross of Christ do we find meaning
and redemption. Only Jesus died out of love for his enemies. Because he knew
there was only one way to lasting peace. And that is to accept that even my
enemy is a child of God. That God’s ultimate goal has never been revenge or
reversal but forgiveness and reconciliation. That’s why Jesus chose to suffer
violence rather than be the cause of it. To speak God’s truth by every means
possible except violence and hatred. Because he knew once we release our inner
beast, we may start to become what we hate. And that would be the greatest
tragedy of all.
Of course, we’re not Jesus. And it’s
way harder for us to follow his example, he who was both fully human and fully
divine. We only got the human part. Yet the good news of the Gospel is that
through Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection, God has done for us what
we could not do for ourselves. We now have the possibility of living in peace.
If we choose.
So, it turns out the image of the
Peaceable Kingdom really is fitting for the Advent season. It’s God’s vision
that we do not need to depend on each other’s destruction for our own survival.
That in fact, the Gospel tells us that we are ultimately responsible for the
life of our neighbor and especially the lives of our enemies.
In our Advent series this year, I was
given the title “Choose A Better Way”. And that’s how I will close. By asking
you to choose a better way through Jesus Christ who opened the promises of God
to the Gentiles. To choose a better way
through Jesus Christ who showed us God won’t tolerate injustice towards anyone
or from anyone - including you and me. To choose a better way through Jesus
Christ who made peace on earth possible by trusting faithful witnesses to
follow His way – all the way to Cross if necessary until there is justice,
peace, healing and unity for all.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, December 08, 2019
