SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Isaiah 11:1-10

Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

Romans 15:4-13

Matthew 3:1-12

Prayer of the Day: Stir up our hearts, Lord God, to prepare the way of your only Son. By his coming nurture our growth as people of repentance and peace; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

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. Isaiah 11:9.

Once again, the scriptures declare unequivocally that the God of Israel is not the God of Israel alone, but the God of all the earth. Again, the scriptures make clear that God is fiercely committed to equity for all people and how God’s particular concern is for “the poor” and “the oppressed of the earth.” Faith in the Biblical God leaves no room for “American exceptionalism,” “Christian Nationalism” or any other quasi religious belief that legitimizes the supremacy of any nation, tribe, race or ethnic group. That white evangelical Protestants remain the most vital religious constituency of the Republican Party and six in ten of other white Christian denominations consistently vote for this party that mocks these divine priorities as “woke,” illustrates how poorly such purported Christians understand the Bible they love to thump, but evidently do not understand.[1] The religions of American mythology, capitalist ideology, idolization of firearms, worship of wealth and those able to accumulate it have altogether overshadowed the liberating word of the gospel and made that word difficult for us to hear.

Still, the word is being heard and proclaimed in our midst. The bishops of my own ELCA recently issued a letter reminding us that we live in a time injustice and oppression and that “People of color continue to bear the devastating weight of racism woven into the fabric of our society. Transgender people, beloved by God, are being targeted with laws and rhetoric that deny their dignity and even their right to exist. These assaults on our siblings are not political abstractions—they are deep wounds in the body of Christ.” The bishops go on to call upon clergy and congregations to

• Pray for those who are vulnerable and for all who work for justice.
• Advocate in your communities, legislatures, and Congress for laws that protect migrants, advance racial justice, and safeguard LGBTQIA+ people.
• Engage in the holy work of hospitality, creating spaces of safety, affirmation, and belonging for all God’s children.
• Model respectful dialogue in a polarized world, seeking understanding rooted in love.
• Hold fast to hope, trusting that the Spirit is still at work renewing creation and reconciling the world to God.[2]

On the ground, Accompanying Migrant Minors with Protection, Advocacy, Representation and Opportunities is working with congregations to advocate and provide sanctuary for migrants and refugees threatened by oppressive government deportation measures. In response to the Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding the right of states to deny medical treatment for transgender children, the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee and the Southeastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are advocating for policies protecting the rights and health care access of these children.[3] The Metro D.C. Synod, in concert with the ELCA’s Racial Equity Network, is facilitating the ministry of congregations in their work of furthering racial equity and justice by providing resources and opportunities for participation in this important work being done under the shadow of a regime committed to furthering the grip of white supremacy.[4] The Body of Christ is alive and well, albeit at the margins of society. Given what we know of the God we confess, we should not be surprised to find it there.

The prophet Isaiah’s vision of creation’s future is one of gentleness, equity and peace. It includes not merely humanity, but the whole terrestrial biosphere.

The wolf shall live with the lamb;
    the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the lion will feedtogether,
    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. Isaiah 11:6-7.

This “Peaceable Kingdom” is given expression in the above painting by Quaker artist, Edward Hicks. To our modernist ears, this looks and sounds surreal. Obviously, eliminating all predatory conduct in the animal world would result in ecological disaster. But neither these lines from the prophet nor Hicks’ painting were meant to be taken literally. They are rightly understood as poetic expressions of God’s desire for a world of ecological balance. It is a picture of God’s will “done on earth as in heaven.” In such a world, human beings take their place within creation, not over it. The realm of nature is not characterized as chaotic wilderness needing to be “tamed.” It is a place in which human animals live with all other animals, plants and the elements within their created limits. Unlike the ideology of capitalism, which views the world as a ball of resources to be exploited and despoiled of anything and everything that can be measured monetarily, the prophet understands the earth to be a living creature no less than the ones it hosts. Care for creation is the first command given to Adam at the dawn of creation. Genesis 2:15. The Bible is perhaps the greenest book ever written.

