What Kind of Kingdom Is This New Creation?
Bethel UMC, Greenville, SC
Isaiah 65:17-25
I often fail to ask enough questions, especially when the scripture passage is familiar or when the passage seems to offer a vision of comfort or peace. I'm often content just to enjoy the warmth of those passages. The most I tend to ask is, "When, Lord?" or maybe "O God, how long must we wait?"
I suspect that many of those who first heard this passage were content to cling to the hope it expresses. I suspect that many others asked, "When, Lord?" The original audience was a mix of the descendants of those who had been left behind by the Babylonians and those who had been taken away as part of the Exile. Those who had lived in Babylon were returning to Jerusalem. They were discovering that it wasn't going to be as easy as they thought or hoped to be reunited into one people. They all knew what it was like to live under someone else's power and didn't want the other group to have control. They were also learning that there were different ideas about what need to be done now that the Persians were allowing the exiles to return to rebuild the temple.
I imagine that many of them who knew the promise of the peaceable kingdom in Chapter 11 of Isaiah and heard the similar wording of this passage were very disappointed. They knew that this promise of a peaceable kingdom where natural enemies co-existed had been promised before Judah fell to the Babylonians. It had been promised but they had endured the humiliation of defeat and the oppression of being a conquered kingdom. Therefore, they may have been content to wrap themselves in the warmth of this hopeful passage against the cruel realities of the time while they waited for God to act; or they may have cried out in frustration, "When will this promise ever become a reality?"
Those were the approaches that I had taken several weeks ago, when I read this passage and thought that it was the right passage for today. However, when I was sharing my thoughts with a dear friend, she made a comment that indicated she wasn't quite so comfortable with this passage. She typically questions scripture more than I do, questioning how it can be true, whether or not to accept it at face value, and what that means to live according to the passage. Therefore what appears to be comforting and hopeful to most of us may also be very challenging for her. I'm often blessed when she shares her questions and reservations because she forces me to really think about the details of, the potential problems in, and the challenges posed by a passage of scripture.
When I mentioned the beautiful image of a kingdom where the wolf and lamb eat together and the lion and the ox both eat straw, she said that, yes she also liked that image, but only to a point then it made her uncomfortable. Once again I should have asked more questions! I don't remember what interrupted our conversation or whether I lacked the courage to embrace her challenge. But, her comment did prompt me to spend more time thinking about why this passage might not be so comfortable.
I think that there are probably a couple of reasons she finds the idea of the wolf and lamb or the lion and the lamb uncomfortable. The first is that that kind of peace where the predator and prey eat together would require us to sit and eat with those who we fear or dislike. The second is that she probably has thought about what we would have to do to live out this passage. She probably realized that for this kingdom to become true, we would have to live without our constant power struggles, and would be asked to give up our own selfish desires.
As those who live at a time when our soldiers still go off to war, our news headlines are filled with acts of violence, and our leaders struggle to speak without demeaning anyone who sees the world from a different perspective; we find great hope in the promise that God's kingdom will be characterized by peace. We deeply desire that peace – or at least we think we do.
There is certainly much to desire in today's passage – God will bring about a new kingdom, a reign of stability and order. Stability and order that will provide conditions where lives will be lived fully, where the people will enjoy the fruits of their labor, and where their children will be blessed by God. Walter Bruggemann's commentary on Isaiah offers some ideas of what kind of stability and order would be necessary to achieve these conditions.
In order for long live to be achieved. No longer could social circumstances of the threat and fear of violence elicit weeping and cries of distress – this city or kingdom created by God would be a nonviolent society. Stockpiles of weapons and powerful armies would not be used as a deterrent to war; acts of terror would not manipulate people based on their worst fears; gangs would not threaten neighborhoods; the threat of beatings would not crush the spirit of wives and children. This would be a society in which one neither uses violence or experiences violence used against them.
In order to have the quality of live where the young and old, the most vulnerable of a society, have long, full lives then the resources must be available for their care. This is a kingdom in which the powerful hoard the resources, but willingly share it with those who do not have political or economic power. Thus resources can be shared. One of the keys to this distribution of resources is the lack of fear, because as long as someone is afraid of their own future, then they will cling to all their resources.
This is a kingdom of economic stability. No longer are people consumed by the fear that they will lose what they have worked so hard to have. They will enjoy the fruits of their labor without the fear of someone else taking it. For a people who had been carried off into exile, the fear of losing everything to another invading army was as real as the fear of foreclosure in today's economic climate.
This is a kingdom in which nobody is threatened, and nobody is at risk. This is a kingdom where each person has opportunity to live confident that the future is good – that they will be cared for and blessed. The people do not have to worry about tomorrow, or their future days, nor do they need to worry about what will happen to their children.
This seems wonderful and attainable if God brings about this new creation in one grand swoop and we suddenly go from our current state to all fear being gone immediately – fear of others, fear for physical safety, fear for economic stability, and fear for our children. But I wonder if this isn't what should make us a little uncomfortable, because it raises questions.
Do we have to wait until some end time for God to bring this about? What if God isn't choosing to do this in one fell swoop, but by grace transforming each of us? What if we are part of this new creation that God is bringing into being? Are we willing to surrender to God changing us, making us a new creation by grace? Are we willing to trust God to transform others – even those we don't understand, don't like, or even claim to hate – in order to bring about this new creation?
This makes today's passage much more difficult, for then it isn't just the wolf and the lamb, the lion and the ox that must change – we have to be transformed. Those of us with power have to surrender power, those of us who are weak must stand up – not in violence but with words of truth spoken in love. We must stop seeking to do things the way we are comfortable but seek to live in a way that benefits the entire kingdom as God wills.
It is much easier to think about walking into this existing kingdom, a heavenly kingdom than being part of the process of this new creation. But, the Gospels remind us that Jesus was bringing the Kingdom of Heaven into being. Each week we even pray as Jesus taught for God's kingdom to come on Earth as it is in Heaven.
This familiar passage may no longer bring us as much comfort, because we realize that we are being asked to change just as much as the wolf and the lion, the lamb and the ox. Change makes us uncomfortable because we fear the unknown and often focus on the potential short term losses rather that the greater gains possible in the future. As my professor says, "Homeostasis is the greatest force in any human system." The desire to keep things as they are is the greatest force in any human system – family, community, or government.
This passage also makes us uncomfortable with the present because it shows us that we live in a very broken world, one filled with violence, anger, and fear; one in which many labor but never enjoy the fruits of their labors; one in which the most vulnerable in our society do not live out full lives; and one where many do not know the blessings of God.
Yet, while the passage may no longer hold as much comfort, it continues to hold all the promise of the peaceable kingdom of God. The passage assures us that God is bringing about a new creation – a creation in which we will realize peace and know the blessings of being in God's presence.
