Ode to Babylon

Click here to read Isaiah 13

Isaiah follows up his song of praise sung in a major key, with a song of despair sung in a minor key.  Isaiah starts off with the image of a bare hill.  Back in Isaiah 2, the hill of God was where all nations would stream toward.  In contrast, the hill of Babylon is bare.  Again, such a prophecy in the time of Isaiah might have elicited an honest response from most, "Humph, That'll be the day!"  Look at all that property Babylon has.  It covers at least six modern days countries.  That is a lot.  And here comes Isaiah, who has been all doom and gloom at the prospects of Israel against the new Goliath known as Babylon, and all of the sudden his tune has changed.  He sings that this huge real estate will become but a bare hill.  

I have to confess that after that first line, the rest is hard to read.  The violence is saddening given how much violence I see on TV, given the recent tragedy in Sandy Hook, given the debate on guns that is going practically no where.  Part of me wants the Bible to be like a good novel that I can get lost in and escape from the world.  I'd prefer faith to be the utopia.  But if we do that too much, faith can turn into Fantasy Land.  

The faith Jesus lived met people in the world.  People who were hurting, felt lost, lonely and left out.  People who were struggling and lived in fear.  The faith Jesus calls us to follow invites us to do the same.  It is interesting, and saddening, that we make faith out to be escapism.  Not that we don't need that escapism, see the above paragraph, but when we do that too much we risk loosing something vital to our faith.

So, I keep coming back to these images, as violent as they are, because life can be violent.  I'd prefer it not be that way.  The promise of the gospel and Jesus' ministry is that our life does not have to be that way.  But that does not mean we click our heels together three times while saying, "There is no place like God's kingdom" and magically people are nice and violence is no more.  What does faith have to say in the face of violence?  We can say, "No."  That on God's hill the sword becomes the plowshare, a tool of farming.  We live peacefully not responding to insults or hurts.  It is not easy.  And it certainly is not the way of the world, but it is God's invitation.

May we respond to Christ who still shows us the way of love that makes a difference and can make our world different this day and for days to come.

Blessings and peace!