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"Swords
into Plowshares" March
23, 2003 The Rev. Dr. Will Eisenhower We're going to begin with a reading from Dave Berry, who says this: When you're about to eat a brownie, your brain transmits a signal
to your hand telling it to go ahead and put the brownie into your mouth.
Almost instantly, your hand responds with a signal informing your brain
that you ate the brownie several minutes earlier because your hand and your
mouth agreed, many years ago, that as far as chocolate is concerned, there is no
need to involve the brain! So true. So true!
But there are some things where it's very, very important that we involve
the brain. I want to talk about one
of those this morning--and in fact, this morning we begin a sermon series that
I'm entitling "Wars and Rumors of War."
And I want to ask why would it be, when the issue is war and
peace-related, why would it be important to involve the brain?
Why not just go with our first impulse?
Why not just go with however we happen to feel at the moment?
Before we answer, before we look at our Scripture, I know that we
disagree, as members of this congregation, on the war against Iraq for starters.
And therefore we have to become all
the more thoughtful because we are not all in exactly the same place on that
one. If we were, we would be
tempted to just go with impulse. But
we're not. But beyond that, the
Bible gives us reasons for understanding why we need to be thoughtful, why we
need to make sure that our brain is involved.
So I'm going to be reading this morning from Micah chapter 4, the
beginning of the chapter (NIV): In the last days
the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills
and many peoples will stream to it.
Many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways,
so that we may walk in His paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He will judge between many peoples
and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
Every man will sit under his own vine
and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid,
for the Lord almighty has spoken. All the nations may walk
in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the Lord
our God for ever and ever. Now, this is a passage telling us about "in the last
days," "in the end times." This
is a prophecy given by God to the prophet Micah.
Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah.
In fact, in this passage here Isaiah quotes Micah or Micah is quoting
Isaiah. This passage is found in
both of those books. It was felt to
be a set of holy words from God, a prophecy from God, and so it was treasured by
the nation of Israel at the time it was bound together with all of the
sayings--the holy sayings, the prophecies, of Micah.
And those were bound together with the other prophets that we now call
the "minor prophets." (Minor
not in importance, but simply shorter in size--the prophets whose books are
shorter than Isaiah and Jeremiah, for instance.)
And then that collection of the minor prophets was put together with all
of the prophets and included in the English Scriptures.
And of course included with our New Testament into our Bibles.
These were taken as words from God.
What kind of words from God are they?
Well, they're about the "end times," the "last days."
And we have to take specific passages like this and understand them in
the context of everything that the Bible teaches about the end times, about the
last days. Very briefly summarizing that, taking all of the teachings of the
Bible about the end of this age, what we know is that Jesus, who left our world
after His crucifixion and resurrection, will come again--Acts chapter 1, verse
11 says, "This same Jesus that you saw go [referring to the disciples who
saw Him lifted up to heaven] will come again in the same way that you saw him
leave"--and that will usher in a new age.
That will usher in a new heaven and a new earth.
And this prophecy is telling us about that period--basically, after Jesus
comes back. It's not telling us
about right now. It's telling us
about the world transformed, the world reborn, the world made new, the world
when God puts everything back the way it is supposed to be.
The tricky thing is, the problem is, that prophecies like this about the
last days do reveal the ultimate law of life to us and we do have to make some
kind of adjustments in the here and now even though we are recognizing,
"OK, we're not in the last days right now."
"We are not in that period after Jesus has come back and the world
has been transformed." Nevertheless,
as we can, we need to govern ourselves by the ultimate laws of life revealed to
us as God shows us what the world is going to be like after He makes it new. It's just like--if that's very confusing, I'm sorry.
It's just like being in a long, dark tunnel, but seeing a light at the
end of the tunnel so that you know where to go.
OK? There's a difference
between being in a long, dark closet with nothing at the end of it, and a long,
dark tunnel where you can see the light at the end.
Is there a difference? Some
of us aren't sure. That either
means you haven't been in a long, dark closet lately or a long, dark tunnel,
because there's a very, very big difference!
It makes a great deal of difference to be able to say, "That's the
way we're supposed to go" even though the light at the end of the tunnel
may not help when I turn and I put my hand in front of my face.
If we're talking about a seriously dark tunnel, and if you've had that
experience, you know you turn and you can't see your hand in front of your
face--that's how dark it is. So
there are some problems that the light at the end of the tunnel solves for us
and there are some perplexities that are left.
There is some darkness, and that's how we are asked by the Bible to
regard prophecies just like this. Let's
look at it together. It says: In the last days
the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills
and many peoples will stream to it. Now, this is a very common way of speaking when the Bible is
talking about the end times, about things of an apocalyptic nature, and an
eschatological nature. ("Apocalypse"
just means "uncovering." And
"eschatological" means "having to do with the last days.")
Changes in the earth's topography, changes of a geographical nature, are
very commonly used as symbols of changes that are going to take place in
relationships--spiritual changes, relationship changes.
Here we're told that the mountain of the Lord's temple will be . . .
--very similar to Isaiah chapter 40, "every valley will be raised up, every
mountain and hill will be brought low. All
the rough places will be made a plain."
We're familiar with that passage because that was John the Baptist's
favorite passage to preach from, Isaiah chapter 40.
There as here, what's being talked about are the differences that are
going to be in the most fundamental issues in life when God transforms creation.
And those differences, those changes, are symbolized for us as if the
shape of the world is going to change. Here's
another one, Zechariah verse 14, verse 4: On that day the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to
west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half of
the mountain moving south. This was a very common way of talking. We look at what is being symbolized in the changes in the
shape of the earth that are being described.
Well, initially what's being talked about is changes in our relationship
with God. Verse 2: Many nations will come and say . . . Not just Israel. "Many."
And in fact, "the many" is a way of saying "all."
Many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways,
so that we may walk in His paths." There's going to come a time when we won't need teachers to teach
us. There's going to come a time
when you will have such a perfect relationship with God that you won't need to
teach me, I won't need to teach you, all of us will just know, out of our
relationship with God. The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He will judge between many peoples The Lord will be the one who settles disputes.
He will judge between people and make the determination.
He will be the arbiter. He will judge between many peoples
and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. Now, because of the changes in our relationship with God, there are
also going to be changes in our relationship with each other.
And here is how Micah describes those: They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore. "Swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks."
Because this was an agrarian culture, what's being talked about was
"military arms will be turned into ways of making food for people." Today we would say something like, "Tanks will be
transformed into tractors." Now,
why would that be? Well, it would
be because there won't be any need for any nation to protect itself from
any other nation. There won't be
any need for any person to protect himself from another. If you want to know how life is supposed to be, it's not the
way that life is right now. This is
not how God created the world to behave. And
one day God is going to make everything right, God is going to put everything
back together. One day it will not
be that nations need swords or tanks, and therefore anything of a military
nature can be transformed and turned into a way to help people take care of each
other. Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
Every man will sit under his own vine
and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, You see, we're talking about a day where peace fully reigns in our
relationships with each other. And
why is that? It's because of the
peace that reigns between every single person and God.
The vertical dimension will be completely transformed.
The horizontal dimension will be completely transformed.
And then verse 5 sort of comes along as something of a conclusion to
this. We talked about the changes represented in the changing of
the shape of the earth that have to do with
how our relationship with God and our relationships with one another are
going to be transformed. And then
as a coda, as a conclusion, verse 5: All the nations may walk
in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the Lord
our God for ever and ever. That is, we're aware that there are alternatives.
However, having heard about God's plan for us, what God wants to move us
forward toward, we're going to walk in the name of the Lord.
That is, we're going to live our lives under the authority that we have
from God, under the covering we have from God.
Now, that's what the passage says. Now, let's ask, "What does it teach?"
Well, one thing that it teaches is that it is not the case that
warfare, violence, and bloodshed are going to continue for as far as the eye can
see. It is not the case that
there has always been violence and there always will be violence.
