Not Wishful Thinking (KBS #8)

Dear DJAN Friends,

We hear numerous calls today for the renewal of our society. Several parts of scripture offer a vision of renewed community, including the following verses from the prophet Micah (which are partially duplicated in Isaiah).

In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be raised above the hills.

Peoples shall stream to it, and many nations shall come and say:

"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob;

that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths."

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between many peoples,

and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;

they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more;

but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,

and no one shall make them afraid;

for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken

(Micah 4:1-4).

The vision of nations streaming to Zion implies a human unity across old barriers and animosities. The vision is not of a paradise in which disagreements have disappeared, but of the day when they are dealt with through (divine) arbitration, without the need for weapons, which can now be turned into tools of production. In contemporary America, we know there are neighbors who live in constant fear: of being harmed by the police, of losing a job or a place to live, of rising inflation, of contracting the virus. So it is particularly relevant that the prophet speaks of the day when no one need be afraid. This is not wishful thinking. It is imagining the world as our gracious God would have it, and, in this way, it sets the mission agenda for those of us who worship and follow such a God.

May God grant us understanding and commitment.

-Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon