Title: "Healing Alienation"
Scripture: Isaiah 11:1-10
12/5/04 Second Sunday of Advent, Year A
Rev. Joy R. Haertig
Today is the second Sunday of Advent, a season for naming our dreams and deepest hopes. It is a time which cycles around each year giving us another opportunity to consider what it might mean for Christ to be born in and through us to a world in need of Spirit; in need of hope, peace, joy and love.
I mentioned last week that during this season I will search for a dream in the scripture to bring to you for our reflection, trusting that the dreams and deepest hopes of our foreparents will have something to say to us today in our own dreaming and hoping.
Last week we looked at Isaiah's dream of a time when people will turn their whole lives toward God and will "beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks" and Paul's dream of our "putting on Christ" and an "armor of light" as a way of living as Christ lived.
This week we read further in the passage from Isaiah and we hear his dream of leadership that is inspired by God's spirit of wisdom and understanding which in turn will bring into harmony all creation from the meek of the earth to the wolf and the lamb, the nursing child and the asp (a small African poisonous snake).
Originally this dream referred to the dream of a King or the Messiah that would come and rule justly, inspired by the spirit of God and release the Jewish people from oppression from other countries. For those who came to follow Jesus, it became the vision and dream of which Jesus was the inspired King or Messiah, the great Son of David.
Those are terms we hear during Advent and Christmas and as beloved as they are, let us remember that Jesus did not want to be a King and it was believed that a Messiah would not be killed upon a cross. Through Jesus' resurrection however, the dream did not die. Inspired by the Spirit of the Risen Christ, Isaiah's dream became a dream not for one leader alone, but a dream for how people should live in community with one another. No single leader can force harmony upon a society; a leader can inspire it but not dictate it.
Jesus' calling was to inspire righteousness and compassion in all of us on behalf of all, in particular, those who were most in need and alienated.
One of the whimsical images that is so inspiring in Isaiah's dream is that when people live in harmony with one another and human alienation is healed it impacts all creation. The land breaths easier, the lion that would normally eat the ox is grazing next to it in the fields and children are safe to play in the midst of them.
It is a wonderful dream, isn't it? Have you ever dared to dream in this way on behalf of our precious planet?
The dream is absolutely wonderful and absolutely unbelievable at the same time, that is how I know it is God's dream: for we do not have the courage to dream this big! So it is good to let the light of Isaiah's dream shine into the darkest parts of our cynicism and hopelessness, stretching our imagination beyond the limitations we have built for ourselves.
It is a huge dream, a dream that encompasses all creation near and far. Let us consider even one way we might participate in it today.
Isaiah writes: "He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth!"
So much of the alienation that is a part of the human experience is due to how we judge one another, particularly by what we see and by what we see as being different from ourselves.
This past Wednesday was World Aids day and I was listening to an interview on the radio with reporter Jim Wooten who has written a book about his friendship with Nkosi Johnson, a boy from South Africa who died of AIDS when he was 12 years old in 2001. I heard the tender and courageous voice of young Nkosi when he spoke at the AIDS Conference in Durban South Africa in July of 2000 when he said: "Don't be afraid. Show respect. You can't get AIDS by hugging, kissing or holding hands. We are normal. We are human beings. We have needs just like everyone else. We are all the same."
Imagine the alienation this young boy experienced in his short time on earth. What would it mean if we were to be the kind of people who lived out Isaiah's dream of not judging by what our eyes see or what our ears hear? How different would Nkosi's life have been?
Everyone sitting here in this sanctuary has experienced some form of alienation. How different would your life be if you were not judged by what people saw or heard on the surface?
I would like to invite each of you to try something this morning.
Turn to a person near you, preferably not the person you came with, branch out a bit if you can. Ask their name and share yours. Hold that name in your mind for a moment; make sure you have it, ask again if you need to. Now close your eyes and imagine the person while I invite you to see them in a different way.
(Words from therapist Ross Synder)
The person sitting next to you is the greatest miracle and the greatest mystery at this moment, a testament of the Word made flesh, of God's coming continually into the world, into our midst.
The person sitting next to you is an inexhaustible reservoir of possibility, with potentialities that have been only partially realized.
The person sitting next to you is a unique universe of experience, seething with necessity and possibility, dread and desire, smiles and frowns, laughter and tears, fears and hopes; all struggling for expression.
The person sitting next to you is longing to become something in particular, to arrive at a destination, to tell their story and sing their song, to be known and to know.
The person next to you believes in something, something precious, stands for something, counts for something, lives for something, and labors for something.
The person next to you has problems and fears, wonders about life and often doesn't feel very good about it, is often undecided and disorganized, and painfully close to chaos; but endowed with a great toughness in the face of adversity, able to survive the most unbelievable difficulties.
The person sitting next to you is a whole colony of persons, really a community, persons they have met during their life, within that person is a father a mother, a sister or a brother, a friend and an enemy.
The person sitting next to you can never be completely understood, there is no description or explanation that could do justice to the beauty of the person next to you. The person next to you needs to be appreciated and valued by you. The person next to you has the power to bless you or even help heal you.
The person next to you is a mystery, a mystery only beginning to unfold. The person next to you is in process,in process of becoming that God intends.
Before you open your eyes or look up again, say a prayer of blessing for the person next to you. Consider for a moment whether it was different to see a person in this way then what you usually do with a quick glance and a snap judgement? Was it different to be seen in that way too?
Isaiah's dream can seem so big and unreachable, yet to see another person in this way without a snap judgement, IS a way of living it. Imagine what young Nkosi Johnson's life would have been like if that was how people saw him rather than an untouchable black boy with AIDS? Would your life be any different if you would have grown up being seen in this way?
Isaiah's dream is what Jesus models for us as the church, the Body of Christ. We can contribute to the healing of human alienation by judging not by what our eyes see or by what our ears hear but with righteousness and equity for all people. Jesus knew it would take all of us working together to heal human alienation, he dreamed we could do it with God's help.
In a time of severe divisions and fear, Isaiah's dream is not fading - it is shining all the brighter into the dark corners of our imaginations calling us to action. Let us pray: