“The Peaceable Kingdom” Vance L. Toivonen
READING Isaiah 11:1-10
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.
READING C.S. Song, Jesus & the Reign of God
Jesus could have been persuaded to take up the political cause of his nation and lead his people in one more attempt at revolt against Roman rule. But he rejected political messianism. What is the ground of his rejection? It must have been closely related to what he believed to be God’s reign. Since the reign of God for him does not signify a kingdom, it is not to be realized in military confrontation with the Roman empire. Since it is not defined in terms of a territory, it is not to be achieved through restoration of a lost principality. And since it is not identified with a political entity, it is not to be realized in an effort to reestablish a nation-state. Jesus has no choice but to reject the temptation to turn the reign of God into an ideology of political struggle for national independence…The reign of God Jesus preached and what it implied politically and religiously would pose such a challenge to the religious and political authorities that the latter would do whatever was in their power to counteract it with violent force. The cross is almost an inevitable outcome of the confrontation of God’s reign with the kingdoms of this world…God’s reign is utmost in the life and ministry of Jesus. His way cannot but be the way of God’s reign.
SERMON
We might tend to bristle a bit at the use of the term “kingdom” when it comes to God. For one thing, we do not live in a kingdom. We live in a democracy…of the people, by the people, and for the people; although I have heard pundits refer to the current presidency as the reign of King George. There is no doubt that the leader of a nation, whether monarchic, communist, socialist, theocratic, or democratic sets the tone for that nation. The spirit, vision, and agenda of the leader informs the process of governance in a given principality.
So we must ask, “What, or whom, is being served in the priorities and machinations of the government? What is the ultimate goal of the leadership at any given time in the life of a nation? To what, or to whom, is the leader beholden in his, or her, governance? And, in a democracy, what is the spirit, vision, and agenda of the people to which, ideally, the leader is to be beholden?
Isaiah’s vision is monarchic in its scope. The idyllic images of wolves and lambs, leopards and baby goats, calves and lions being led by a little child who is able to stick his hand into the hole of a deadly snake without fear of being bitten, is not intended for some heavenly world in the sky, by and by. This is a mythological narrative of a peaceful kingdom, where there will be no harm or destruction, no violence, no bombing or terrorism of any kind.
The leader of this kingdom will be a favored one, like David, which is why there is that reference to David’s father, Jesse. The spirit of this ruler will be characterized by wisdom, understanding, sound council, good information, enough strength as is necessary, and most importantly, an honoring of the ultimate reign of God. This king’s agenda will be about justice, dealing equitably with all people, and ensuring that the poor have their basic needs cared for. This king will not tolerate wickedness, and will be faithful and righteous. There will be no smoking guns in this kingdom.
The people of Isaiah’s day, people who may have actually had the opportunity to hear such words directly from the prophets lips, understood that this was a call to an alternative kingdom to that of the Assyrian & Babylonian Empires, the dominant kingdoms of that time. Like the Rome of Jesus’ day, their oppressive governance caused many revolts, but to no avail; so powerful were these dominant structures. The dreams and visions of prophets like Isaiah crying in this tyrannical wilderness fed the souls of those who were oppressed, and gave them hope.
This was a very real hope, for a very real king who would establish a new kingdom, a new monarchy in the Davidic line. It is, I think, interesting to note that Babylonia and Assyria were in the geographic area we now call Iraq. So if there is any religious overtones to this war that currently trudges along, the roots of those overtones go back as far as the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C.E., and certainly to the mid to early first century B.C.E., the time of Isaiah.
There are certainly similarities to the political process currently going on in our country. For one thing, religion is center stage in the political rhetoric of the candidates. On the republican side there is a Baptist minister and a devout Mormon. On the democratic side there are a couple of United Methodists, a couple of Roman Catholics, and a member of the United Church of Christ. It has become necessary in the debating and the stumping for all of these candidates to show their religious colors. But we will need to dig deeper than denominational ties to discover their spirit, vision, and agenda, the territories wherein we will discover just what kind of God they are seeking to let reign in their political service.
We will also need to be clear about ours. As professor Song iterated in that second reading, Jesus was not to be an actual king, with an actual kingdom. In fact, Jesus turned that all around by declaring, The kingdom of God is among you.” (Luke 17:21) He told the poor that they were blessed, and that the kingdom of God belonged to them. (Luke 6:20). Song drives home this point. He writes,
The reign of God, Jesus says in no uncertain terms, is yours. It belongs to you. It is you! The reign of God means to be yours. It is closely related to you, so closely, as a matter of fact, that it means you! The reign of God is yours because you are the reign of God…It is yours any day, any place. It happens where people are – in the synagogue or in the marketplace. It happens any day as long as there is no day, not even the Sabbath, that can be called a day without people. It is people who make the day, not the day that makes the people. It is people who fill the day with meaning, endow it with memories, (and) usher it in with expectation. (C.S. Song, Jesus & the Reign of God).
In this sense Jesus created a kind of democracy that is in keeping with a spirituality currently bandied about in books like The Secret, namely, that we create our own reality. What we live and experience in the world has its genesis within us. We think and act into existence the very powers and principalities that end up ruling and dominating us. We create presidential administrations, and the wars that go with them. We create corporate behemoths like Wal-Mart. We create Saddam Husseins and Osama Bin Ladens. We create terrorism and 9/11.
But we also create Habitat for Humanity. We create Salvation Armies, and Goodwills. Closer to home we create Feed My Peoples and Sunshine Houses. We create support groups like A.A., O.A., S.A. and any other As we might think of. We create communities of care often, but not always, centered in churches. We create all of this good stuff, however, on pocket change compared to the billions of dollars that are pumped into the creation of the darker and more powerful entities that rule our world. Why is this? What is it about us that allows for this? And are willing, like Jesus, and others before us to confront this imbalance of power, even at our own peril?
This is the question that Advent asks of us. It is not only about longing for a peaceable kingdom, a kingdom where justice reigns supreme. It is also about asking what we can do to usher in this peaceable kingdom. If the kingdom of God is indeed ours, then the reign of God can only be mediated through us. No one, no king or president, no Hillary or Barak, no Rudy or Mitt will save us. Not even Jesus himself could do that, then or now.
But, Jesus did show us the way, the path to the kingdom. His life and teachings are imbued with the planks for administration of the reign of God. We would do well to pay attention to that material, to offer this Jesus a place inside of us in a very real way, so that his spirit, and vision, and agenda becomes ours. This happens slowly, ever so slowly. But when we are diligent, it will happen over time, and we will change. And as we change, so will our lives, and our families, and our cities, and our states, and our countries, and yes, our world too. The path to the peaceable kingdom is from the inside out. There is no other way.