Faith Today - November/December 2012

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Pursuing God with Passion & Excellence

counterintuitive gospel account of the long-awaited messianic king. He enters history as a vulnerable child under morally dubious circumstances. Shortly after His birth He is fleeing for His life as a political refugee, and after 33 years was only able to muster a handful of followers who quickly abandoned him when things got rough. Eventually, he suffered a brutal and humiliating death at the order of an illegitimate tyrant.

This is a hard sell.

They Will Beat Their Weapons
Into Ploughshares

Consider the second oracle, the unlikely prediction of weapons turned into pruning shears. This is all well and good, but consider that the world’s largest economy is based on the assumption of war and the opportunities for wealth creation it offers. It is hard to imagine the radical shift in worldview necessary for abandoning arms will get much traction – even among Christians who, supposedly, have been gifted with a vision of the last chapter of history so that we can bear witness to it in the present.

We’re simply too invested in fallenness to take redemptive witness seriously.

Equally, we (especially in North America) are heavily invested in a theology that equates faithfulness with the right to security and safety, even though it is difficult to imagine such theology can be gleaned from the witness of Christ as portrayed in the Gospels.

Again, tough sell.

The Wolf Will Lie Down
With the Lamb

Recently I met Amhad, an Arab man, and
Dorit, a Jewish woman, who both live in an
intentionally mixed community in Israel.
The community sees itself as a living wit-
ness, counter to the dominant narrative of
conflict that beleaguers that storied land.
When I met them, I made reference to
Isaiah’s wolf/lamb oracle and the unlike-
lihood of their deep friendship. Amhad’s
eyes twinkled as he said, “I’ll leave it to you
to decide which one of us is the wolf and
which one is the lamb.”
Indeed, you can hardly consider this
oracle without making the judgement that
one of those two is more innocent than the
other. And much of modern history could
be summed up as an overall culture of in-
dividuals and groups clamouring for lamb
status. Certainly, few clamour for wolf status.

A Virgin Will Bear a Son.
A Child Will Lead Them.

A woman will bear a son and name him Emmanuel, God with us. Coupled with “a child will lead them,” this oracle is perhaps the loveliest and most harmless of all. Yet, if we consider the record of adult, male-dominated history, it is hard to believe the best and wisest of things will be ushered into history through a woman and child. It simply does not stand up to our experience. This oracle coming true (along with the others) would require a radical refashioning of every institution and social structure we’ve ever known.

It would also require a willingness to relinquish illegitimate wealth, power and prestige. Such relinquishments, and their attendant vulnerabilities, could only be sustained by an ardent love and longing for the community of God, the shape and culture of which these oracles suggest. And yet these oracles, taken together, suggest a reality we may not realize is already before us.