There has always been violence since the time of Cain and Abel and there
will always be violence until Jesus comes back.
However, we're able to see beyond that point to a time where bloodshed
and warfare will be done away with. Therefore,
nations rising up in war against each other is not really a perennial feature of
life, a complete universal. It's
not a constant. Until Jesus comes
back it will be, but we have a promise of God that there's going to be a better
day. There's going to be something
else. Now that's something that the
Christian Church has and not every religious community has that vision.
There have been nations, there have been cultures, that believe
that warfare has always been, the world began in warfare, it will continue in
warfare, and warfare will never end. The
ancient Greek civilization, just for instance (as one of the few ancient
civilizations that I know very well). The
ancient Greeks, because of the religious stories that they had about their gods
always going to war against the other gods--they had no hope that there would
ever be a day where war, and violence, and taking up arms against each other
would ever cease. If that's what you believe religiously--if you believe that
"this is just how life is"--what does that do to you?
Scholars who look at this kind of thing have determined that if you take
the 200 years of the Golden Age of ancient Greece, the age of Pericles, etc.
If you take that 200-year period. . .
We know the Spartans were militaristic.
The Athenians were pretty doggone militaristic, too. The Athenians were at war for two out of every three years
during that 200-year period. And
why were they? It's because they
believed that a period of peace was nothing other than a temporary interruption
in the normal course of events (which is either somebody attacking us, and if it
just so happens nobody's attacking us right now, well then that means we need to
go out and find somebody to attack because war is the ultimate law of life). Now, the Bible teaches that that is not true.
There is something that is being ruled out here, and that is a
glorification of violence that would say, "If it's my country and it's at
war, then it has to be good." Well,
no. We have to be thoughtful
because there is no reason from Scripture to conclude, "It's my country and
it's a war, then I don't need to consider it--I already know that it's
good." But on the other hand, the Bible also does not romanticize peace.
We're saying it does not glorify war; it also does not romanticize peace,
on the other hand. Because we know
that full, and ultimate, and total peace will not come until after Jesus comes
back. Do you understand? It is not the case that the world is getting better and
better, and smarter and smarter, and more and more moral, and we're evolving in
the direction of a time where we're going to be able to solve all our problems.
The Bible says that's a myth. That's
totally a dream. It is not the case
that we are getting to be a better and better world and every time we circle
around the sun, we're a little better than we were the year before.
That is not the case. Full
and ultimate peace is not going to come until Jesus comes back. Therefore we don't want to glorify war and, on the other hand, we
don't want to romanticize peace and say, for instance, as I characterized
before, "If it's my country and it's war, it's got to be good."
Similarly, we don't want to say "Any peace is good.
Peace at any price. Let's
accommodate whatever we have to accommodate in order not to have to take up arms
against one another." So we're ruling out a couple of things. I hope you understand that as we rule out a few things, our
dialogue together is going to improve because there are certain things that
we're going to understand. The
Bible just says, "That's not right."
The Bible just says, "That's not true."
Glorifying war? The Bible says, "No."
War is not the ultimate. God
did not create the world so we could go to war against each other all the time.
But on the other hand, neither is it the case that God asks us to
accept peace at any price. Now,
where does that leave us? If that's
what this passage teaches--and it does if you understand it in the context of
everything that the Bible says about the second coming of Jesus, the return of
Christ, and the world made new that God has for us, and the way that we're
supposed to understand how to move in the direction of that light spelled out
for us in the Bible, that light at the end of the tunnel.
Where does that leave us? Well, one thing is if you know that violence is not the ultimate
law of life, let's see if I can get this right. It will do three things for us.
The first is, if we're a member of a strong nation, we will always have a
guilty conscience. We'll always
have a guilty conscience because we'll be able, in a Monday morning quarterback
kind of way, to look at what our nation has done in the past and say, "You
know what? We could have done
things better. As a matter of fact,
there are certain things that America has done in the past that are embarrassing
to look back on." If you're a
Christian and if you're a member of a strong nation, you will have a guilty
conscience. We can say in the past
50 years or so, the way we have handled relationships between our nation and the
nations of the Middle East does have something to do with why there's not a lot
of support in--what do they call it?--"the Arab street."
