“The Problem of the Peaceable Kingdom” – Dec 5, 2010
December 5, 2010
Scripture: Isaiah 11: 1-9
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding. 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. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Sermon: The Problem of the Peaceable Kingdom
by Rev. Doreen Oughton
As you can see in your order of service, my sermon title today is The Problem of the Peaceable Kingdom . In this reading from the Hebrew scripture, Isaiah prophesies about a time to come in which the rule will be righteous, and justice, peace and harmony will prevail. He tells us there will be a time when the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and yearling will be together, and a child will lead them all. The cow and bear will be best buds, their children hanging out together while the ox shares his bale of straw with the lion. Humans will have no fear of snakes, even poisonous ones, allowing their children to call them out to play. It will be a time in which there is no harm, no destruction.
Sounds nice, but I have to tell you that when I really thought about this, I had to scratch my head. I went back to Genesis One and read. Sure enough it was there – “And God said ‘… Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things, and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ And it was so, and God saw that it was good.” It was good.
I can see the appeal of Isaiah’s prophecy. The poor little lamb being eaten by the big bad wolf – how awful. Especially the innocent little lamb who only grazes on grass, like the calf and the goat and little Bambi. They are so sweet, so vulnerable, we want to protect them from those terrible predators. But, I have to ask myself, what of the predators? Weren’t they also created by God in love who saw that they were good? A wolf is a wolf by the intention and design of the Creator. Likewise the leopard and the lion, the cobra and the viper.
I got to thinking about the food chain. Viewed up close, it seems violent and destructive. But viewed from a distance, as a system, its design and functioning are awesome wonders. The interdependent web of life is so much more than a lofty Unitarian Universalist ideal. It is a concrete, incredibly-designed reality of the natural world. Each part of Creation is truly dependent on other parts for its existence.
There are the producers – plants and trees that need water and the light of the sun to make food for themselves. Then there are the herbivores, the animals that depend on vegetation for their energy. Next up in the chain are the omnivores, feeding on vegetation and animals, and then the carnivores who survive only by feeding on other animals.
Animals are gifted with attributes that aid their survival. On the one hand, some are given qualities that will better help them locate and catch their food source. Consider the incredible speed of the jaguar, the mind-boggling eyesight of the owl and the hawk, the venom of the cobra who can spit up at a larger prey animals. There are sharp claws and talons, powerful jaws and sharp teeth to make it easier to get to and consume the meat. On the other hand, animals are given disguises and tricks that help them avoid being eaten. There is the trick of camouflage. You are probably familiar with the praying mantis who is nearly indistinguishable from a leaf, but did you know that the stripes of the zebras blend together in the herd so that it is hard for a hunter animal to identify any particular zebra to attack? There is also this amazing interspecies communication whereby the prey animal can communicate to the predator that they are super fast, and the hunter would only be wasting energy in a futile pursuit. Sometimes target animals band together to fight off the attacker, like certain types of birds. The system is truly remarkable in balancing the advantages between the hunter and the hunted.
So where am I going with this? Well, when I read Isaiah’s prophesy about a glorious future, I think I got a little defensive. I can get on board with the righteous judgment for the needy, a tipping of the scales in favor of the poor, but what’s wrong with this beautiful design of interdependence? God made it, and it is good. Why can’t the wolf go on being a wolf? Why can’t the snakes go about their business and not be bothered by the children who have a healthy fear of them? Why oh why can’t I have a cheeseburger in paradise?
And it’s just so hard for me to wrap my mind around. My head spins trying to think about what it would take to get there. In some ways I can imagine the predators being able to hang out with the prey. My food chain research noted that when an animal is satiated, it does not usually want to waste the energy it would take to hunt and eat, even when the prey is right there for them. But what would it take for the goat to lie with the leopard, to overcome the fear. I mean, a life is at stake. How can the yearling and the calf trust the lion? How can we have a society in which we trust one another enough to do no harm? How can we avoid seeing vulnerability in others as an opportunity for ourselves?
So I spent some time thinking and talking with people about the why and how of such a peaceable kingdom. One thing I came around to about the why is that perhaps “good” was never meant to be the end. Perhaps even when God created, the intention was for things to change and evolve, to get even better. God gave us something really good to start with, then said, “Hey, let’s work together and see what we can do with this.” So we can appreciate what is good and beautiful and true in the here and now, and still look forward to and do our part in the creation of something that expands the scope of that goodness. We can, with the help of God, move the world ever closer to a wholeness and fullness undreamed of.
I’ll bet that even when there is harmony among all living beings, there will be other new ways of enriching the kingdom. I believe that God does love change. God really does not seem the type to ever just leave well enough alone.
As to the how, I realize that in our human limitations, we can never know just how things will come about. It is our privilege to be endlessly surprised by the workings of God. Once I overcame my defensiveness about why, my mind opened to what might be possible regarding how. In my studies, there was a branch of theology, called process theology, that really captivated me. It tells us that God will always meet us where we are and offer us the best possible outcome available to us given all the realities of our current situation. As we choose the best outcome, we build our capacity to choose better and better outcomes. If we don’t choose the best, we remain limited in what is available to us. So today it is not possible for most cats to resist chasing and killing the mouse. But then again I read that in certain situations, a cat does resist this. In home and farm situations, animals that are so-called natural enemies become playmates. The cat recognizes the difference between the family’s pet mouse and the field mice and chases only the field mice. So one way we might overcome our natural predatory instincts and mistrust is to see it all as one big family, blood relatives or beloved companions, living together, working together for the good of all.
Another clue as to how we live into the kin-dom is in the Isaiah text – and a little child will lead them. Just as Jesus tells his disciples in the gospel Matthew, “unless you become like little children, you shall never enter the Kingdom.” Maybe it is the child’s innocence and purity of heart that are models for us.
In my Old Testament studies, I learned how there were different patterns for scripture, with one in particular called a chiastic pattern. Concepts or ideas are placed in a special symmetrical order to emphasize them. The first topic in a text is A, the second is B and the third topic is C. The topics in the text appear in the order ABC…CBA so that the first concept that comes up is also the last, the second is the second to last, and so on.
Anyway, I was thinking, maybe there is a chiastic pattern to the story of created human beings. We started out innocent, living in harmony in the Garden of Eden. We ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and were sent forth from the Garden with this awesome knowledge that carries such a burden of responsibility. We tried in our feeble way to get by, slowly recognizing that we couldn’t bear this burden alone. We come to realize that, like little children, we are dependent on God to help us carry this responsibility. We return to the Garden, innocent again, but with a different innocence than we had before eating the forbidden fruit.
It is a different thing to surrender a will than it is to never be aware that one has one. How much more meaningful is it to trust after one has been hurt by betrayal than to continue in a trust begotten by a grace-filled life. How much deeper is it to be aware of our desires and turn from our self-interest than to never have to think about our desires as they are unquestioningly fulfilled. Perhaps it is then, when we return to the Garden with our second innocence, when we surrender will, trust openly and turn from self interest, then maybe God will serve us from the tree of everlasting life. May it be so.
