World Impossible?
There is a battle that rages in every household, at least once a week, if you only own one TV. Who gets control of the remote? It takes compromise, negotiating, sometimes some begging, sometimes an overruling, and sometimes even a few tears are shed, but eventually it gets settled. When the dust clears one person gets to watch what they want to and the rest of the family either watches too or finds something else to do. Who thinks they hold the record for their house? I can tell you that I don’t own it in our house. Not because I don’t want to fight for it. It’s usually because I am doing something else. Lauren loves TV though! When we’re at home and doing things around the house in the evening the TV is on. This usually leads to me watching/paying attention to shows that I wouldn’t watch otherwise because she is in control. We don’t follow any certain shows with regularity, but there is a genre that is a go-to for Lauren. I don’t know if it has an actual title or not, but I call them “makeover/competition.” Lauren will fully admit that she typically watches these kinds of shows for the reveal. Sometimes it’s about the process it takes to get to the end result, but usually it’s to see how radically different the change has been. I have to admit that it hooks me in too.
One that we watch on the food network is called “Restaurant Impossible.” It features Chef Robert Irvine who looks like a pro wrestler. He’s about 6 ft 5, huge muscles and a closely cropped haircut. The premise of the show is that Chef Robert goes into failing restaurants and completely redoes them. He challenges the owners to change what they need to, deals with staff conflicts, fixes the menu and completely renovates the interior of the restaurant. This all takes place in the span of a couple days and with a budget of about $10,000. Chef Robert works under impossible conditions with impossible odds to do some amazing transformations.
The word that Isaiah saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem seems impossible for both its hearers at the time and for us today. During the time of Isaiah the people of Israel were conquered by the Assyrian empire. Some of the people were even carried off to Assyria as a result. War was common and peace was uncommon. Into this Isaiah speaks of a time when the temple of God will be on the highest mountain (the highest point out there), people will stream into it to learn about God’s ways. God will mediate between nations and as a result people will beat their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. Instruments of war and destruction being turned into tools for production and peace. Peace will reign and everyone will not want to learn how to fight one another anymore. You can see where the people would have seen it as being impossible. We’re talking a total transformation from everything they had known.
Our world is similar to the world of Isaiah. Every time you turn on the news someone else is dead, another family is hurting, another tragedy has happened. War and famine rage in foreign countries. People are hungry, suffering from illness, have no home, no job, and broken relationships are more common than not. How do we respond to it? Another show Lauren really likes to watch and I have seen more of than I care to admit is Project Runway. Up and coming fashion designers take on challenges and design new garments that are judged by a panel. One of the big names in the show and the shepherd of this flock of designers is Tim Gunn. He is known most famously for his phrase “make it work” When he comes into the workroom to look at the progress of the designers and they are struggling he will give suggestions and then tell them simply “make it work.” It’s actually a joke around our house. Every once in a while Lauren or I will look at the other and just say “make it work” That’s how we all typically approach the things that are going on in the world. We respond by just trying to “make it work” We might look for a real change, but we are mostly left with just trying to make it work. It’s not a full solution. It doesn’t really bring a full peace.
The promise that the people of Israel heard from Isaiah that we hear again today is that God isn’t just going to “make it work”. God will make complete transformation happen. God won’t accept anything less than that. The peace that God will bring can only happen through complete transformation. We see it most powerfully in this image of swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. You have to remember that during this time iron wasn’t in great abundance. You didn’t just suddenly make new tools and you certainly couldn’t go out and buy new ones. Iron had to be reshaped from what it was into what it was going to be. I don’t know if you remember what a hammer striking an anvil sounds like, but this will be pretty close. (At this point I hit a hammer against an old iron hoe from my house). That is the sound of swords being beat into plowshares. (Another hit) That’s the sound of spears becoming pruning hooks. (Another hit) That’s the sound of destruction being turned into production. (Another hit) That’s the sound of transformation. (Another hit) That’s the sound of peace. (Another hit)
We live in a tension of now and still to come. God has brought peace into our lives now through his son Jesus, but yet it’s not as complete as the picture Isaiah saw. We see illness being fought, people find homes and jobs, the hungry find food, and relationships are mended. Even as some find peace there are many more that don’t. We see God at work in our world to bring complete transformation. We are invited into this as well. At the end of our passage Isaiah says “Oh house of Jacob, come let us walk in the light of the Lord.” By walking in the light of the Lord we take steps toward complete transformation. We walk in the way of peace. We begin to beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. What does it mean to walk in the light of the Lord? I have seen it.
Monday I went with the Little Flock group to Mission Arlington. We sorted coats in one of their buildings so that they could find them easily to give to people who needed them. I was reminded again about how our families here at Shepherd of Life are committed to teaching their children about a different message than what the culture teaches. They are teaching their children about how to walk God’s way of peace, love and service to others. In the second floor of a building surrounded by boxes of donated clothing as parents described to their children what Mission Arlington was and why we were there…I heard this sound (Another hit). On Wednesday when Mark and I delivered meals to those who needed them with Meals on Wheels…I heard this sound (Another hit). On a dark Thursday night where kids had pizza, cookies and got excited about a bingo game…this sound was heard again (Another hit). On a Saturday at a Habitat house…this sound was heard (Another hit). Even in the future as we start construction on the house for Jodi and Jo’ann… we’ll hear this sound (Another hit). When our Advent journey is complete and we come to the manger in the cry of a newborn baby we’ll also hear…this sound (Another hit). That’s the sound of transformation. That’s the sound of peace. Amen.
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