(part of the “Waiting on the World to Change” Advent Series)
Psalm 122 (Advent 1A)
1I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”2Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.3Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together.4To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.5For there the thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David.6Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you.7Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers.”8For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, “Peace be within you.”9For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.
So, we’re four days into Advent, four days into waiting on the world to change, and, as far as I can tell, there have not been any huge changes made. I mean, wouldn’t it be wonderful if this was the year, if this was the season, when peace came to be? Wouldn’t it be grand if this was when people began to recognize that each of us is a child of God? Wouldn’t it be terrific if this was when poverty and hunger and racism and xenophobia and gun violence and global warming and all those things that clutter our world were resolved? Wouldn’t it be the most incredible thing if all of us could lay down our weapons and our power and our need to preserve the status quo? Wouldn’t it be something if we didn’t have to wait anymore for the world to change? What if we discovered that we really were standing within your gates?
But we all know better. There is so much that needs to change, so much that needs to happen before the Kingdom of God, the vision that God intended all along for us comes to be in its fullness. And so, we wait. And, today, we’re given this psalm. It is a “Song of Ascents”. It describes the pilgrim throng entering the “house of the Lord”. It’s the invitation. Let us go to the house of the Lord. It is the eternal peace, that vision that we’ve been talking about. It is the Kingdom of God in its fullness.
Advent is indeed a season of waiting. But it is also a season of imagining. It is a season of beginning the ascent. It is the season when we journey to the House of the Lord. And in this way, our waiting, our waiting for the world to change, begins with us. For within us, is that peace. Within us, is that vision that God holds for us all. The waiting on the world to change begins within us. It begins with us imagining it and journeying toward it. Our feet are indeed standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. Peace be within you. It’s right there….
A dreamer is one who can find [his or her] way in the moonlight, and [whose] punishment is that [he or she] sees the dawn before the rest of the world. (Oscar Wilde)
(part of the “Waiting on the World to Change” Advent Series)
Isaiah 2:1-5 (Advent 1A)
The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 3Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
Notice the tenses in today’s reading. The word “shall” is used (if I counted correctly) ten times. The prophet is giving us a vision of what is to come, something that is not here yet but something that we can expect. Expectations are important in this Waiting Season. If our waiting is not accompanied by expectations, then we’re really just sort of hanging around until whatever comes next. But that’s not what we’re called to do. We’re called to Holy Expectation, to envisioning what the world around could be. Because, you see, that’s the only way that it happens. God gave us a vision so that we could expect it and work toward it. God gave us a vision so that we could journey toward it all the while living as if it is already here.
I know it’s hard. Our world is sometimes spinning so fast, throwing off things that we don’t even think we can survive. How can we live as if God’s vision is here? How can we expect that vision to survive what we’re going through now? I must honestly confess that I feel like we’ve gone backwards a bit, that we’ve lost some ground in realizing the Peaceable Kingdom. And it makes it really, really hard to live as if God’s vision is here. I see a rise in racism and xenophobia. I see an increased level of violence. And I see a society and a world that is in many ways closing its eyes to what is going on. We can’t do that. We have to envision that Peaceable Kingdom. We have to expect that change in the world around us. We have to believe it will happen—because that’s what our faith tells us.
Think about when this was written. The world was constantly at war. They were stupid wars over stupid things, arguments over who had what land and who had what resources. People did not trust each other. Societies and ethnicities pulled into themselves and began to shut out those who were different. They no longer trusted the “other”, the immigrant, those who were living in their midst because they had no place else to go. They fought against those who thought differently, who worshipped differently, who lived differently. Their first priority was themselves. Their first thought was those who were like them. Their vision of the world had shrunk to only what they could see, to only what made them comfortable.
And the prophet comes along and tells them to expect something different, to expect a world where wars subside and people come together. It was a Kingdom that was there for the taking, for the imagining. It was a Kingdom that we should dare to expect will happen. And then the prophet changes the tense of his writing. Expect it. And let us go—all of us, together—into the house of the Lord.
I salute you. I am your friend and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not got. But there is much, very much, that while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instance. Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take joy! Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty . . . that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it, that is all! . . . And so I greet you, with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away. (From a letter by Fra Giovanni, 1513, as quoted in the introduction of “Take Joy”, by Tasha Tudor)
Lyrics: “Do No Harm” (Carrie Newcomer)
John Roth had a heart like flame He believed all souls were loved the same He packed up his hopes and his family and moved to Ohio
There in the deep dark wilderness With a newborn son he soon was blessed Raised him up in the ways of the old prophets Named him Isaiah Roth
Do no harm shed no blood the only law here is love We can call the kingdom down here on earth Beat your swords into plows don’t be afraid I’ll show you how Lift your eyes to the skies all is holy here
The forest people soon came near his message to the red children clear We can build the peaceable kingdom here in shadows of these trees
They planted oats and beans and maize They planted their hearts in the dirt of that place And they learned to speak of hope and grace In the language of John Roth
Do no harm shed no blood the only law here is love We can call the kingdom down here on earth Beat your swords into plows don’t be afraid I’ll show you how Lift your eyes to the skies all is holy here
When Isaiah Roth had just turned ten He was working up in the loft again He looked out and he saw eight white men Come riding up that day The men called out from the deepening glade Saying y’all come on out an we can trade?
The forest people walked out unafraid with smiles and open hands The white traders lifted up their guns And shot them down each and every one And the Eden that John Roth begun Lay bleeding on the ground
Do no harm shed no blood the only law here is love We can call the kingdom down here on earth Beat your swords into plows don’t be afraid I’ll show you how Lift your eyes to the skies all is holy here
Now the world has aged by fifty years The Quakers came and settled near Old Isaiah Roth still preaches here that the greatest law is love Now some people say it’s all a scam just the ravings of some old man But Isaiah Roth says he still can see Eden on the hill
Do no harm Shed no blood The only law here is love
Dancing to God 