We Need a Prophet!

Year A + Advent I
Isaiah 2:1-5

In the readings for this Advent, there are five people whom God chose and used to show us the Way: Isaiah, John the Baptist, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. We will begin this week with the prophet Isaiah, who is usually considered the greatest and most influential prophet in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).

It’s tough being a prophet! God relentlessly compels you to carry a message to people who don’t want to hear it, and you just might get killed for your effort. One brief exception to this rule is the writer of the first part of the Book of Isaiah. He was an aristocrat, perhaps a nobleman, who wrote chapters 1 to 39 during the reigns of five kings of Judah, the southern kingdom of the Jews. At that time, their old nemesis to the north, the Kingdom of Israel, had been vanquished by the Assyrians, but Judah’s kings were successful in negotiating treaties with their neighbors, staving off their own conquest for almost 100 years.

It’s worth pointing out that the second and third men who contributed to our Book of Isaiah were not so lucky. Isaiah Number Two (chapters 40 to 55) wrote during the Babylonian Captivity – a time after Judah had also been conquered, when the Jews were exiled from their homes and forced to live in a strange land. Isaiah Number Three (chapters 56 to 66) wrote the poignant verses about the Suffering Servant.

Selections from the first part of Isaiah are read on all four Sundays of this Advent of Year A. Today we hear the famous verses about swords and plowshares. In the coming weeks, the lion will lie down with the lamb, then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and finally the maiden shall bear a son and name him Immanuel.

What can we learn from this year’s calm and hopeful verses? First, Isaiah wants to offer us hope for a future that is very different from what we know today. That’s why Isaiah begins with the words, “In days to come…” [Is 2:1] He can’t do much about the present, but he is eager to reassure his hearers and offer them a vision of hope.

There are five important promises in today’s reading from Isaiah.

The first promise deals with Jerusalem:
the mountain of the LORD’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.

There are two ways to look at this. First, it refers to the actual city of Jerusalem. Isaiah seemed to be trying to reassure the people of the kingdom that their holy city, their capital, and therefore their king and kingdom, had a bright future. He doesn’t talk about winning battles (which was a good thing, because Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed several times after he lived). Instead, he draws our attention to the central role of the Lord’s house, and the fact that “all nations” shall be attracted to it. How will this come about? In the weeks to come, we will hear the answer: Emmanuel, God-with-us, will be born and will show us the way.

Next, Isaiah tells us:
Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”

Not only will God’s holy place be restored and venerated, people will want to go there, and go there in order to learn God’s ways. Jesus came to lead us to the Kingdom of God. He showed us the way. He even told us, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” [John 14:6]

In the 23rd Psalm, we say, “he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his Name’s sake.” [Psalm 23:3b] It is important to find the right path, the path of righteousness, and we can be confident that God will lead us there.

Isaiah continues:
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;

The word of the Lord will come to us from that holy city, the New Jerusalem, created by God for Jesus and where Jesus is the Eternal King and Judge. When that word comes forth, Jesus will take up his role as the final judge of all peoples. No one will win, and no one will lose, because all will receive the same judgment: we are unworthy, we deserve eternal death, but we will receive eternal life because of Jesus’ sacrifice of himself for us.

After this come some of the most well-known words of Isaiah:
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

Oh, if only we could not “learn war any more!” if only we could trust God’s promise that wars will cease. All I can say is that this must come to pass – some day, but it won’t happen any time soon. Jesus himself gave us this warning: “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed…” [Mark 13:7]

Isaiah ends today’s passage with the words,
come, let us walk
in the light of the LORD!

The season of Advent coincides with the shortening of daylight hours in the Northern Hemisphere. As the days grow darker, we are reminded of the power of evil in our world. If we did not know that soon the annual pattern will reverse, we might despair that light is ending forever. That is why we use these four weeks before Christmas to think about how lucky we are. The sun will come back, and the Son will also come again. We will celebrate the birth of a baby in four weeks, but we will also celebrate the death and resurrection of the Man that baby became just a few months later.

Isaiah’s prophecy was partly for the people of his own day. But like the writings of all the prophets, it was also for future generations, including ours. A day will come when the holy city will be all around us, when all people will enjoy the bright light of God’s goodness, when swords and spears will not be needed, and when all people will rejoice in the light of the Lord.

Until then, we have to keep watch, to prepare ourselves, and to endure the evil that will surely find its way to us.

We need prophets today: not to promise milk and honey, but to remind us that God still expects three things: that we
• turn from our sinful ways,
• repent, and
• resolve to live as God wants us to.

We need prophets who will risk everything to bring us a message that we don’t want to hear. We need prophets who will offer us the only hope that is real: bad things can and will happen, we may indeed lose all that we cherish, but we must never give up hope. A better time will come, and God is with us every day until then.

Yes, we need prophets, but that’s not an abstraction. You and I need to be prophets. We need to take the risk of saying what is true, in the face of people who don’t want to hear the truth. We need to offer hope – for the “some day” future, but also for right now. We need to cry out against the injustices, prejudices, and hatreds all around us – to bring the Word of God to a faithless society. We need also to be prophets to one another, to offer consolation when our fellow-prophets are attacked, or experience failure, or want to give up.

Isaiah is our model, and it is well that we begin this Advent with a reminder of his ministry – and that we accept God’s call to “throw off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” [Collect for the First Sunday of Advent, BCP, pg 211] – that we decide to be prophets today.