"Peace of God" December 7, 2014

Isaiah 40:1-11 Mark: 1:1-8 In all the Nativity Creche Sets, all the Christmas Pageants over all the years, we have had Joseph, Mary and the Baby, Shepherds, Sheep, Angels, Wisemen, Camels, a Donkey, Cows, an Inn Keeper, some years even Martians, Giraffes and Pigs. The one figure in the Gospel not in our Pageants or Creches is John the Baptist. What would it be, if going to see the Lights, one house after another were illuminated with icycles and wildly changing colors, Dancing Snowmen, Jolly Fat Santas, The Grinch, Rudolphs and Reindeer, then as you stopped in front of the Church there was a man, with long unkempt hair, wearing a camel skin and leather belt, his beard and tunic matted with smeared honey, pieces of locusts in his teeth, and a voice that bellows over all the Ho Ho Hos, Jingle Bells and Carols, to proclaim “Repent, For the Kingdom of God is coming!” John the Baptist is not what we think of as Christmas, or Advent. We expect Love & Joy, Light, Hope, Peace and Good Will. But this is December 7th, A Day that will Live in Infamy, when over 2,400 Americans were killed and 1178 wounded, an act of hostility designed to destroy us, instead forcing our Nation into War. The last several weeks, we have heard reports of ISIS beheading Journalists, and of race riots against the police in Florida, Ferguson, Missouri and New York City. Isaiah and Mark were correct this is not a time to preach Peace on Earth, Good Will among men! But Repent! for this season this time in human history is about the Peace of God coming into the world! Before we make out our Wish Lists of all we want and desire, there is a forgotten step, of sitting on Santa's Knee questioning if we have been Good or Bad. If we are planning our dress for a Christmas Party Christmas Eve or if we are planning to come to worship? If we have been distracted by Piano Recitals and Meetings, Parties and Cookies, or if we have considered lowering our Pride, and Rising from our depressions? We tend to hear Isaiah as having been the High Priest at Jerusalem prophesying the judgment and history of punishment of Israel and all the Nations of the Ancient World. For the first 39 Chapters, that would be accurate. There is a credible understanding, that after the 39 Chapters of historic judgment, we were then to read the Book of Lamentations, as the people mourned their loss. But Chapter 40 announces something new and different. No longer in the Past Tense, the Chapter begins with God speaking to the Heavenly Host announcing Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. The shift from past to future declares that human history was on a trajectory toward death; the Nations have been judged, have faced Exile and Punishment and Almighty God declares, the time is over. When a criminal has served their time, we envision their release, with stern warning and expectation of recidivism. Instead, God proclaims, compassion and concern. There is a recurrent image in these passages. According to Isaiah, the Captives set Free are to be brought home to the Promised Land through the Wilderness where this disembodied voice speaks. What Isaiah describes is a Renewal of The Exodus. In order to come to Promised Land, Israel needed to wander through the Wilderness. John the Baptist came from the Wilderness, embodying the Wild. Jesus immediately after being Baptized was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. The Wilderness is not a place of Comforting the Afflicted, or Speaking Tenderly. Wilderness is a lonely place, a reflective retreat, a place where we are not concerned with how many presents under the tree, or whether this tree is better than all the rest, but only with survival, with absolute dependence upon God. But in this Exodus, there is no complaining about how much better it was to be slaves, no longing for the flesh pots of Egypt, no weeping for Jerusalem, instead all the obstacles have been removed, all the high places, all the rough, all the depressions. The difficulty is that on December 7th, after 353 planes bombed Hawaii, after 4 of our 8 Battleships were sunk and 3 others damaged, 188 planes destroyed and 159 planes damaged, 3 Cruisers, 3 Destroyers destroyed, 2,400 killed and more than 1100 others wounded, you do not simply say PEACE and have everyone accept it. When a young Black Man reaches through the window of a police car to take the officer's gun, when commanded to stop he does not, but instead charges the officer. When for months tensions escalate, stores and neighborhoods are destroyed, and the Police Force is embarrassed Peace, Comfort seem irrelevant words. When a young Black Man was shot by a White Police Officer, who then collected the evidence, while the young's dead body lay in the street for hours; is followed by another man in another city being choked and held down by Police, protesting he cannot breathe as he dies, Speak Tenderly of Peace and Consolation, seem hollow. Instead, Isaiah describes there are two different Orders in the World. The Human Order compared to the Divine Order of God. All Flesh is grass, the grass withers, the flower fades. Like waves of the Ocean, the Prophet describes the collision of these two orders. Human History, growing in progress and dying. Like some great Greek Tragedy, we have accomplishments building upon accomplishments, only to realize we are mortal and our greatest Empires and Societies fall to decay. There is an order to Human Development and History, but at the horizon of history is this other order declaring that human struggles are not in vain, there is human greatness in history, there can even be righteousness, there are nations which have created freedom and a level of equality, all of which are subject to arrogant Laws of Self-Destruction. But just as we have glimpsed the Divine, knowing reality greater than our own, so also God acts, unexpectedly, in paradox, the Weak display a strength, the poor know riches beyond wealth. Like the Book of Job, when rationally pushed for explanation of Why, why there is suffering, why there is death, why there is not Peace, God points to the greatness of Creation which cannot be measured according to human righteousness. In the tension of our struggles: 1) Humanity recognize our World is not God's World, we cannot make Peace. 2) Humanity ultimately is dissatisfied with everything we have done, all flesh withers. 3) But Humanity is gifted a glimpse of something greater & the infinite within our finite is touched. 4) While we can never force Peace, or Perfect Humanity, the truth is that The Divine Order and the Human Order are each within the other. God becomes One With us. What is beautiful about John the Baptist, is that he did not suddenly proclaim himself to be the Messiah sent from God. Instead, this man embodying Wilderness, embodying that disembodied voice called, and all the World responded. As uncouth and unkempt and wild as John the Baptist was, he displayed a vulnerability of saying “It's Not Me!” After me comes one for whom I am not worthy to even untie the sandal. And Jesus, did not come onto the scene in Mark declaring himself to be the first, but recognized the life accomplishments of John, the Law and Prophets before him. The Gospel of Mark begins in this unique manner. Realize that Matthew with the Genealogy of Jesus, and Luke with historic identification in the time of King Herod, Augustus Caesar, Zechariah was Priest, John's eloquent poetry about the spirit of Christ being present at Creation, were not written Mark was first published. The Gospel of Mark begins “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, The son of God.” The wonderful part of that is that Mark's telling does not have a Resurrection Appearance. This Good News stops with the burial and witnesses who came to the tomb but ran away in fear. So the whole of the Gospel of Mark is only the Beginning. The Evangelist declares this is not just a story, not one that will end “Happily Ever After” but instead this is Gospel, Good News of the son of God who is our Savior. Comfort, Comfort, My People, Says Your God, Speak Tenderly to Jerusalem... In response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, demonstrating the power of the Bomb. Would that in response to the deaths of Black Men in Florida, in Missouri, in New York, all of us would stop to reflect and repent on the ways we react to the color of a person's skin, answering violence with violence until double the punishment has been paid. What will it cost for all flesh to see it together? The Grass Withers, the Flower Fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever.