Hope is the Thing with Teeth
Isaiah 2:1-5 & Romans 13:11-14
First and Second Reading for the First Sunday of Advent: Hope (Year A)
We can get behind swords being turned into plowshares. Well, there might be a few organizations and corporations that would not be thrilled about weapons being turned into gardening tools. But for most of us, the picture presented in the second chapter of Isaiah is an appealing one. The whole world coming together. Nations no longer entrenched in war against one another. The picture the prophet paints is the great hope of the world. It’s hope like a toasty cup of hot chocolate. We can sit down with it by a crackling fire at Christmas time and feel safe, comforted.
And yet…
That sentence right before swords are beaten into plowshares grabs my attention every single time. “[The Lord] shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples.” The NIV and CEB translations say that God will settle disputes. This hoped for future is not just some happy time in which every slate is wiped clean and the past is the past. Peoples are held to an account. There is a reckoning here.
In light of that reckoning, there is a stark contrast between the oft-occupied nation of Isaiahs’ days and the present day super empire from which I read these words. People wince at the idea that this country has not been a shining city on a hill for its entire existence. That is not to dump on this nation. I love living here and I also have to be honest about the fact that it exists on stolen land and much of it was built on the back of slaves. Those are the foundational examples, but there are many more that we could enumerate. So if God is to judge between the nations and bring some sort of equity between them, what becomes of a nation like ours? Or, since nations are not homogenous institutions, what becomes of the haves in a world where there are many have-nots?
That is where hope cuts and the anticipation of Advent becomes uncomfortable for some. If you are on the receiving end of oppression, the hope of Advent is beautiful day which you eagerly anticipate. If you dwell in a kingdom of comfort, this hope has some teeth. The last being first and mighty brought low. Jesus and the prophets speak of things turning upside down and there is heft to those words. It doesn’t seem like they are being metaphorical. If things are to be settled fairly then we have much to answer for. I have much to answer for. You can’t hope for a day when all things are made right and turn a blind eye to the ways in which you either contribute to or benefit from all the things that are wrong.
The good news here is twofold. First of all, there’s grace. I cling to the belief that for the person who honestly seeks after God that mercy will cover the ways in which we fall short. That is not excuse to do nothing, but it is a balm to a mind worried that one will never be able to do enough. Secondly, there’s time. That’s why I think the Romans 13 passage is such a good companion to the cutting subtext in Isaiah’s hope. I love how Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase puts it (I see some of you raising an objection to the use of The Message and I’m going to need you to just deal with it right now):
But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!
“Be up and awake to what God is doing.” Agh, I love that. There is time and we can still wake up.
With Advent we look forward to the celebration of the birth of Jesus but also to the day when Christ makes all things well. A day whose first signs of light have been ever creeping over the horizon since that child in the manger was born. Dawn is that moment when it simultaneously day and night. God has and is doing these reconciling acts. Swords can be beaten into plowshares now. Disputes can be settled now. Good news preached to the poor. People can come together to learn peace. Love of God and neighbor can become our language. There is time. So for those of us to whom the hope of Advent might be an uncertain proposition, let us not be too self-absorbed, too exhausted, or too oblivious to what God is doing. It’s time to rise and shine and join God in the hope that is dawning.
