Sermon: “Enacting Shalom”
A Sermon Delivered by The Rev. John D. Painter at Centenary United Methodist Church
Metuchen, New Jersey December 5, 2004 (The Second Sunday of Advent)
Text: Isaiah 11:1-10
Last Sunday, using an earlier passage from Isaiah (2:1-5), Pastor Bauknight shared with us her message about “The Endless Quest for Peace”. She reminded us that peace is a universal pursuit of every human being. That search for peace may take as many different forms as there are persons and situations in which they find themselves, but it is at the heart of much of who we are and what we do.
Susan Ivany, a United Church of Canada Pastor from Thunder Bay, Ontario, has ob-served: “Isaiah’s prophecy of the peaceful kingdom is front and center in our collective con-sciousness at this time of the year. Everywhere we go, decorations, ornaments, carols and cards shout the words, ‘Peace on Earth!’ At Advent, everyone, churched and un-churched alike, has been given a “free pass” to openly and boldly proclaim the dream of peace.
“The dream of peace is the single thread that connects us to every community, in every country, in every time and place throughout history. Peace is a core value of our human condi-tion. In some parts of the world, peace would mean a ceasefire. In other places, peace might be a setting aside of personal differences. The lion and the lamb [of Isaiah’s prophecy] may take on different guises, but the vision remains one of peaceful co-existence.”
A quick glance at the newspaper headlines, a fleeting look at the TV news, or a brief en-counter with the radio while on your way to work or running errands will dispel any notion that such a world is now in place, or that it is even close to materializing. The news this week that we are about to commit over 12,000 additional American military personnel to the war in Iraq bears witness to our failure to enact Isaiah’s vision of shalom. And in the “Holy Land,” the place of Jesus’ birth and living witness of shalom, the so-called “Road Map for Peace” is tangled and twisted with detours.
The reality is that armed conflict is very much a part of our legacy in these days when we await the coming of the “Prince of Peace.” Huge inequities and injustices remain. It is still a dangerous planet. Lions stalk us. The poor are still hungry and oppressed. Wolves, big and small, devour the weak. Entire nations live in poverty. Millions and millions of children remain at risk from war, sickness and hunger. There are snakes in the grass. Our solutions to these concerns just don’t seem to be big enough, or clever enough, to solve all of the underlying problems that keep us from living out Isaiah’s vision of shalom.
Isaiah saw that the earth was suffering then as it is now. The lambs, the kids, the fatlings and the little children of the world were vulnerable, always in danger, always threatened, always at risk. And no global solution seemed to be visible. But Isaiah was offered a solution. God pro-vided an answer to Isaiah’s deep yearnings for shalom through the vision of a Messiah who would come forth from “the stump of Jesse” to show us God’s vision of the future…a vision of peace—true shalom. And that brings us to the heart of today’s message: If shalom is God’s vi-sion of the future, then that is the vision which we are called upon to work for today.
What other choice do we have? We are challenged to work today to enact that vision of shalom, even if it is accomplished only in part. In a little while, as we prepare to receive the bread and cup of Holy Communion, we will pray the familiar words of The Lord’s Prayer, and in those words we will agree to struggle to see God’s purpose fulfilled “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Jesus Christ came to show us the way to shalom, however imperfectly we might imple-ment it in our world. A little child in the manger reminds us of that. Isaiah said, “…and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6d). The babe of Bethlehem points to the power of children to simplify, to bring into focus, what’s important and what’s not in this quest for shalom.
Sadako Sasaki was such a child. She lived in Japan from 1943-1955. She was in Hi-roshima when the atom bomb was dropped.
When she was 11, she developed leukemia and died. During her months in the hospital, she remembered an ancient story which says that the crane is supposed to live for a thousand years. If a sick person folds a thousand paper cranes, the gods will grant his or her wish and make her healthy again.
Sadako’s dream was peace in our world. She held fast to this hope, making as many cranes as her energy would allow her, day after day. The paper origami cranes became her strength and her courage.
When she had made her 654th crane, Sadako died. Sadako’s classmates folded 356 more, so that 1,000 cranes were buried with her.
After her funeral, Sadako’s class collected her letters and published them in a book that was sent around Japan. Soon, everyone knew about Sadako and the thousand paper cranes.
Her friends began to dream of building a monument to her and all children who died the way she did. Young people throughout the country helped collect money for the project. In 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane was unveiled in Hiroshima Peace Park. Since that time, people from all around the world have spoken the words which are engraved there. They have kept Sadako’s dream alive: This is our cry; this is our prayer—peace in our world.
The Bethlehem manger points to a future realm of peace and justice—a vision of true shalom…“and a little child shall lead them.” It’s a vision of shalom that Jesus the Christ—Bethlehem’s Babe—has brought to our souls, and calls us to enact now for the health and well-being of all God’s children.
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PRAYER
Innovative and creative God, you amaze us with how all the parts of your world fit to-gether and how solutions can be found to vexing troubles and problems. You sent Christ, your Son, to fix our problem of sin and open the path to heaven. We thank you for that, and we’re treading that path, but we’re still struggling with the problem of peace. Lions aren’t lying down with lambs, leopards threaten the livestock, wolves are prowling, and the snakes still bite. We long for the promised time on your holy mountain when your peace, your true and holy shalom, lives in all the hearts of humankind so that this world of woe might stop its warring ways. We are your people, your children, made by the work of your hands, filled with the breath of your body. We are your vulnerable lambs who belong to Christ, the lion-hearted, whom we trust and love. We seek your heaven here. We hope for your solution now. We pray in this holy time, this holy season, that we might, even if for a moment, all join our hearts, in praise of you, that your sha-lom might touch us all. This we pray, in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
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