Isaiah 2:1-5 Sharing Hope in a Hopeless World

Isaiah 2:1-5 Sharing Hope in a Hopeless World

The origins of this sermon came from my Lectionary reflection “Sharing Hope in a Hopeless World.”

Are the nations “streaming” to God’s House? (Isaiah 2:2)

You look around at the culture and see Godlessness in a seemingly hopeless world.

Are the “many peoples” joining together to go to God’s house to get God’s instruction on a matter? (Isaiah 2:3)

You look around at the people and see people abandoning God’s house and His ways. Things seem hopeless.

Are the nations settling their disputes peacefully? Have the nations stopped “taking up swords” against each other? (Isaiah 2:4)

You look on the news and you see that the nations have not turned their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Instead, you see them their their swords into missiles of long range destruction and the desire for nuclear bombs of mass annihilation. The nations seem to be hopelessly grasping for war or the political threat of war as their solution.

Where is the church in all of this? Where are God’s people? What are we supposed to do? God tells His people to “come and let us walk in the Lord’s light.”

THE ANTIDOTE TO SELFISHNESS IS SHARING

“House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the Lord’s light.” (Isaiah 2:5, HCSB)

“Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the future He will bring honor to the Way of the Sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness.” (Isaiah 9:1–2, HCSB)

The Lord’s light represents the hope which He brings to the world.

We are living in the “last days.” However, we are not yet seeing the fulfillment of these prophecies. Why? Because as God’s people, the church, we need to share the hope which we have with a hopeless world.

To the nations, we need to be “the Lord’s house”

To the many people, we need to be “the house of the God of Jacob.”

To the families, we need to be a place where people can settle their disputes peacefully, where they can turn their homemade swords of words and insults and speared tongues and turn families from training for war against each other.

“What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from the cravings that are at war within you?” (James 4:1, HCSB)

“Walking” in the Bible refers to a relationship. If I walk with someone, I am in a special relationship with that person. I walk with them, I talk with them,I am spending time with them.

If we are going to BE THE CHURCH, as God has called us to be, then we need to learn to “walk in the Lord’s light.”

To put it another way, we need to be in a relationship with God, and share that relationship with others.

1. It means that we have to love one another in such a way that the nations want to stream to God’s house (Isaiah 2:2) . How do we do that?

“In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. All nations will stream to it,” (Isaiah 2:2, HCSB)

““I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another.” (John 13:34, HCSB)

2. It means that we have to start “walking in His paths”. (Isaiah 2:3)

“and many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us about His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For instruction will go out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:3, HCSB)

We get the “teach us His ways” part real well. It’s the “walking in His paths” part which we have problems with. How many times does the Bible say: “walk in His path.”

This idea of corporate “walking in His paths” is seen in the ancient stories in the Old Testament. For example, the people of Israel wandered around with Moses in the desert, not for 26.2 miles, not for a week-long adventure hike, but for 40 long years. And during the time they did that wandering, they made their share of wrong turns in following Moses and God. Remember all those golden idols? It took them a while to get to Canaan, and Moses didn’t even make it all the way, because he made his own mistakes. But they wouldn’t have made it to Canaan if they hadn’t stayed together.

While we’re at it, let’s talk about Noah, he of the ark. God didn’t tell him to make that ark for himself and the animals alone. He was told to bring the family with him. Now Noah didn’t always get it 100% right – why did he save the mosquitoes and cockroaches, for example? – but he, with his family, formed a new beginning and a new generation of the faithful. For obvious biological reasons, Noah couldn’t have done it alone, could he? Even the animals had to be saved in pairs!

Isaiah prophesied that we would go up to the holy mountain of the Lord not as individuals, but as “many peoples” and he said that the whole house of Jacob – in that time, all of the people of Israel, and in ours, all who follow the one true God – would walk in the light of the Lord. Not a private journey, a communal walk. The whole house.

We live in a society when individualism is prized, and that trickles down into a sense that all religion is personal. So we hear that people are “spiritual, not religious,” that they believe in God but don’t belong to any organized religion, because, you know, all religions did bad things.

