Advent 1

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Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5

 2 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

            2          It shall come to pass in the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the Lord

                        shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be lifted up above the hills;

                        and all the nations shall flow to it,

            3          and many 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 the law,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

            4          He shall judge between the nations,

and shall decide disputes for many peoples;

                        and 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 anymore.

            5          O house of Jacob,

come, let us walk

in the light of the Lord.

 

Meditation

            Tomorrow, Sunday December 1, is the first Sunday of Advent this year. Isaiah writes about the multitudes coming up to Jerusalem because the law was to be given from there. He writes of people flowing to the Holy City like a river so that they may learn peace and not war.

            Many people shall come and have their disputes settled. They shall learn to beat their implements of war into implements of peace and agriculture. Nation shall not war against nation nor people against people.

            While we may say that the time of this teaching has not yet come. I say that in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus has already declared this teaching. And it is we who refuse to follow it. We know that Jesus taught us no more eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth and life for a life. We are to love our enemies.

            The Gospel for tomorrow says “42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Let us therefore be ready for we know not when Jesus is coming. But when he comes he expects us to be making peace not war. We must be making plowshares and pruning hooks not nuclear bombs and grenade launchers.

            Likewise we must be feeding the poor, and treating the widow and orphan with kindness. We do not know when Jesus will return again. However, he has come once and left instructions as to how we are to live. Let us pray that we be found living that way, and not in the way of this violent and cruel world. Amen.

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