I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t welcome disruption in my life, especially the kind that hurts deeply. Feeling gratitude for the growth is somewhat easier.
I’m reading Advent books entitled Freedom is Coming by Nick Baines and another by Walter Brueggamann, titled Names for the Messiah. I wrote this poem based on the heart disruption I feel about war while holding Isaiah’s plea to Israel in Isaiah 55: “Seek the Lord while He may be found.” I’m sure we’re all struggling with what’s happening in the Middle East. Can anyone make sense of it? I invite you to allow the disruption that Advent and Jesus calls us to, for he himself was born into a corrupt and oppressive empire, with a leader so corrupt he would have innocent boys slaughtered to hold on to his own power and title.
I feel so small and privileged, living in a safe and cozy home with heat, electricity, and access to water. I don’t understand much of the book of Isaiah except that his prophetic voice is there, amid greed, power, and oppression. Nick Baines writes that the people of God “had gradually lost [God’s] plot; they had forgotten who and what they had been called to be; they got caught up in the fantasies that grow out of hubris, revenge, power, security, and insular complacency. A people who told stories about their liberation by God successively failed to learn that this experience (to say nothing of this theological understanding of their identity and purpose) was supposed to shape their way of living in the world. For example, to sing songs of justice while enshrining injustices in their social order was to live hypocritically- a denial of the very reason for their existence.” The book of Isaiah, spoken prophetically, seems eerily like what we’re hearing about and seeing today in the news.
This morning Kelli sent me this drawing done by Violet. While the grown ups study thier own curriculum, Violet is always thinking of things she can teach the kids who come. Such an innocent spirit, that six-year-old. Apparently, Nara will be playing the part of the angel and will tell everything she knows about “the little baby Jesus”.
The struggles of life have called me to
A river of grief that passes through
Its banks are set along the way
Its flow continues both night and day.
The cries of death and destruction are here
They pierce our hearts and give us fear
That all is not as it should be
That we have lost our way to see…
The heartache of war and tragedy
The lack of compassion and civility
That innocent children are forced to witness
Atrocities that are well beyond their fitness.
We turn away, we cannot fathom
How deep and wide and long the chasm
That pops on the screen with blow-by-blow
A rift that was started so long ago.
I’m reminded of the way Isaiah would plead
For the beloved people of God to heed
The Lord of compassion’s loving voice
That in this life they have a choice…
To listen and love the Lord our God
To awake to the touch of His staff and rod
That comforts and keeps our hearts in check
To choose life and love instead of weapons that wreck.
You see, sin gets into everything
It keeps us from fully worshiping
The One who came to make things right
By bridging the gap with His humble Light.
Jesus, the one Isaiah said would come
Despised and rejected and crushed by some
They idolized the power to go their own way
To make their own rules, to make others pay.
And in my deepest moments of despair
When I’m trying to figure out ways to care
I’m reminded that my own heart is filled
With ways I’m resistant to the call to fulfill…
What Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount
To be poor in spirit, to bring to account
The number of times I also dismiss
The love and grace of God for those I resist.
We all have fallen short of the glory of God
To be his disciples both near and abroad
The time now calls for entering in
With the least of these who are suffering.
Isaiah says “Seek the Lord while He may be found”;
His kingdom, not ours, is the one that’s profound.
No quick answers or certainty
His ways are higher, we’re bound to see.
In the meantime, stop, pray, and plant a seed
Give hope where you can that peace can succeed
As weapons of warfare are laid on the table
And compassionate voices will somehow be able
To reach for a way that is higher than ours
A wisdom that goes beyond all the powers
That seek revenge and bloodshed and greed
Instead of the Sower who sowed the seed…
That yields bread and water and bud that flourishes
A peace that is lasting and also nourishes
The call to live and love at its deepest level
One in which the heavens can revel.
Come, Lord Jesus, come.
AMEN
“He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” Isaiah 2:4
“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord- and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.” Isaiah 11:1-3