When I hear that, I think of the distractible children of Israel, out there wandering in the wilderness. What happened when one of those Israelites went off from the group in the desert? They died of thirst or lack of food. Even when those wanderers were most unhappy with the journey, most angry with Moses or with God, when they were smart, they stuck together. It is not safe to wander off from the group.

The sociologist of religion Robert Bellah talked about the modern obsession with highly individualized religious experience most pointedly when he described one woman’s unique view. Bellah said:

Sheila Larson is a young nurse who has received a good deal of therapy and describes her faith as “Sheilaism.” This suggests the logical possibility of more than 235 million American religions, one for each of us. “I believe in God,” Sheila says. “I am not a religious fanatic. [Notice at once that in our culture any strong statement of belief seems to imply fanaticism so you have to offset that.] I can’t remember the last time I went to church. My faith has carried me a long way. It’s Sheilaism. Just my own little voice.” Sheila’s faith has some tenets beyond belief in God, though not many. In defining what she calls “my own Sheilaism,” she said: “It’s just try to love yourself and be gentle with yourself. You know, I guess, take care of each other. I think God would want us to take care of each other.”

Now here’s the remarkable thing: when someone like Sheila shares her vision of what her religious experience is, and that vision gets disseminated in a book or on the Web or in a television program, what happens? A bunch of other folks want to follow it. They become adherents of Sheilaism, start calling themselves Sheila-ists, and invite others to join them.

Why? Because even though we treasure individualism, in America perhaps more than anywhere on earth, we need to belong as we shape our understanding of our God. In imagining someone as ineffable, as mysterious, as God, we need a shared experience of understanding and imagining, because God is more than any one of us can wrap our heads around. We need deep thinkers and great poets and the holy patient people who help us understand our God, at least a little bit.

Of course, God, being a loving and understanding God, gets this. God gives us signs to help us understand what is beyond understanding. And because we are slow learners, God gives us the ultimate gift to help us understand: God’s own Son, Jesus, whose birth we celebrate at the end of our Advent waiting. God gives us a human baby – both human and divine, of course – to rebuild the faltering relationship we have with him. A baby who grows up and teaches and saves.

But will we know he is among us? Unless we have learned of him, in community, we might not. We cannot do it alone. Sheila-ism doesn’t work here. But in community, we can help each other. We can encourage each other to be patient, to learn, to rejoice, to wait for it until the great moment of celebration can begin.

That is why we come to church, in this season and all others. To make the long journey to joy, to walk farther, we walk with others.

3. It means that we need to work better on “settling disputes.” We need to go to God for arbitration. (Isaiah 2:4)

“He will settle disputes among the nations and provide arbitration for many peoples. They will turn their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will not take up the sword against other nations, and they will never again train for war.” (Isaiah 2:4, HCSB)

What is arbitration?

Arthur Sullivan and Steven Sheffrin in their book Economics: Principles in Actions, define arbitration in the following way:

Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), is a technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons (the “arbitrators”, “arbiters” or “arbitral tribunal”), by whose decision (the “award”) they agree to be bound. It is a resolution technique in which a third party reviews the evidence in the case and imposes a decision that is legally binding for both sides and enforceable.

We need to stop ending our marriages in divorce and we need to make an effort to go to God for arbitration. We need to stop arguing, fighting, hurting one another, leaving one another, and we need to go to God for arbitration.

Why is God’s arbitration so important? Because God is the one who can provide hope to our hopeless families.

As we have to love each other, share God’s ways, and learn to overcome our disputes properly, we teach the world what it means to follow Jesus. But it takes more than just what we do with each other in this church building. We also have to make an effort to share this kind of selfless love to people in their time of need.

The selfishness in us wants God to come to us during Christmas. We wait and ask ourselves, “Why isn’t God here?” “Why isn’t He showing up and helping me?” In reality, God has and is going to show up in all kinds of ways this Christmas. We have to BE THE CHURCH by being prepared to share our hope in Jesus.

