Sermon: A Vision of Peace

Lectionary: Advent 1(A)

Text: Isaiah 2:1-5

Swords into Ploughshares
Peter Koenig

We are in the final few weeks of the calendar year. Music piped in through the stores, the decorations, the advertising and marketing, the giving and receiving of gifts, parties and celebrations – much of it is directed and focused on the creation of a fantastical experience of joy and happiness. But as we all know, once the gifts are opened and the trash taken out, the world remains pretty much what it was before this season of fantasy began. Conflicts will still be unresolved. Violence will still plague us. Death will still tear into us.

For Christians who follow the liturgical year, today is New Year. But we do not begin with celebrations and parties. Instead, for the next four Sundays, we are called to see reality for what it is, to see the ugliness and the brokenness of the world, and relearn what it means to hope for salvation that only God can bring – a salvation that will bring us into a new reality where the ugliness, brokenness, hate, strife, violence, and death will be no more.

Today we will be looking at the reading from Isaiah. Through our examination, we will also learn about the role of biblical prophets and how to read and use prophetic writings in the Bible.

First allow me to read a text.

​¹ But in the days to come,
the mountain of the LORD’s house
will be the highest of the mountains;
it will be lifted above the hills;
peoples will stream to it.
² Many nations will go and say:
“Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of Jacob’s God,
so that he may teach us his ways
and we may walk in God’s paths!”
Instruction will come from Zion
and the LORD’s word from Jerusalem.
³ God will judge between the nations
and settle disputes of mighty nations,
which are far away.
They will beat their swords into iron plows
and their spears into pruning tools.
Nation will not take up sword against nation;
they will no longer learn how to make war. (Micah 4:1-3 CEB)

“Wait!”, you might be thinking to yourselves right now. “Didn’t we just hear this? Isn’t this what was read from Isaiah a few minutes ago?” Yes and no. Yes, these are identical words that were read from Isaiah. And no, I just read from Micah.

Isaiah and Micah were contemporaries. Did Isaiah borrow from Micah, or vice versa? Or perhaps there were common repositories of sayings within prophetic circles that both borrowed from and used in their writings. There is no definitive answer to this question. The point of bringing this up is to note that when a prophet speaks for God, it does not mean that they are necessarily reciting God’s words. Sometimes, and probably more oftentimes, what the prophet said and wrote was their understanding of God’s will and purpose for their immediate time and place.

This brings us to another point that needs to be made. When we think about prophets and prophecies we think mostly about predictions about the future and those who proclaim them. However, this is, in the overall history of scripture, a relatively recent development. Throughout the Hebrew and Jewish history and into the early part of Christian period, prophets were not predictors of the future, but people who spoke for God. They were seen as “forth-tellers”; not “foretellers.” The Septuagint translated as “soothsayers”, the Hebrew word used for prophets. The earliest translation of Greek to Latin used veta to refer to prophets, a word that meant “bard” or “poet.” When later Christians became uncomfortable about pagan associations with veta, they began to use prophet, instead.[1]

If prophecies aren’t about future predictions, then what is their function? Richard Rohr says that prophets “are an early warning system to culture.”[2] In the Hebrew scriptures, prophets were most often associated with troubled times in their history, when most of the culture had strayed from God’s will. Prophets arose to remind the people about God and God’s desires for them, to remind the people what God valued, and to warn them against the pursuit of wrong things. And prophets also cast a vision for a world where all the world would live in harmony with God and with everyone else.

Prophets were called by God when the people pursued wealth at the expense and victimization of the poor, when people pursued violence and war as the solution to their problems, when they looked to accumulation of power and domination over others as “being right.”

The prophets reminded people that God’s ways were exemplified by nonviolence and peacemaking; caring for the poor, the widows, the orphans; and being a servant to all. The prophets called for people to imagine a world where this would be normative practice and called upon the people to begin living this way. Vision casting is not the same as predicting the future.

This is what Isaiah and Micah are doing. They are casting a vision of a world where all violence and warmaking are gone. Throughout history and to the present time we talk about “just war” and “redemptive violence”. But neither of these are true to God’s ways. The alternative society, the kingdom of God, has no war and no violence of any kind. Those who seek to enter God’s kingdom are called to envision that kind of world and to begin living that way in their own lives.

Returning to Isaiah 2:2-3 we read once more,

² In the days to come the mountain of the LORD’s house will be the highest of the mountains. It will be lifted above the hills; peoples will stream to it. ³ Many nations will go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the LORD’s mountain, to the house of Jacob’s God so that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in God’s paths.” Instruction will come from Zion; the LORD’s word from Jerusalem.

This text is not a literal description of Israel or Jerusalem becoming the center of the world.

This text uses metaphors to describe a vision of a world where everyone is interested in following God. Just as water naturally flows downhill, in this ideal world those who are attracted to God will naturally flow uphill to learn God’s ways from those who have already found God’s paths.

Isaiah 2:4 reads,

God will judge between the nations, and settle disputes of mighty nations. Then they will beat their swords into iron plows and their spears into pruning tools. Nation will not take up sword against nation; they will no longer learn how to make war.

It is interesting to note that in this vision of an ideal world, conflicts may still arise. But they rely on God to arbitrate. War and violence are no longer tools for resolving conflict.

Verse 5 is a call to action so that steps can be taken toward realizing the vision of a violence-free world.

⁵ Come, house of Jacob, let’s walk by the LORD’s light.

This is a prophetic call to those who have already heard and know what God wants, but whether intentionally or not, they have not been following God as faithfully as they can and should. It is a call to reject the norms of the domination systems of this world and to walk in the light of God’s kingdom, the kingdom of service and love. It is a prophetic call to not just talk about peace and love, but to begin living as people who have rejected systems that birth hate and conflict, and who actively live to bring peace and love into the world.

During each Advent season we have an opportunity to make a choice. We can choose to accept the façade of love, peace, and joy that cultural traditions and practices give us. But after the bandage is ripped away, sometime around the New Year, we are back to living in the same rut and supporting the same systems of domination and violence that we have done year after year. Or we can choose to see the ugliness of the world as it is, confess and repent of our complicities that cause the ugliness, and to instead live intentionally into genuine love, peace, and joy.

I am not saying that we can’t or shouldn’t celebrate the traditions of the season. But I am encouraging each of us to find ways to bring God’s kingdom just a little closer to the people around us, and to do so in a way that lasts beyond the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Can each of us find ways to be agents of change to influence and change the values and norms of society to bring more humanity and care into the world?

We live in the hope that God will bring justice and peace to the world. But we also live with the knowledge that God works God’s will and purposes through those who choose to walk in God’s light. Advent is a season of reflection and introspection. And it is also a time for decision and action. How will each of us decide?

In the name of God who is Love,

In the name of God who is Light,

And In the name of God who challenges us to Peacemaking, Amen.

References

Bartlett, D. L., & Brown Taylor, B. (2010). Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Etymonline. (2025, November 29). Origin and history of _prophet_. Retrieved from Etymonline - online etymology dictionary: https://www.etymonline.com/word/prophet

The Bible for Normal People. (2025, April 14). Episode 296: Richard Rohr – Seeing Through the Eyes of the Prophets. Retrieved from The Bible for Normal People: https://thebiblefornormalpeople.com/episode-296-richard-rohr-seeing-through-the-eyes-of-the-prophets/

Van de Laar, J. (2025, November 24). Lectionary Reflection for Advent Sunday A on Isaiah 2:1-5. Retrieved from Sacredise Your LIfe!: https://sacredise.substack.com/p/lectionary-reflection-for-advent

William B. Eerdmans. (2003). Eerdman's Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans.

 

 

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[1] (Etymonline, 2025)

[2] (The Bible for Normal People, 2025)