How does God bring such a world into being? Throughout human history, kingdoms have been established through conquest or violent revolution. At first blush, one might draw the conclusion that God’s reign will be similarly established. But a careful look at the text reveals the contrary. Isaiah announces that God’s messianic deliverer

“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.” Isaiah 11:4-5.  

To be sure, the messiah strikes the earth, but not with a weapon of war. He slays the wicked, but not with the sword. This messiah’s weapons are his “mouth” and “the breath of his lips.” God’s only weapon against evil is God’s word. By means of that word, God interrupts the normal course of history and society. By means of the word God breaks into the messy particulars of our lives, introducing alternative realities, unrecognized possibilities and new avenues of travel to undreamed of places. God’s word enabled the prophet Isaiah to imagine a world that shatters all of our assumptions about what is real, what is possible and what the future might hold. Ultimately, that word becomes flesh, shattering our understandings of power, glory and righteousness. It is a word that even death cannot erase.

Can a word do all of that? In his recent article, The Night the Universe Looked Back at Me, Professor Belden C.  Lane discusses the concept of “singularity,” a term he defines as follows: “The singularity, at the bare minimum, is an event unlike anything previously conceived. It makes thinkable what has never been imagined before.”[5] He goes on to say that “a singularity may be marked by a relatively small event that occasions massive change.”[6] It might, for example, be triggered by the birth of a baby to a homeless couple in a barn somewhere in the backwaters of the Roman Empire. The child saved from poverty, hunger and neglect by the generosity of a small church might be the one to find a cure for cancer. Professor Lane points out that a singularity appears as “an uncontrollable and irreversible leap into a new reality.” I cannot think of a better way to describe the effect of Jesus’ resurrection upon his startled disciples. Suddenly, it becomes apparent that the power of the empire is not absolute. Death is not the last word on human existence. Life does not have to be the way it has always been. This new reality threatens to “turn the world upside down.” Acts 17:6.

Advent is the season of expectation. In a cynical world where so many of us think we have “seen it all,” the church is a people that expects surprises, refuses to surrender to the status quo, does not buy into the assumptions that violence is necessary to bring peace, that poverty and starvation are sadly inevitable and that economies serving the wellbeing of all are impossible. Instead, we trust in the visions of God’s reign delivered to us by the prophets and the testimony of apostles to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We believe in a world that is alive and filled with creatures longing for the day when “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

Here is a poem by Mary Oliver in which we glimpse the advent of God’s peaceable kingsom about which Isaiah sings and to which Edward Hicks gives graphic expression.

Almost a Conversation

Source: Devotions, (c. 2017 by N.W. Orchard, L.L.C.) p. 75. Mary Oliver (1935-2019) was born in Maple Heights, Ohio. She was deeply influenced by poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay. Her work received early critical attention with the 1983 publication of a collection of poems entitled American Primitive. She is a recipient of both the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the National Book Award. She spent the latter years of her life in Provincetown on Cape Cod, MA before moving to Florida where she died. Many of her poems reflect the unique features, vegetation and wildlife of the Cape. You can read more about Mary Oliver and sample some of her other poems at the Poetry Foundation Website.

Edward Hicks (1780 – 1849) was an American folk painter and distinguished Christian minister of the Society of Friends (a.k.a. “Quakers”). He is known for his depictions of the farms and landscapes of Pennsylvania and New York, and especially for his many versions (about 25 extant, perhaps 100 painted) of The Peaceable Kingdom, one of which is shown above. The works depict Hicks’s hope that Pennsylvania, founded by Quaker leader William Penn, would prove to be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of justice, gentleness and peace between all men and beasts.

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[1] PRRI, November 8, 2024. As I have previously argued, the GOP more than qualifies as a “Hate Group” as defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center and should be designated as such. See Time to Declare the Republican Party a Hate Group.

[2] See Hope from a History of Failure?

[3] Episcopal News Service, June 2024.

[4] Faith in Action-Racial Equity Network

[5] “The Night the Universe Looked Back at Me,” The Christian Century, (December 2025),  p. 45.

[6] Ibid.