“but honor the Messiah as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” (1 Peter 3:15, HCSB)

“Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or who gave Him His counsel?” (Isaiah 40:13, HCSB)

The famous Presbyterian theologian and author Frederick Buechner in his book Secrets in the Dark said:

So to wait for Christ to come in his fullness is not just a passive thing, a pious, prayerful, churchly thing. On the contrary, to wait for Christ to come in his fullness is above all else to act in Christ’s stead as fully as we know how. To wait for Christ is as best we can to be Christ to those who need us to be Christ to them most and to bring them the most we have of Christ’s healing and hope because unless we bring it, it may never be brought at all, as it was never brought to those two young men and that one old man whom I shared Christmas with all those Christmases ago.

The Story of the Christmas Guest

by Helen Steiner Rice

It happened one day at December’s end

Some neighbors called on an old-time friend.

And they found his shop so meager and mean,

Made gay with a thousand boughs of green.

And old Conrad was sitting with face ashine.

When he suddenly stopped as he stitched the twine.

And he said “My friends at dawn today,

When the cock was crowing the night away,

The Lord appeared in a dream to me.

And He said, ‘I’m coming your guest to be”

So I’ve been busy with feet astir,

Strewing my shop with branches of fir.

The table is spread and the kettle is shined,

And over the rafters the holly is twined.

And now I’ll wait for my Lord to appear;

And listen closely so I will hear,

His steps as he nears my humble place.

And I’ll open the door and I’ll look on his face.”

Then his friends went home and left Conrad alone,

For this was the happiest day he had known.

For long since his family had passed away.

And Conrad had spent many a sad Christmas Day.

But he knew with the Lord as his Christmas guest,

This Christmas would be the dearest and best.

So he listened with only joy in his heart,

And with every sound he would rise with a start,

And looked for the Lord to be at his door.

Like the vision that he had had a few hours before.

So he ran to the window after hearing a sound,

But all he could see on the snow covered ground

Was a shabby beggar whose shoes were torn.

And all his clothes were ragged and worn.

But old Conrad was touched and he went to the door

And he said, “Your feet must be cold and sore.

I have some shoes in my shop for you.

And I have a coat to keep you warmer, too.”

So with grateful heart the man went away.

But Conrad notice the time of day

And he wondered what made the dear Lord so late,

And how much longer he’d have to wait.

Then he heard another knock, and he ran to the door,

But it was only a stranger once more.

A bent old lady with a shawl of black,

And a bundle of kindling piled on her back.

But she asked only for a place to rest,

a place that was reserved, for Conrad’s great guest.

But her voice seemed to plead, “Don’t send me away,

Let me rest for awhile this Christmas Day.”

So Conrad brewed her a steaming cup

And told her to sit at the table and sup.

After she had left, he was filled with dismay

For he saw that the hours were slipping away

The Lord had not come as He said He would

And Conrad felt sure he had misunderstood.

When out of the stillness he heard a cry.

“Please help, me and tell me – Where am I?”

So again he opened his friendly door.

And stood disappointed as twice before.

It was a child who had wandered away,

And was lost from her family on Christmas Day.

Again Conrad’s heart was heavy and sad,

But he knew he could make this little girl glad.

So he called her in and he wiped her tears,

And he quieted all her childish fears.

Then he led her back to her home once more.

Then as he entered his own darkened door,

He knew that the Lord was not coming today,

For the hours of Christmas, had all passed away.

So he went to his room, and he knelt down to pray.

He said, “Lord, why did you delay?

What kept You from coming to call on me?

I wanted so much Your face to see.”

Then softly, in the silence, a voice he heard.

“Lift up your head – I have kept My word.

Three times my shadow crossed your floor.

Three times I came to your lowly door.

I was the beggar with bruised cold feet;

I was the woman you gave something to eat;

I was the child on the homeless street.

Three times I knocked, three times I came in,

And each time I found the warmth of a friend.

Of all the gifts, love is the best.

I was honored to be your Christmas guest.

Who will be your Christmas guest this Christmas season?