Scripture: Isaiah 2: 1-5
Sermon: Refusing to be Enemies
Topics: enemies, swords, plowshares, Palestinians, West Bank
Preached: December 22, 2013
Rev. Mike Abma
Isaiah 2: 1-5
The Future House of God
2The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
3 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 forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord!
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
Isaiah is a poet.
A few chapters later, in chapter 11, he paints a picture of peace:
of wolves lying down with lambs,
and leopards with young goats,
and lions with young calves.
We may think this looks like an awesome petting zoo,
but actually, Isaiah may very well be using code language:
the wolf of Assyria would lie down with Israel,
the leopard of Egypt would live with Ephraim,
the lion of Babylon would live with Judah.
In our text in chapter 2, Isaiah gives perhaps the clearest vision of world peace:
swords being re-purposed into farm implements,
and spears into gardening tools.
It is such a powerful vision it is repeated word-for-word in Micah 4:3.
On December 11, 2013, NPR ran a story about our electricity.
They noted that for the last 10 years,
10% of American electricity
has been generated in nuclear reactors
using weapons-grade uranium from Russia.
The weapons-grade uranium came from 20,000
de-commissioned nuclear war-heads that the USA bought from Russia
in an amazing peace-promoting deal.
So Russian nuclear bombs are literally being used
to power your coffee-maker in the morning.
When I heard this, I thought of Isaiah 2:
swords into plowshares;
megatons into megawatts.
But this seems to be the exception rather than the rule.
The newest country on earth, South Sudan, officially established in 2011
with hope and joy, is now disintegrating into ethnic and tribal violence —
the same kind of tensions that plague even our little Sudanese community that meets in our Ministry Center.
Ah…if only there was Peace on Earth!
PRINCE OF PEACE
In Isaiah 9, the prophet calls the coming Messiah “the Prince of Peace.”
What does that mean, “Prince of Peace”?
I think we naturally think of all the wars, and tensions, and troubles in the world, and look to Jesus to bring Peace.
But the first Peace Jesus brought was peace between heaven and earth,
peace between God and humankind.
This is something we tend to forget.
Paul says it bluntly in Romans 5:
While we were still enemies, God’s enemies,
Jesus came down to us,
Jesus died for us.
Why?
So that there might be peace between God and us.
So that we might be reconciled to God our Heavenly Father.
In other words, God refused to be enemies with us.
He refused to be at war with us.
Jesus is the sign and seal of that refusal.
That is why Jesus did not come in power,
with all the smoke and fire of a Mount Sinai.
No, Jesus came in weakness,
laying aside all his power
to make peace with us.
WAY OF PEACE
When I was in high school my best friend was Andrew Klahsen.
He was Mennonite.
I was Christian Reformed.
We argued all the time.
He favored adult baptism. I favored infant baptism.
He pushed for free will. I pushed for predestination.
He said peace was God’s will. I said peace and justice were God’s will.
He was a pacifist. I believed there was such a thing as a just war.
Of all the things we argued about,
I admit that his arguments for pacifism,
a non-violent life
have grown on me.
What does it really mean to follow our peace-making Savior?
According to our text,
individuals must first be willing to beat their swords into farming tools.
before nations give up on war.
The project of peace begins with each of us – individually.
We must refuse to be enemies with the people around us,
even the people who have wronged us
or demeaned us
or bullied us
or hurt us.
We must refuse to be enemies.
This was made very real to us when our family visited Israel the summer of 2012.
We were in the West Bank,
Palestinian territory controlled by Israel.
This has been a place of tension and violence for decades.
Just a few miles southwest of Bethlehem
we visited the family farm of the Nassar family, a Palestinian family.
Picture this:
a farm on a hill,
surrounded on all sides by other hills.
And the major roadway running through this valley.
On each of the surrounding hills is a Jewish settlement.
And these Jewish settlements are in Palestinian territory,
but they want this hill, and this farm, to be a Jewish settlement too.
To achieve this, to force the issue, they have brought the Nassar family to court to expropriate their land, even though the Nassar family has been on this farm for over 100 years.
The Nassar family has no intentions of moving, and so have been forced to go to court and pay huge legal costs to hold on to their family farm.
When the court action did not produce immediate results, the Israeli military piled large boulders on the road that accesses the farm. This forces everyone wanting to visit the farm to walk at least a quarter mile.
They also cut off their water supply,
even though you can see swimming pools in the back yards of the Jewish settlements.
They also cut off the farm’s electricity.
At one time, some Jewish settlers came and even cut down a number of olive trees
on the farm.
And lastly, Israeli authorities refused giving the Nassar family a building permit,
forcing them to dig caves or set up tents when they needed more space.
Now imagine you belonged to the Nassar family.
How would you feel?
How would you react?
Here is the amazing thing.
At the entry gate to the Nassar farm is a large stone.
On this large stone are chiseled the words: “We Refuse to Be Enemies.”
These words are chiseled in English, in Arabic, and in Hebrew.
We entered the farm,
and Daoud Nassar gave us a tour.
He showed us the solar panels they used to generate some electricity.
He showed us the cisterns they built that collected some water when it rains.
He showed us the caves that substituted for buildings.
Then, Daoud Nassar showed us a large stone at the center of the farm,
another stone with words
written there by his own grandfather years ago:
The words are those of our text in Isaiah 2:4
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
These words challenged everyone with a vision for peace.
We asked Daoud Nassar how he and his family can live like this,
threatened on all sides
literally being squeezed out and pushed out.
Daoud replied,
“I am a follower of Jesus.
As a follower of Jesus I must walk the way of peace.
I may not return evil for evil.
I must refuse to respond with hate.
I must pray for those who persecute me.
I must refuse to be enemies.
This is the way of Jesus.
So when the soldiers come with their guns in their hands
I open my gate
and offer them a cup of tea.”
We all walked the quarter mile back to our van:
our family, our driver, our guide.
Both our driver and our guide were Palestinians.
But neither of them had ever been to this farm before.
As we walked back, they both said to us,
“Now that is really something!
That is something you never see here.”
CONCLUSION
This is Christmas.
We will get together with all kinds of people:
family, friends, co-workers.
Some we may like.
Others we may tolerate.
Others may annoy us to no end.
What does it mean to be followers of the Prince of Peace?
It means to beat those sharp words we want to say
into something that is no longer sharp but gentle.
It means taking all our fiery thoughts of self-righteous anger and impatience,
and cooling them down into thoughts of understanding and patience.
It means taking all the provocations others may throw our way,
baiting us, trying to infuriate us,
and responding with disarming kindness.
It means refusing to be enemies,
because we belong to Our Prince,
and follow in his way,
which is the way of peace.
AMEN
PRAYER
We long for true peace to settle on every corner of this world.
We pray for shalom to finally flourish everywhere for everyone.
Until that day, make us peace-makers we pray
in the name of our peace-making Savior
Amen
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