Isaiah 11:1-10 Sermon

Advent 2022 Week 2 - Peace

Isaiah 11:1–10 NRSV

1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. 6 The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. 9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 10 On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

What is peace?

I used to think that peace was the lack of…To be at peace meant that there was nothing going on. That life was empty of chaos. However, I have come to realize that is both not possible and not true. Empty space will always be filled. At my house this is called the kitchen table principle. The table in question sits between our garage entry and the rest of our house. To come into the house you must pass by the kitchen table and inevitably that table gets filled up with “stuff”. The girls backpacks, the mail, jackets, diaper bags, it is the catch all. Then we clean it so we can eat and within an hour it will be full again. Empty space collects “stuff” and the same is true with our lives. Peace is not the emptying out of everything until there is nothing left. It is cleansing the chaos and replacing it with the power of the Spirit and the presence of Christ.

—> How do we become people of peace?

Isaiah 11:6–8 NRSV

6 The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.

—> We stop trying to devour one another.

—> We stop fighting amongst ourselves and sit down together in community.

—> We stop trying to hurt one another and we seek to find harmony.

—> Sometimes that means making drastic changes to who we are.

—> vrs 7

—> the bear shall graze

—> the lion shall eat straw

—> I watch, read, and hear the same news as you. I’m aware of the things that are going in in this broken world of ours.

—> I’m also aware of what the Spirit can do. I’m aware of the power of Jesus Christ in a persons life.

Isaiah 11:9 NRSV

9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

—> How do we become people of peace?

—> We personally seek to be full of the knowledge of the Lord.

—> The theologian Micheal Jackson once told the world to enact change by starting with the man in the mirror.

—> I think that is pretty good advice for us when it comes to being people of peace.

—> If the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord why not let it start with us.

—> We can choose to be closer to Christ and develop in our knowledge of who God is and allow ourselves to be part of the solution and part of the peace rather than its adversary.

Isaiah 11:10 NRSV

10 On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

I fully believe that one day the entire world will know peace. My prayer is on this day I would acknowledge the presence of Jesus Christ in my life and seek to know him deeper and allow him to change in what we needs to be changed. I pray that during this Christmas season as people are drawn to Christ through the gift that is Christmas that I could be a vessel of Christ’s love towards them and a presence of peace in the chaos of our world.