Musical Prelude and Service.

Isaiah 11:1-10 & Matthew 3:1-12
I heard one pastor recently say with good humour that the proper greeting for this time of year is not
Merry Christmas. No. It’s “repent you brood of vipers.” What does that have to do with my reflection
today? Well, keep listening.
On this Second Sunday of Advent, we traditionally reflect on Peace. The gift of Peace that God offers
us but also the need for us to work towards Peace. When we take time to look around our world,
whether it be our own communities, or on a wider scale considering all the different parts of our
world, Peace can seem, at best, elusive. For some it may seem a pipe dream. Certainly, the type of
Peace that the prophet Isaiah envisions seems a long way from becoming a reality.
Wars wage in different parts of the world. Violence and oppression are everyday realities for many
countries and communities. Conflict and injustice, exploitation and threats of violence are all too
common in places closer to home or on a domestic scale in our own neighbourhoods. Peace is
something we desire. Peace is something we value. We take time on November 11 to commit
ourselves to that value, remembering the horrors of war. But it can sometimes seem a long way
away.
When you imagine Peace, what comes to mind for you?
Some time ago, I started reflecting on that question. Can we find true peace in the absence of
justice? Can we experience peace in the absence of violence when so many live with the fear and the
threat of violence hanging over them day after day? Perhaps true Peace demands a radical change in
our way of seeing the world and working in the world.
In the world Isaiah imagines and calls for – the world Isaiah tells us God desires for us, peace is so
much more than an absence of violence. This is a world where wolves, lions and bears lay down with
lambs, kids and cows. But beyond that, on God’s holy mountain, the lamb and the kid can lie down
with these predators with no fear that the wolf will change its mind on a whim and attack. How
peaceful would this image of God’s mountain be if the lamb lay down and shook with anxiety and
fear due to the fickle nature of the wolf sitting next to it?
Isaiah’s prophecy comes from a time when the Kingdom of Judah lives in fear of what the Assyrian
empire on its border may choose to do and then the Babylonian empire that succeeds it. Within the
kingdom of Judah, Isaiah and other prophets are pointing out the unjust treatment of the poorest
and weakest in their population. It is a society that offers no comfort for those with no resources or
left on their own. Peace is hard to find already. Isaiah notes that the line of David is coming to an
end. Once Judah is conquered it will be no more. There is a yearning to return to a time long gone,
and there is a promise of a new branch emerging from the stump of Jesse, David’s father. That it is
referred to as the stump of Jesse is noteworthy. Not the royal line of David. As much as Isaiah yearns
for and offers hope of new leadership, it is not a return to David, who was clearly far from perfect.
This is a hope of something new and better, more just than what people have known in the past.
This is not a nostalgic yearning for how things used to be. This is a call for radical change; for
resetting the pillars of the world. This is not about accepting the status quo or seeing the world they
live in as being okay. This is not about looking at the injustice and the cruelty of their society and
shrugging their shoulders and declaring it okay.
Isaiah’s vision of God’s holy mountain leaves no room for corruption and injustice. It does not look at
the indifference shown for poverty and exploitation of the marginalized and the stranger, and say
that is acceptable.
A world that reacts with indifference to the suffering of the poor and marginalized is not okay.
A society that celebrates violence and the use of power to enrich the powerful and their friends
should not be unacceptable. It’s not okay and should be resisted as not normal.
To shrug our shoulders and say that’s just the way of the world is to give into despair and to lose
hope. Isaiah offers us a vision of something better; something new. It may seem fanciful and
unrealistic, but it remains something to hold on to.
Isaiah looks at his world and says what we have right now is not okay and it cannot hold. God wants
so much more for us all. We should not be satisfied, and we should live with hope that God will build
something new and we are called to work with them.
Last week I proposed that the Advent and Christmas seasons are a form of Apocalyptic story telling.
That we acknowledge the darkness of the world we live in. We name the suffering and the need for
change, and then God enters our world bringing with them change. I urge you to hold on to that
imagery as we continue our walk through Advent.
Matthew tells us the story of John the Baptizer offering his own prophecy. John can be a little scary.
I think most prophets are on some level, speaking bluntly about the state of the world and warning
of troubles to come, but the good ones also offer that sense of hope.
John’s warnings of threshing and burning away the chaff can be very troubling. It’s a violent image
and it seems to say some of us have no hope – that God is going to do away with some of us.
Instead, I would like to offer an alternative view of this vision. God does not look at us and see some
as grain and some as chaff. Instead, God views the process of refinement as one we all experience
as we find who we are truly meant to be. Removing the chaff of fear and greed to leave behind the
grain that feeds this wondrous world with love and generosity. God has no interest in throwing any of
us away. This is the journey of repentance.
John looks at some of those who visit him at the Jordan and sees them not truly understanding what
is happening. While they may be interested in baptism and acknowledging their place in God’s world,
they are not prepared to take a look at themselves and see the need for change. He names those
who come holding onto the power granted them by the institutions, bound by religious authority, and
unwilling to truly change their ways, and names them a brood of vipers and hypocrites.
Either they are comfortable with their lives, or don’t see their place in creating something new.
Repentance is about so much more than saying you’re sorry. Repentance is about recognizing you
are on a path to destruction, to pain; your pain or that of others. That you have played a part in
harming others or enjoying the fruits of other’s exploitation. It is about recognizing that path leads to
greater pain and destruction. It is realizing you need to find an off ramp and begin a journey in a
new direction toward a new destination. And confessing your part in the harm caused.
Baptism is a physical sign of the decision to choose a new life and a new destination. How committed
are you to a new life? I suspect John is asking those who come to him.
We can run the risk of looking at the world around us and become overwhelmed by the violence and
the darkness, the corruption and the cruelty that gets so much attention. We can become
overwhelmed and give into heartbreak and despair, but we need to stay awake to the signs of hope.
We need to celebrate the generosity and the love that is alive all around us. The compassion and the
work of so many in our community and our world who continue to work to make people’s lives more
comfortable. Those who give what they can, and neve give up in the efforts to further the cause of
justice and of peace.
Despair is not a plan for the future. It is a surrender to the status quo of an empire built on violence
fear and indifference.
May we work with God to make their holy mountain real. May we work with the hope that God offers
thorough the prophetic imagination that offers us a glimpse of what awaits us if we can only hold on
and live like it is already in our grasp. Thanks be to God. Amen
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789