Prepare for the Realm

Sermon by Rev Mary Alice Mulligan, Ph.D.

2nd Sunday in Advent - Scripture: Matthew 24:36-44

Some 700 years before the birth of Christ, the Northern tribes of the Hebrew people fell to Assyrian conquest, while little Judah survived uneasily as a tributary. The prophet Isaiah arises, pointedly calling Judah to trust in God’s future, claiming that since God’s ultimate success is assured, the days of injustice are numbered. Those whose wealth comes from cheating the poor; those who abuse God’s creation, those whose unrighteousness seems to allow easy living – their time is drawing to a close, while the era of righteousness is about to break in. To help us claim assurance in such a future, Isaiah paints a picture for us, what we have come to call “the peaceable kingdom.” On this Second Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of peace, we hear from Isaiah how astonishing peace and wholeness will erupt when divine justice is carried out. Stop now and read Isaiah 11:1-10.

For almost 3 millennia, artists have given expression to the scene Isaiah describes. Wolves frolicking with lambs; lions and calves heading out to fields together; children reaching into snake pits. Artists in different cultures paint different herbivores cavorting with different carnivores, but always the scene communicates a sense of safety. No one is getting eaten; no one is wide eyed with terror as a tiger joins the group. The point being that life can be truly glorious, if no one has to be afraid. But, of course, each painting is unrealistic. Such peace could never happen. Isaiah paints an impossible scene, unless God intervenes to make it so.

The Bible describes God’s Realm. Especially the prophets show the coming Reign, what we used to call the Kingdom of God. We are given glimpses of the world as God intends, when God’s full administration takes over. Isaiah claims, “on that day,” using the vague apocalyptic promise again like last week; on that day, all the world will be re-oriented. Creation will be set right. Rain forests and polar ice caps will remain intact. Animals will survive without eating each other. All created things will know the ways of Yahweh.

Ah! “The peaceable kingdom.” We love the romantic paintings of lions standing contentedly with gazelles, forests abundantly filling the scene. And at the front, a child, ready to lead. But Isaiah doesn’t stop with wild nature. He displays what the peaceable kingdom looks like among humanity as well, when God’s Spirit of wisdom reigns throughout society, correcting human interactions. The transformation Isaiah describes begins with something as small as a little sprig peeking out from a stump that looks dead; a metaphor for a sign of life beginning to grow in a culture that seems doomed to destruction. Then from one sign of holy life, God’s Spirit spreads, reshaping Earth with righteousness. Humanity filled with peace and living out of justice.

We can imagine it: children never fearing adults will ever use them as punching bags again. Or corporations no longer making gluttonous profits for stockholders, while refusing to pay common workers a living wage. Isaiah foretells: “The poor shall be judged with righteousness.” Not special treatment for those Jesus called the Least, but equal treatment, so regardless of race or economic status, people will receive competent counsel, erasing longstanding discrepancies in the judicial system. (1) Inequality in the entire legal system is well known, but it is worse in capital cases. Although statistics indicate as many whites as nonwhites are murdered, 80% of all executions in the United States were of persons convicted of killing a white person. Miguel De La Torre, Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins (Orbis, 2004), 186f.

2 Christopher Southgate, The Groaning of Creation: God, Evolution, and the Problem of Evil (WJK, 2008), 117, referring to the work of Andrew Linzey, director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.Surely God yearns for universal justice; where generosity and mercy guide human behavior. What a glorious world, where all people are treated with righteousness, where the wolf and the lamb share a dwelling place. Nature and humanity will be transformed in God’s full administration. We know what the Realm of God looks like because the Bible shows us.

But the coming of the Realm is always God’s work. Only God can bring in the Realm. Scripture reminds us, time and again, it is “the kingdom of God” or “the realm of God” because establishing the Realm is God’s job. Human beings are part of what gets transformed because the source of the change is divine. Our contemplation during Advent drives the point home. We are not in charge. God establishes Shalom, in God’s time, according to God’s plan.

In last Sunday’s scripture, we heard Jesus explain in parabolic form: if the householder knew when thieves were breaking in, they would have stayed awake. The timing is uncertain. So, we stay alert, to wait and watch. Believers anticipate God’s coming, but we cannot make it happen. Once we get a sense of what the Realm is like, we know for sure we can’t bring it in. All we need to do is listen to politicians try to convince each other about federal spending priorities. No one seems able to hear the other; and they don’t give each other an inch. Closer to home, some of us cringed at Thanksgiving when family members started to express opinions about abortion, or the in-laws, or public education. Listening to people’s disagreements shows clearly that the peaceable kingdom cannot be the result of human effort. And of course, we can hear it in our own silent conversations. Humans cannot bring in the Realm of Heaven.

From time to time we act as if the kingdom of God is coming in by our effort, but we admit our dependence on God to bring in the Realm, every Sunday. We will say it in just a few minutes: “Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as in heaven.” Every time we repeat the Lord’s prayer, we petition God to bring in the Realm, so Earth will follow God’s purposes more fully, as already is the case in heaven. We are admitting, only our Heavenly Parent can know what creation needs. The establishment of the peaceable kingdom is always God’s job.

So then, our job is to practice. While we wait for God’s coming Realm, we rehearse what we know about God’s will. We consider what we believe God wants for the Earth, then focus on living in ways that honor those plans. One way to be ready for the Realm is to train our “faith muscles” now. Like the bridegroom who takes ballroom dance lessons to be able to dance with his new spouse, when they celebrate their marriage at the reception. He wants to be able to follow the steps of their first waltz together. In like manner, we might say we want to be able to follow God’s lead when the sacred dancing of the Reign of God breaks out in its fullness.

When we think of the lush vegetation in those “peaceable kingdom” paintings, we might remember how crucial it is to protect creation. How much rain forest has been eradicated while we were sitting here? Many of us stack up paper to recycle, but most of us do not use any recycled paper products. The paper we turn over to recycle ends up in the landfill if there is no market for recycled paper goods. Toilet paper, copy paper, wrapping paper need people to buy them. To practice for eventually living in the Realm, we rightly focus on protecting God’s creation instead of letting it be destroyed. One British theologian claims we get ready for the Realm by attempting to prevent damage to all created things; to ease suffering in all creation (both human and nonhuman). He goes so far to advocate “the ending of meat eating… [as] a sign of human beings aligning themselves with God’s eventual purposes for the creation.” After all in the peaceable kingdom, no one eats anyone else, so this theologian encourages we should start now. Not an easy option for most folks, but we get the idea. Catch God’s vision and live toward it. Our responsibility now is to move in rhythm with what God is planning. So many ways to dance in step with God’s coming Realm! God’s will is for wholeness in creation, and justice, and righteousness, so we work to find ways to follow God’s lead moving toward them. We want to be ready, so we practice for the Realm.

So on this second Sunday of Advent when we focus on peace (shalom), we listen to the prophet, who helps us envision the self-giving love of God which transforms all creation – both nature and humankind. So, if we can keep our eyes on the vision of God’s future, we can live our lives, individually and as a congregation, following those holy principles, which helps us prepare for the coming Realm.

(1) Inequality in the entire legal system is well known, but it is worse in capital cases. Although statistics indicate as many whites as nonwhites are murdered, 80% of all executions in the United States were of persons convicted of killing a white person. Miguel De La Torre, Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins (Orbis, 2004), 186f.

(2) Christopher Southgate, The Groaning of Creation: God, Evolution, and the Problem of Evil (WJK, 2008), 117, referring to the work of Andrew Linzey, director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.