Isaiah: Pastor, Poet, and Prophet for the Present Moment

Take a look at the painting from Edward Hicks from around 1833.

Perhaps you notice all the animals congregated peaceable together.  The cattle and lion...the lamb and leopard...in the lower right corner a bear and ram nosh on a piece of wheat.

Hicks was inspired by the pastor, poet, and prophet for the present moment ~ Isaiah chapter 11.  He was taken by this vision of a re-creation of what we know as the natural order of things.  Isaiah talks and tells about a time when the way the world works is interrupted and disrupted by God's presence.  Isaiah preached and proclaims God Spirit will swirl over the chaos not only undoing the violence we have come to know, but re-ordering life.  It is, to quote the REM song from my youth, "Its the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine."

Then...in the back ground...perhaps not noticed at first, Hicks includes the image of William Penn signing a treaty with the First Nation/Native Americans. 

Hicks is proclaiming and preaching that perhaps we don't ever think we will live long enough for us to witness carnivores suddenly becoming herbivores.  We don't think we will ever see a wolf and lamb enjoying some nicely sauteed spinach, crispy cauliflower, paired with a nice chardonnay.  We tend to trust Darwin's survival of the fittest more than an ancient idea that creation will suddenly be turned upside down and inside out.

But Hicks is suggesting that we miss moments when our human striving and struggling to live with justice, peace, equity, and love does bring about a trace of God's grace.  Yes, it is fleeting.  For every treaty signed there was too many miles of a trail of tears.  For every moment two people on different sides of a political spectrum actually listen to each other (lest you think I am making that up, listen to this hopeful and engaging episode of On Being) there are too many tweets and hurtful/harmful verbal exchanges that only turn up the volume of distorted discourse.  For every moment of racial healing, there are too many examples of discrimination.  Same for violence and mistreatment of women.  Same is true for the ways our LGBTQ community is seen.  The scales seem tipped less toward Hicks' visual interpretation of A Peaceable Kingdom...more toward a world of might makes right and my side has to win at all costs.

So, where does that leave us?

Do we just discount acts like William Penn or the first Muslim Women being elected to Congress or Sally Kohn and Erick Ericson's conversation I linked above?  Are those the one offs or the small, slow work of the Spirit?  Are these tiny traces of grace what feeds and fuels our lives or the latest verbal volleyball of politics today? 

What if it isn't either/or but both/and?

What we struggle with so much today is that these tiny steps toward justice and a world more reflective of God's inclusive love are quickly tossed aside.  We would rather repeat endless/debate/ discuss and focus on a scandal than a sacred stirring.  So God rarely gets a word in edgewise. 

What I am suggesting in the both/and way of life is to go to your favorite news sources, read about the brokenness...but also consider as part of your daily consuming of life as we know it to also find places that tell us stories about people like Penn who are trying to live differently.  This could be The Good News Network or The Christian Science Monitor or some other source you find to offer a perspective that helps you see the world in another way than the usual binary, either/or lens we are so accustom. 

It might not be the wolf and lamb dancing together...but it might remind you that God's work and love song in our world has not stopped or ceased, is there...just like a trace of grace.

Blessings ~~