Bombs into Tractors
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It’s hard to believe that the war in Ukraine has been going on for 9 months now. It honestly doesn’t seem that long ago that we prayed for them the Sunday after the invasion started and then holding the prayer vigil before worship that Wednesday in Lent. At the same time I do realize how long it has been because we pray for it every week during the prayers of the people. I still follow closely what is happening over in Ukraine and through articles, news clips, and personal stories and one of the things that I continue to be awestruck by is the amount of people who knew that the invasion was a possibility through the rhetoric that was coming from the Russian leadership, and at the same time were floored when Russia did invade. As you may know part of the conversation about the reason for invasion was and continues to be how life will be better for Ukrainians once Russia has eliminated the threat from within Ukraine. Yes there will be violence and yes there may be resettlement for various reason, but Russia felt it was their duty to restore order and balance to Ukraine becuase the leadership had become corrupt. Whether these are the real motives or not doesn’t really matter, what ultimately matters is that the leadership in Russia felt that war and violence was the way to achieve peace in the region. I’m sure we could use countless other examples but this one is obviously the most tangible one to discuss.
Isn’t this basically what the field commander of the Assyrian Empire is doing? He gives this very persuasive speech in front of both representatives of the king, as well as anybody who is doing there laundry that day, because the text says that the place he chose to speak from was where everyone used to come to wash their clothes. He tells the people that they can’t trust their leadership, that they will live life as normal for a time and then some of them will be deported across the empire, and finally he says that it’s pointless to fight because no other god has been able to prevent the Assyrian King and their gods from completely demolishing all these other kingdoms. They are promising that life will be just as good as before and that this field commander is being completely open and honest with them and their king will try to lie and persuade the people into thinking everything will be fine. Even though the field commander is using a form of diplomacy he still has an entire army with him to prove his might. His words may be sweet, but his actions say anything other than that.
And just take a look at the pattern of history. From well before Assyria all the way to Ukraine and other parts of our world today we have continued to choose the path of swords and bombs instead of plows and tractors. In fact, I was actually overjoyed earlier this week to hear that the grain deal that has allowed vital food and other goods to travel from both Ukraine and Russia to the rest of the world, has been renewed for several more months. It is a wonderful thing to see that our world has become a global economy, and it also underscores just how important it is for the nations of this world to solve issues without the need for war and bloodshed, because we all know that the repercussions of war go well beyond just the violence and death that happens on the battlefield.
We see in images and videos how that toll has and continues to take place in our world today from the Ukraine War and how that there are people who worry and even some who have lost hope. We see that same loss of hope take place when Hezekiah and the other officials rip their clothes off and put on sack cloth or their mourning clothes. We also hear that the words that King Hezekiah sends to Isaiah through his officials are the words: distress, punishment, and humiliation. Those are words of hopelessness and defeat. This is the kind of physical and mental toll that war and even the threat of war has on people. I’m sure that is part of the reason why the field commander came and gave that speech. He wanted to drive people to the point of hopelessness so that they would give in before any more war would take place, because war had been happening in many other parts of the country which our text opens with telling us. There was already war and violence happening and the threat of more was breaking the hope and the will of the people and it’s leaders.
Which is the exact reason why we need to hear chapter 2 of Isaiah after all of this. I am sure many of you were scratching your heads as to why in the world did we read from chapters 36 and 37 and then jump all the way back to chapter 2. We do that for the very reason that God is not a God of hopelessness but of hope. God is also not a God of war but of peace and reconciliation. This opening vision that Isaiah has is of a different kind of world than the world that the people were living in and a different world than the world we are living in today. This vision is a promise of a day when people and nations from all over the world will come to learn from God. Every person and nation will come to the mountain of God and they will learn from God the way they should live and interact with each other. It doesn’t explicitly say this but what that I think it’s getting at is that God will be the source of law and that the nations will live with God’s law as the way to govern the world, both individually and collectively. Everyone will still be their own unique people, but all will follow the way of God and there will no longer be a need for violence.
When there is no longer a need for violence then all the bombs, the tanks, the swords, spears, and chariots can be remade, repurposed for the good of all people. We can instead make tractors and irrigation systems, we can make plows and pruning tools so that we can feed this world. We can use the technology we have learned to be able to feed, clothe, provide medicine and clean water for all those who are in need of it. We can use our collective resources to make sure that we care for those who are most vulnerable in our global society so that truly show that we care for those that God calls us to pay the most attention to.
We can fully live into the world that God wants for us and for all people. A world where, as God puts it, no longer learns how to make war. Imagine with me how incredible would it be to wake up one day and say to the next generation the word ‘war’ and to see that generation look at us with a puzzled and confused look on their face and say, “What’s war?” How mind blowing would it be to raise up a generation of people that can honestly say that they do not know the word war and they have not been affected by the word war? And instead of that word war, every single one of them knew God and had a relationship with God?
And in that generation there is also a place, where as the gospel tells us, a city on a hill that cannot be hid, and if that city that cannot be hid is the same city that Isaiah described where all nations would come together in peace? That the city of God is the city that lit the way for the world, and that the light began with us. That Christ’s light shone through us and into the world. That the love of God spread through this world so that this vision of a world of peace and the city of God were no longer a vision but a reality? I pray we reach that day, one day. And what a glorious day it will be. Amen.