“THE LIGHT SHINES IN THE DARKNESS”
John 1:5
PART I – THE LIGHT OF PEACE
November 30, 2013
Westmount Park United Church
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… In that Word was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” [John 1:1,4‑5]
The season of Advent comes in a time of growing darkness in which the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer. They will continue to do so until we reach the shortest day and the longest night, and then we will celebrate the birth of Jesus, the light of the world. Christmas comes in the depths of the darkness of winter because Jesus is a light shining in the darkness, an unquenchable light which no amount of darkness can ever extinguish or even diminish.
Throughout Advent we will be hearing messages from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah’s hopes for light to shine into his dark world were grounded in his belief in the same God whose light shone seven hundred years later in the face of Jesus Christ. And now, two thousand years after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, we also ground our faith in the God who spoke through the prophets of Israel, who became incarnate in a human child in Bethlehem, and who shines with unquenchable light in a world where there is often very deep and treacherous darkness.
Today, in the first week in Advent, despite the darkness of aggression and war, we celebrate the light of peace which shines through the words of the prophet Isaiah and through Jesus Christ, the light of the world . Next week our theme will be the light of justice which shines through the words of Isaiah and through Jesus Christ, despite the darkness of oppression of the poor and the weak by the heartless and powerful. In the third week of Advent we will celebrate the light of healing which shines through the words of the prophet and through the light of Christ, despite the degradation which the earth has suffered and the diseases which plague us. Then in the last week of Advent we will celebrate God becoming incarnate in our midst, in fulfillment of the longings of the prophets. For Jesus Christ, the light of the world, is Emmanuel, God with us.
This week’s reading from Isaiah is a vision of the triumph of peace over war. Those who experience the devastations of war are acutely aware that it is the fierce weapons of war which make it so utterly destructive. The climax of Isaiah’s vision of world peace is that all the nations, “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.” [Isaiah 2:4] The call to end war and live in peace is a call for disarmament. The very existence of weapons of war is a threat to peace, and the existence of weapons of mass destruction has today become a threat to all life on this planet. Arsenals of weapons threaten peace because human societies are never content just to have them without using them. That’s why we strive towards disarmament amongst nations which hold such massive powers of destruction in nuclear weapons. That’s also why we seek to disarm our citizenry through gun control legislation.
Of course it is never easy to get agreement between the nations of the world to have disarmament or amongst the citizens of a country to restrict weapons. Disarmament does not happen spontaneously. In Isaiah’s vision of a world without weapons there are important things that lead up to beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. First the nations of the world come together. Isaiah speaks of the nations coming to “the mountain of the Lord’s house.” We call such assemblies “summit” conferences, using the same image as in Isaiah of coming to a mountain top. The next thing that happens in Isaiah’s vision is that the nations of the world receive instruction. Potentially warring nations need to come together and consider the truth about how useless and futile is the way of war. They need to realize that wars never solve disputes between peoples, for they must be fought over and over again by each generation. They need to learn that there is no end to the cycles of revenge upon revenge upon revenge that is the way of war. Then in Isaiah’s vision, after the nations have come together and have been instructed in the way of peace, there is fair arbitration to settle the disputes and grievances that have led to war and the threat of war. Isaiah says that God, “shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples.” [Isaiah 2:4] And then, after the nations have gathered together and learned the truth and had fair arbitration of disputes, then they beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. For war to end and peace to rule there must be a process of gathering and learning and arbitrating all leading to disarmament so that there is a world in which “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” [Isaiah 2:4]
Peace doesn’t just come naturally or easily, because our desire for peace and harmony keeps being thwarted by our thirst for power and vengeance. So we need to make deliberate efforts to gather together around tables where sworn enemies can use words instead of weapons. We need to learn the way of peace, because the armed response seems to come so readily and quickly. We need to have fair arbitration that doesn’t decide who is right on the basis of who has the most power. And we need to demolish our weapons of war.
Isaiah’s vision, with its progression of gathering, learning, arbitrating, disarming, and then living in peace, certainly rings true twenty seven hundred years later. It is a plan rooted in the realities of human nature. But it is more than just a human plan for achieving disarmament and peace. It is a vision of peace that is grounded not only in Isaiah’s knowledge of human nature but also in his faith in God. Isaiah is describing what happens when human beings allow God to guide then into the way of peace. The world summit, world disarmament, world peace process which Isaiah describes is not just a human achievement, it is a heaven sent miracle from God. If we are committed to peace then we must vigorously pursue those things which lead to peace. We must work hard for peace, and we must pray hard for peace, for we dare not just rely on human effort and ingenuity. The light of Christ which shines in the darkness of our world is the light of God shining in a world where human effort and ingenuity keep plunging us deeper and deeper into darkness.
When our first Advent candle was lit Karin said, “We light this candle with the hope and prayer that Jesus will bring the light of peace to a dark world of aggression and bloodshed and war.” We pray for peace because the only way for our vengeful and warring race to live in peace is to turn to God. We pray for peace because we believe that God works miracles. If we didn’t have faith in a God of miracles then we would brand Isaiah’s vision of beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks as being just as futile and unrealistic today as it was twenty seven hundred years ago. But we do not succumb to cynicism or despair about the capacity of peace to triumph over war, even though peace seems oft so feeble and war so powerful and so deeply rooted in our nature. We do not despair but continue to hope because of the greatest miracle which God has ever performed, the miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s own son, into this world of bloodshed and war, to be an unquenchable light and source of hope for a world of peace.