Monday, December 2, 2013

Advent 2 A - Isaiah 11:1-10

Isaiah 11:1-10
It is one of my favorite visions of the future and I marvel at the mind of the prophet who brought it to life by putting it to pen. The One who delights in the Lord will pair wolves with lambs, leopards with goats, calves with lions, bears with cows, infants with adders. It’s a recipe for carnage, but in the imagination of the prophet the predator lies down with the prey for a nap and not for lunch. The accepted order of the natural world is radically transformed by the One upon whom the Spirit of the Lord finds a resting place so that hurting and destroying will have no place on the holy mountain because hurting and destroying have no place in the Lord. In some small way I lived the hope of Isaiah’s vision when our Belgium sheep dog Gretchen did her best to kill our lamb Leah. Both were named. Both were loved. If I could have imagined and created a world where that would never happen I would have. But then I’d like to say hurting and destroying have no place in me but that would not be true. In a world where the innocent are preyed upon by the wicked I know that at some level my desire for justice satisfies a need for retribution and that even a self-proclaimed pacifist has a tipping point. But that knowledge does not diminish the desire for the peaceable kingdom. Rather it heightens it. The One upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rests will create a world, a new reality, to do what we can never do. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

3 comments:

  1. Hi. Can you tell me about the lion and lamb having a cocktail? Who's the artist? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would also like the artist and title. I produce our church bulletin and like to give credit where credit is due whenever possible when I use an illustration for the cover. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Found the artist through Google image search: Will Bullas. Here's the page with info on him and this artwork: http://www.shafferfineart.com/The_Art_of_Will_Bullas.htm

    ReplyDelete