Advent 2 A ~ "Peace on the Mountain" ~ Rev. Richard Eslinger, PhD

We hear the words of Isaiah in a season and place of worship. It is Advent--- the second candle in the Advent Wreath has been lit, and our worship space is garlanded with evergreens (please provide the distinctive Advent context of your

own parish). Today, the prophet Isaiah’s words comingle with beloved Advent hymns and with the beauty of our Collect:

“May no earthly undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet your

Son.”

For the faithful in Christ, Isaiah’s prophecy belongs in our Advent worship and

shapes the textures of our praise. “A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.”

Yes, it is now Advent and we are immersed in the images of the season. For generation after generation of the followers of Jesus, this prophecy cannot be laid aside; for us, it sings about the One who was born of the Virgin Mary and lived among us. We beheld his glory. But Isaiah begins his prophecy about the Peaceable Kingdom on a dark note. The hope of a glorious Davidic reign had been smashed by the corruption within its leaders and people. Then, the Assyrian army has instilled fear of defeat for fear of the Lord. The tree of David’s dynasty, beginning with Jesse himself, is now cut down. Only a stump remains.

But ,a new shoot shall sprout from Jesse’s stump and the spirit of the Lord will

come to rest upon this new growth. Isaiah now prophesies that this new sprout on Jesse’s stump will be graced with a series of spiritual gifts, arranged in pairs.

A spirit of wisdom and of understanding, A spirit of counsel and of strength, A spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord.

This foreseen new heir to David’s throne will be filled with the fear of the Lord,

making all of the other qualities of his reign flower abundantly. From that same

fear of the Lord, this new ruler will judge the poor and the afflicted with justice

and righteousness. And given the full expanse of God’s righteousness, the spirit-

graced new ruler also judges the ruthless and the wicked. One commentator put it this way: This ruler “will know of the God- reorder creation by speaking.” 1 The

words will bring death to those who deal in death and trade in human bodies and

souls. But the spirit will fill the earth with knowledge of the Lord and its justice and peace. This new, green, vulnerable sprout of Jesse’s tree will become the ruler

of all nations. No more will the meek and suffering be afflicted yet again by worldly kings. Just as water covers the sea, “the earth shall be filled with the

knowledge of the Lord.” The Blessed Virgin Mary sings precisely of the birth of

this new creation and its Creator:

His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him.

He has shown might with his arm,

dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.

He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones

but lifted up the lowly.

The hungry he has filled with good things;

the rich he has sent away empty.

In the Annunciation, all creation is reordered by the speech of the Archangel

Gabriel to the Virgin’s ear!

Now, the image shifts for Isaiah from the forest and a tree to a pasture and

its beasts! The image is familiar and has become woven into the depths of our

longings,…for a world at peace, with the old animosities set aside, and even

nature’s violence now transformed into a vision of God’s Shalom, of Divine peace.

We know this hope spoken to us by Isaiah:

The wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

The calf and the young lion shall browse together,

with a little child to guide them.

Up here on the Holy Mountain of the Lord, where the stump of Jesse is made alive

once more by the Spirit of the Lord, the rule of nature is transformed! Predators

and their prey will all dwell in a God-inspired harmony. “There shall be no harm

or ruin on all my holy mountain,” the prophet announces of that time. As these

holy words are heard this Advent Sunday, we can see them in the paintings of a

Quaker minister and artist of some 200 years ago. Edward Hicks painted about 60

versions of his Isaiah-based vision of the “Peaceable Kingdom.” In all of them, the

familiar images are present with Hick’s unique style of early American folk art.

The animal’s faces seem almost human in style, especially those lions and leopards and bears! (Oh my!) Here, they dwell in this valley of peace alongside their natural prey—sheep and cattle and little lambs. The young of all the beasts are pictured as resting and asleep, right next to each other! In the foreground of his paintings, Hicks has faithfully portrayed Isaiah’s words, “The baby shall play by

the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.” The infant and the

older child are there, along with those serpents in some of the paintings. And in all of Hicks series, the child, the Christ child, stands above the menagerie, perched on the shoulders of ox and lion. “A little child shall lead them,” Isaiah declares. But

this prophetic word is located “smack dab” in the middle of Advent, because we

know that this Child is he who is born of the Virgin Mary. In spite of those who

say that such a vision of peace is impossible—a view shared by some evolutionists

and many who “study war”--at the heart of this prophecy is a grand dream for all

of creation, including humanity. The categories of predator and prey will be based

within the natural world. And as Patricia Tull paints the full picture, Predation ceases,…It ceases among wolves, leopards, lions, and bears. It certainly ceases among payday lenders, drug lords, slaveholders, and sexual predators. 2

Perhaps, after two centuries, a new series of paintings is needed by an artistic

descendent of Edward Hicks. This Peaceable Kingdom might be set in an urban

area with those payday loan offices closed and boarded up, and with all the other

predators of humankind now permanently off the streets. Certainly another seer,

St. John, was given such a revelation of the Holy City, an urban kingdom of peace,

to lie down next to Isaiah’s Peaceable Kingdom. No harm or ruin neither on God’s

holy mountain nor in the Holy City come down from heaven.

But the Peaceable Kingdom comes to pass not by legislation or presidential

action or even our best efforts on behalf of God’s creation. Yet we strive, beating

swords into ploughshares Our hope is this, the hope that abides with us and

empowers us to compassion and caring. “The days are coming,” declare the

prophets. And on that Day, there will be peace in the valley and upon the

mountain tops. In the meantime, our Lord, Jesus Christ, leads us to be forebears of

that peace, right here in the midst of a world where predation reigns and the wolves and lions seem to have the last word. One composer put it this way:

Then enemies shall learn to love,

all creatures find their true accord;

The hope of peace shall be fulfilled,

for all the earth will know the Lord. 3

Amen, come Lord Jesus.

(For an example of one of Hick’s images of “The Peaceable Kingdom, See:

https://www.art.com/products/p45518092287-sa-i10425314/edward-hicks-

peaceable-kingdom-c-1834.htm?UPI=Q12NTYW0&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21870638802&gclid=CjwKCAiA24XJBhBXEiwAXElO3965gRTIyC7hONBdQ77yNXYDLeu0Y3XjtWrg6e52by-pDEeLoNvU7RoC_LsQAvD_BwE.)

1 Anathea Portier-Young, “Commentary on Isaiah 11:1-11, Working Preacher, December 5, 2010,

https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-of-advent/commentary-on-isaiah-111-10.

2 Patricia Tull, “Isaiah’s Earthly Hopes,” Working Preacher, October 25, 2016,

https://www.workingpreacher.org/theology-and-interpretation/isaiahs-earthly-hopes.

3 Carl P. Daw, Jr., “O Day of Peace,” 1982, Hope Publishing Co.

For a discussion of the Peaceable Kingdom paintings by Edward Hicks, see: https://artandtheology.org/2016/12/06/the-peaceable-kingdoms-of-edward-hicks/