ADVENT 2 - Peace & Justice are Good News

In our reading today from Isaiah we have a breathtaking view of a world where shalom, God’s peace, has overcome all the things we would describe as part of the broken mess the world lives in.

That Hebrew word ‘shalom’ is not about the mere absence of conflict (although in this world such would be a remarkable blessing) but the total, harmonious, well-being and fulfillment of societies and individuals. 

The picture Isaiah creates is one involving the whole of creation – all things living and created.  You will remember those words in the Genesis 1 Creation story that God looked at all that was made and said it was good – yet we have come to see some things as a bit less than good, especially if they happen to be able to kill us – wolves and leopards, lions and snakes.  But Isaiah says:

⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
    and a little child will lead them.
⁷ The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put its hand

into the viper’s nest.
⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah makes it clear, however, that this idyllic world will not be arrived at all by itself.  This vision of peace, reconciliation and fulfillment, will only come about through the work of a most remarkable person, a member of the family tree of Jesse and King David.

There shall grow from the stump of Jesse a new shoot, a new branch shall spring from old roots.

Isaiah puts his hope in this new shoot from the family tree of Jesse.

SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE CHURCH

You don’t have to pry far into the histories of the Christian Church to discover a few people – here and there – who grasped that to correctly understand the Good News one had to be involved in eradicating injustice, wherever it existed.

The Prophets laid the foundation for it when they said over and over that all God’s people were called to care for the widows and the orphans, and the aliens among them – that God preferred a commitment to justice over religious observances.

Over the last 200 years much has been spoken and written about social justice – Great Christian voices like William Wilberforce, and Elizabeth Fry speaking out against slavery and the appalling conditions in Prisons.  William Booth spoke up against unsafe working conditions in factories and Caroline Chisholm here in Australia sought to protect vulnerable women in the very earliest days of European settlement in Australia.  The Rev’d John Flynn brought medical care and education to the remotest parts of Australia as a matter of justice. 

Most mainstream churches have social welfare services that seek to provide some redress for those who miss out in our society.  It is something to celebrate that so many Christians have been at the front in pursuing social justice.  Some of the victories in have been large; most have been small.  There is still a long, long way to go.

But the thing we all need to realise is that even if we could put right all the injustice people in our world are suffering right now, we would still not be looking at the kind of shalom Isaiah was talking about here.  

Isaiah looked for, and proclaimed, a new kind of human being and a new kind of justice.  It is a justice which is more than justice.  The transformation of the world would come through God’s action in and through a unique individual--- the new branch on the family tree of Jesse.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and of power,
    the Spirit of the knowledge and of the fear of the Lord—
 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

And then comes the crunch:

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
    or decide by what he hears with his ears;
but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
    with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

This is something that is really hard for us to do.  So often we find ourselves basing our judgements on what we see and what we hear – and very often these become a limiter to how much justice we are willing to dispense.

Isaiah wants to assure us that this shoot from the stump of Jesse will not deal with surface issues, nor use the world’s criteria.  He will introduce a deeper level of righteousness, a new kind of equity, a novel version of a fair go.  There will be a radical change.

JESUS: THE PERSON WHO DISPENSES ‘BETTER-THAN-JUSTICE’

Then Jesus came among us and we saw a truly unique person who saw into the lives of people differently and called into being something more than justice, a better justice.

He saw Simon Peter, a bumptious and fickle character, and told him he was going to be a rock of faith.

He saw an agent from the hated Roman authorities, Zacchaeus the tax collector, and with a justice beyond justice, Jesus went to dinner with him.

Jesus saw a woman at his feet, and heard her accusers declare that she had been seized in the act of adultery.  He saw a person who needed some true love, and sent her on her way as a forgiven person.

Others, even his own disciples, saw tough street children as a nuisance.  He saw them as signs of the kingdom of God, and placed his hands on them in blessing.

The Jewish nationalists around Jesus saw Roman soldiers as scum, but Jesus said if a soldier makes your carry his gear for a mile, be generous and willingly go a second mile.

This brand new way of seeing and living, this unique life style that is Jesus’ thing, is the way of grace.  Free grace is God’s version of justice. Grace is Divine generosity, abundant as a cup that is full and running over.  Jesus was not content that people treat each other with what we Aussies call “a fair go,” he offered much more than a fair go - grace that overflows with goodwill.

THE WAY WE MUST GO

As Christians, we are called to share in this “better-than-justice” mission to the world.

We are called to emulate this Divine generosity, to be agents of abundant grace; to be merciful even as our heavenly Father is merciful.  We are those whose mission is to go beyond what their eyes see and what their ears hear.

We are to be like the Father who welcomes home the prodigal son, even though that son had squandered any rights he once had.

We are to be like the Good Samaritan who puts himself at risk in order to help a wounded stranger by the roadside.

We are to be like the generous host who invites to his dinner parties, not those who can return the honour, but those who cannot repay him.

We are to be like Jesus, forgiving his enemies even when they have abused him, and nailed him to the cross.

Common justice is not sufficient.

CONCLUSION

The ‘grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” is radical.

Grace is something new.  

Grace is pure gift. 

This free, healing grace can finally lead us to the fulfillment of the brilliant vision of Isaiah:

⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
    and a little child will lead them.
⁷ The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put its hand

into the viper’s nest.
⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.