December 5, 2010 "Future Shock/Future Hope"

Isaiah 11:1-13
Matthew 3:1-10
One can hardly read these words from Isaiah without conjuring up the image of the painting “The Peaceable” Kingdom by the Quaker painter Edward Hicks. In this immense mural a lion and ox eat straw together, a bear and cow are feeding on grain, the wolf and the lamb lay together, as also the leopard and baby goat. Even more surreal, down in the lower right corner is depiction of William Penn the founder of the State of Pennsylvania bartering and trading together with Native American Indians. According to Hicks this New World/this great continent/this Enlightenment experiment was to embody that Peaceable Kingdom; where because we act with justice and righteousness in peace, all Creation would live together in tranquil harmony. The Peaceable Kingdom has been humanity's future hope of starting a new world order where violence and fear and isolation are not possible. Rather than a Berlin Wall, or a Cold War, rather than an Arms Race, or Oil Embargoes, to Peaceable Kingdom has been humanity's vision of what could be. It was a grand vision of reality beyond profit, beyond greed, beyond concern for winning and losing, recognizing that the balance of all creation, the future hope of the world depends upon humanity acting to trust one another.

This passage from Isaiah and Psalm 72, we sung as a prayer, each describe a common future hope, when a King Solomon, or a future descendent of David, would execute justice and righteous faith. Much like ending the baseball season declaring “Just wait till next year”, or the hope during an election the future always seems bright, filled with unrealized potential. The ancient world was created with balance and dependency between the rulers and leaders of faith. Not necessarily religious leaders, but the faithful, the meek, those seeking for the poor to be fed and wars to cease. It is as if this prophecy of Isaiah has two parts in perfect balance, description of the Messiah to come and a new Order to Creation. The balance of the world is not set by Wall Street, any more than on ecology and recycling, on whether hydro-fracking is permitted or not, not on moral issues of embryonic stem-cell research or abortion, but as basic as whether we hope for a future of peace among peoples and cultures.

In 1970 a book was published by the Sociologist Alvin Toffler, titled “Future Shock.” Toffler's treatise was that while Europe took a Century to shift from a Rural Agriculture based society to an Industrial one, and parts of the world had never changed from Nomadic and Tribal, in the 1800s America had shifted to Industrialization within 3 decades, and now approaching the next Century change was about to come converting culture from an Industrialized Society to a Super-Industrialized Highly Technological Machine. According to the supposition of Future Shock humanity would experience an Information Overload, causing people to be stressed-out, burned-out, disoriented and alienated from all life. Forty years ago, Toffler hit the nail on the head, describing what we have come to take for granted, that humanity would not be able to cope with so much change.

This has been a hard year. What was accredited as The Greatest Generation who survived the Depression and World War are dying. What was to have been a swift and decisive action in retaliation for the terrorism of 911, has become the longest war is American History, and on the other side the longest war on Afghan soil in their heritage. What we imagined was the blip of the Dot Com Bubble bursting, was followed by the Housing Market Bubble, and has involved the economies of the world. We have hidden unemployment and compounding debt with shame. This has been a hard year. Do we imagine all that is going to go away, simply because a new year comes on the Roman Calendar? Are the singing of a few Carols going to put us in a different mood? Perhaps. Belief in the coming of a baby is sentimental and nostalgic...

What if, instead of Future Shock, instead of Information Overload, we believed in Future Hope? If the answer to all life's problems was not how to get more, or how to accept what happened a lifetime ago, or even how to make it all go away with another drink. What if the answer to life was as simple as change from what we have known, to living in trust and hope?
This is radical change, from the violence that the Leopard does to the goat, and the lion to the ox, or the bear to the cow, this is changing the future of the world! But this radical change happens because of the simple shift from a future based on fear, on shock of being unable to cope with excess, being disoriented, alienated and disappointed; to instead hoping and believing in possibility.

We read the Gospel of Matthew of the wild haired, locust eating John the Baptist; we recall John came as precursor for the coming of the Savior. But according to Matthew, both John and Jesus came preaching REPENTANCE FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND. How different worship would be, how different our faith, if instead of beginning the Sabbath by saying “Good Morning!” Rather than a Call to Worship that invites us to use our imagination, instead we began with a Call to Live life differently, as different as the Lion and Lamb trusting one another.

I am continually amazed by Hope. Hope is unlimited and inexhaustible. Every generation hopes anew. Much of the housing stock in this Village was not built in the last five years, but a hundred and two hundred years ago. More than being quaint, and an invitation for tourism, each homeowner has mortgaged their future on this home. Each have invested themselves in it, not only with new colors and carpets, but moving walls, adding porches and barns, removing them, building new porches and garages. Each believes that they have done everything possible to make this house their home, to realize their dreams. Than a new generation comes, with new hopes and dreams of the future.

This Sacrament is about HOPE. Hope not simply in a baby, not simply in one greater than a prophet of the wilderness, but hope that inspires awe! Hope in a world created in peace.