You know, there's not a lot of support for the United States.
I'm not saying that the war against Iraq is wrong.
I'm not saying that. I'm
just saying understand there's a lot of hostility in the Arab world toward
America, and some of that we can just dismiss, but some of it . .
. We have backed brutal regimes in that part of the world.
I'm not saying if I had been President at an earlier time, I would have
done any better at it. I'm just saying if you know that violence is not the ultimate
law of life, and you're a nation of strength, then you'll have a guilty
conscience. The second thing is, the Bible teaches that although we have a
guilty conscience, we can have a hopeful heart. We can have a hopeful heart that says, "Yes, it is true
that we've done some irresponsible things in the past and now today we have
another chance and we can try not to make all of the mistakes that we have made
in the past. We've got a new start
and we can be as responsible today as we can figure out how to be."
If we've got a hopeful heart that says that violence, and bloodshed, and
warfare are not the ultimate law of life, then there is a possibility that we'll
determine where the light at the end of the tunnel is and we'll make some wise
decisions. We will try to do better
by that ultimate law of life, try to do better by the light at the end of that
tunnel. And that would mean, for instance, conducting ourselves in a war
like we did at the end of World War II with the Germans and the Japanese.
It was not America's way to try to obliterate, and subjugate, and utterly
destroy those nations. You know,
when the ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans went against nations, that's what
they tried to do. I mean, they
wanted complete and total subjugation. And
in the case of the Romans in 70 A.D., they came against the city of
Jerusalem--this is one of the stories that we know very well--and took every
stone of the temple off of every other stone.
There were no two stones in the building that had been left on top of one
another. That's obliterating a
nation. And that has never been
America's way. "Why not"
is because we don't think that war ought to have the last word.
We know in God's great plan for creation it will not have the last word,
so we conduct ourselves in a way that if we have to go to war at a particular
time, it's not for the purpose of just obliterating an opposition, but--and this
is going to sound odd, but true--but to defeat an enemy in such a way as then to
allow that enemy to get up and become our friend.
Now, because of that--because of those two things--if you're a
follower of Jesus and a citizen of a mighty superpower, you will have a guilty
conscience. But you can have--if
you understand what Scripture teaches--not only a guilty conscience, but a
hopeful heart about doing better this time, which is why (and now we come around
to the reason for this particular introduction to this sermon series) we need a
discerning mind, we have a need for wisdom, we have a need for cautious
adjudication. We need to see that
the brain is engaged and not allow, as in the case of chocolate as Dave Berry
says, that the hand and the mouth have an agreement not to involve the brain.
No. We do need to say,
"OK. It's possible that there
could be a just war. It's possible that there could be an unjust war."
Where are we now with Iraq? We
can't finish the argument in a single sermon.
But what I'm saying is, it is important that in our dialogues with each
other that we not simply express our first impulse, but instead we say,
"OK. It is possible to have a
war that is terribly unjust." We're
not glorifying war. Neither are we
saying any peace would have to be a good peace. So how do we decide in the here and now? Now, this entire subject does have application to all of the
rest of our life, does it not? There
are circumstances that God asks us to endure under that have nothing to do with
international relations. And there
are circumstances that God asks us to stand up, and have some courage, and face.
What the Bible has for us is a message that will say, "We may
have made some mistakes in the past. Take
hope. Take heart.
Try again. See if today you
can do a better job of moving forward through that dark tunnel in the direction
of the light that God gives you." Let's pray. Dear
Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your Word.
Lord, your Word is our light in darkness. Lord, we ask that you would set us free so that we are able
to approximate, as best we can, what we know about your love, and about your
desire to transform the world, as you make us more like your Son Jesus.
And it's in the strong name of Jesus that we pray.
Amen. The Rev. Dr. Will Eisenhower Interim Pastor Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota [Transcribed from an audiotape of the 9:00
a.m.worship service on March 23, 2003.] |
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