Seeing and Seeking- God's Holy Mountain: Pete Mace
The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more.
O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! (Isaiah 2:1-5)
As the Old Testament reading for the First Sunday of Advent this year, these lines from Isaiah are Scripture’s first words to the church this liturgical year. We are starting with a blank canvas, a blank stage. And so with nothing to go off, no preconceived notions of what we should know, we see Isaiah take the stage, and as he takes the stage to speak to us, what he begins to do with his poetry- his prophecy- is to shape our vision. A strong start is always important, and Isaiah did not come to disappoint. With nothing else for reference, he begins to give us a vision of Scripture. He begins to shape for us a vision of the type of world that Scripture wants for us, that God promises us from the very first words of this liturgical year.
And only one verse in, we already need to stop and reflect on Isaiah’s words. This is the word that Isaiah, son of Amoz saw. Not heard, not read, but saw. Isaiah is able to see past the world around him as he knows it. He is able to see a world that is yet to come, a strange new world, a possible world that is so radically different from the one he and his people find themselves in now that it can be hard to imagine. Because the world they were living in, was not one of hope. The Israelites were living in troubled times, and they themselves were troubled people. They were displaced, they were self-centered. They were persecuted, they were idolatrous. They were sinned against, and they were themselves sinners. We can see Isaiah throughout the book correcting and speaking against these habits of wrongdoing while also offering a word of hope to the people of Israel. Hope that things could and would get better.
And just like them, the world we live in is not always one of hope either. News outlets display story after story of theft, social unrest, killing. The world is still reeling from the effects of quarantine and isolation for years. Even the Church’s reputation has been tarnished with misconduct and strife. And yet, in the midst of all of this, we are still somehow called to find a way to hope, like Isaiah. What is it that he sees that gives him such hope? And can we find a way to see it, too?
Well first of all for Isaiah, seeing is not simply a visual task. For Isaiah, to see this vision is an experience that requires the full use of his senses and imagination. He sees the mountain of the Lord. He hears the nations come to God to hear Him and to be heard by Him. He can feel them forming and beating their weapons of war into tools of growing and tending the land.
If any of you have ever been to the Grand Canyon, or any other major sort of marvel of the world, you may have some sense of what I’m talking about here when I say that truly seeing is a full body experience. If I hold up a postcard for you of the Grand Canyon, and you’ve never been there before, even though you've now seen the Grand Canyon visually, you haven’t seen it. There is more to the experience, the wind in your face, the sound of water rushing through the canyon’s bottom. The feeling of vertigo as you look over the edge. The mind’s attempt to comprehend the scope of it all even though you can’t even begin to see all of it. All of these sensations and acts of the imagination combine into the experience of seeing the Grand Canyon, or the Pacific Ocean, or the Rocky Mountain, or anything that is too big for us to take in, in its full scope.
And while Isaiah never made it to that big bowl in Arizona, he too is experiencing something too big to possibly take in, in its full scope. What Isaiah is experiencing, with his full being, in this vision… Well, it is a mountain. But it’s the mountain of the Lord’s house. Jerusalem, the city of peace. And there it is… rising above every other mountain, every other house, every other nation. Not to lord over them and dominate with force, but to invite the world to be a part of it. The whole world. Not to conquer with violence, but to dispense wisdom. To teach. And what will be taught by God’s people? Peace. The end of war, the end of strife, of neighbor against neighbor and nation against nation. The house of the Lord, the people of God, will teach peace. And farming, apparently. Because, if you aren’t going to kill your enemies, you may need to learn how to feed them. But one thing the people of the Lord will no longer need to learn or teach at that point is hope. At least not the hope we’re searching for today. Because in those days the things that we are hoping for will be realized. A new world, a new Kingdom, a new King.
But for today, in this time, and in this place, while we still wait, we can hear a message of hope from the prophet Isaiah. Because if we take Scripture seriously, we can rely on this vision not just as a could be but as a will be. There is no hesitation in the prophet’s words, no qualifying statements in case this doesn’t come to pass. No maybes or might haves are to be seen in the whole reading. Isaiah has hope because he knows this will happen. The mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established. There’s a certainty in that statement that reminds us that God always has the last word.
And in God’s last word we see a future with no more violence, no more war. Where there’s no need for war because God will arbitrate and judge all disputes between the nations. God, in other words, will not only speak, but will listen to the grievances, the disputes, and concerns of the nations, and will adjudicate His judgment. One result of said judgment, the only one actually named today, is total disarmament of all nations, which then leads to new capacities for tending the land and feeding the people of said land. Creating a Kingdom and a world where the majority of a country’s resources don’t go towards weapons of war, but can instead go towards taking care of its people. Its sick, its needy, its homeless.
Now God’s mountain is above all others because God’s kingdom is above all others. The nations of the world are not the source of true authority in Isaiah’s imagination, and are not the source of hope for the future in Isaiah’s vision. The world is the source of conflict, the source of the sword, the spear, the making of war. God’s kingdom is the source of peace, the source of the pruning hook, the plow, the making of community. A kingdom of wisdom. With a King willing to teach everyone His ways, and how to walk in His paths.
And the other nations will go up to Him to seek his teachings and guidance, and we will go up to seek Him together. Not picking sides, or asking God to pick favorites between people, or candidates, or nations. With no need for intermediaries or boundaries necessary between us and God like when we saw Moses sent up to Sinai to represent Israel because they couldn't handle being in the Lord’s presence. In this future God reigns as King over the whole world. God reigns as King among us. O Come O Come Emmanuel - God be with us.
AMEN
Pete is a former Wesley intern and has been a faithful friend, brother, and servant of Christ here at Wesley for the past 6 years. Currently pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Duke Divinity School and serving as a licensed pastor, Pete continues to be a dedicated disciple of Jesus and remains close to the hearts of those in our community.