“What to Do with the Lion and the Lamb in the Real World”
Isaiah 11:1-10
Dr. Christopher C. F. Chapman
First Baptist Church, Raleigh
December 4, 2016
A Presbyterian minister tells a story about a children’s sermon
based upon today’s reading from Isaiah 11. She showed the children a
statue of a lion lying down. In his paws rested a lamb. Then, she asked
them what they thought of this. One of the church’s youngest
theologians, as she calls him, a boy named Jack, said, “Well, in the Bible
it says they will rest together. But in real life the lion would eat him!”
Well, children are honest and they know how to get to the heart of
the matter. They know something about the wonderful images the Bible
has of a world where all things dwell together in peace. But they also
know something about the real world where people are not always nice
to each other and lions and lambs do not hold paws and sing Kum Ba
Yah. But the truth is we are all children at this point. We know
something about the biblical images of peace, but we are not confused
about what kind of world we live in; we know that peace is a future
hope; we realize that we live in an unsettled and often dangerous world.
The question is – how are we to live in light of these realities?
What are we to do with the lion and the lamb in the real world? Are we
called to pursue the biblical images regardless of the consequences, live
with our heads in the clouds? Are we called to take into account the
harsh realities of this world, make certain we keep our feet on the
ground? Or is there some space in between the ideal and the real, a way
to keep our heads in the clouds and our feet on the ground?
I would suggest that, before we attempt to answer these questions,
we examine a bit more carefully the text itself, the familiar reading from
Isaiah 11 that has inspired great music and visual art as well as many
acts of faith. What exactly does this text say?
The first thing to note is that while the text includes images of a
time when all of creation is affected by a new and more just reign, these
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images are not to be taken literally. They are metaphorical snapshots of
an altered world where peace and harmony reign, idyllic images meant
to conjure up a sense of hopefulness for a better day. Taken literally,
they assume that the animals listed will have to change their basic nature
as God has made them. For leopards do not lie down with kids. This I
know from personal experience.
As a part of the first partnership mission work I did in Kenya, our
group spent a day in a national park to get a sense of the land in which
we were working, and while we were there, we saw two leopards. One
was sunning himself. The other was not living by the teaching of Isaiah
11. She was stalking a herd of impala. It was an incredible experience
because the leopard began the hunt just a few feet away from our
vehicle, and a member of our group provided commentary mimicking
the old Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom television show. I confess I
was pulling for the impala, though the leopard had to eat.
But such is the real world. Such is the way of nature, the way of
creation, the way God has made the world. If the leopard is to lie down
with the kid, the lion with the lamb, God will have to change the basic
nature of these creatures, and this is possible. It just isn’t Isaiah’s point.
The point of the imagery is not to provide a literal description of the
ideal future, but rather to say through these images that even nature will
be affected by the new things that are going to happen.
What are these new things? Judgments will be fair and the poor
will be treated rightly. The meek will be judged with equity, the wicked
will be dealt with appropriately and peace will prevail. How will things
come to be? God will pour out the spirit upon a new kind of leader, a
messiah, and give him wisdom and understanding, counsel and might,
knowledge and a healthy fear of God. All is not well in Zion, this is not
the current state of affairs, and thus the prophet dreams of a better day.
Two things merit attention here. First, notice that this new era of
peacefulness is made possible by an array of gifts including might.
Some view all efforts in the realm of peace as inherently weak and
passive. Nothing could be further from the truth. Second, notice that
peace hinges upon everyone being treated fairly, especially the poor and
the meek. Peace and justice go together.
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This is the vision Isaiah has and, though he does not have in mind
a person named Jesus who lives seven hundred years after he dies, the
early church interprets these words as applying to the child who is born
in a manger. The spirit is poured out upon Jesus and he is given wisdom
and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and a love of God.
He is just and righteous in all of his dealings and he holds a special place
in his heart for the poor and the meek.
And yet, the vision of peace is not completely fulfilled in Jesus’
earthly ministry. The kingdom or reign of God has come in Christ and is
yet to come. Not all judgments are just; not all of the poor of this
country, much less the poor of the world, receive fair treatment to this
day; and nature is not dwelling in harmony.
The author of the children’s sermon to which I referred puts it this
way. “The vision is glorious. Real life is something else. In Christ,
God has come to close the gap between the kingdoms of this world and
the kingdom of heaven (Kimberly Clayton Richter, Journal for
Preachers, Advent 2004).” In Christ, God has come to close the gap
between the vision and reality, but the task is not yet complete. That is
where we come in. Our calling is to continue closing the gap.
This question is – how do we do that? With the guidance of the
same spirit who comes upon Jesus. With full benefit of the gifts of
wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and a healthy
fear of God. But beyond these things, how do we do it? How do we get
the lion to lay down with the lamb in the real world? And how far do we
go in regard to this matter of peace?
One option is to pursue peace boldly, without hesitation, and
without regard to consequences. I can think of many examples of
faithful people who have done this and, though I am not ready to
recommend this path, I have tremendous respect for those who travel it.
For example, Rachel Corrie was a twenty-three-old senior at Evergreen
State College in Olympia, Washington who decided to travel to Palestine
in March of 2003 to work as a volunteer with the International Solidarity
Movement (Peacework, Numbers 5/6 2004). She worked with children
in a refugee camp in Gaza where she gained much love and respect.
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One day an Israeli bulldozer came to destroy a Palestinian home.
She pleaded with the driver to stop. When he refused, she stood
between him and the home, wearing a neon orange jacket to make
herself visible. The driver drove over her. Was Rachel a pathetic, naïve
soul with her head in the clouds, someone who did not realize that lions
eat lambs in the real world? Or was she a young woman of courage who
acted upon her beliefs, a follower of Jesus who helped close the gap
between the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of heaven?
I think of people like Clarence Jordan who sacrificed much for the
cause of integration. I think of Ghandi and King who gave their lives for
peace and justice. Were they all naïve? Did they fail to count the cost?
Or did they count it and decide that they would rather risk the loss of
status or career or life itself before risking the loss of soul? As I say, I
have a hard time recommending unqualified boldness with regard to
peacemaking in a hostile world. But every time I am tempted to name
such an approach as naïve, I remember Jesus. He too was bold
seemingly without counting the consequences. He too discovered what
happens to lambs before lions. Who among us would call him naïve?
Another option is to say that we must keep our feet on the ground
at all costs, we must be realistic, we must realize that the world is not a
safe place. Jesus may be called the Prince of Peace, he may indeed say,
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God,”
but in the real world, peace lovers don’t make much headway. In the
real world, the lion eats the lamb every time!
I understand this response all the way from the level of personal
relationships to international affairs. I recall an old cartoon where the
meek inherit the earth, but then the aggressive take it right back from
them! Do we really want our children to grow up with such gentle
dispositions that they are taken advantage of by others? Do we want our
nation to concede military strength in order to pursue peace or would we
not prefer a certain show of force to help preserve peace?
Edward Hicks’ experience illustrates the struggle many of us have.
Hicks was a nineteenth-century artist who painted over eighty versions
of The Peaceable Kingdom. Each painting includes images of animals
dwelling together peacefully as in the Isaiah image, Native Americans
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and settlers making peace, and a small child leading the whole scene.
They are wonderful images of the text’s vision of a time when peace and
harmony rule human affairs and the whole of creation.
Yet, as Paul Duke notes in a sermon on this text (Lectionary
Homiletics, December, 2001), over the years Hicks became discouraged
with the state of affairs in the world, and as he did, the predators in his
paintings came to look more ferocious. So it goes with us. We would
like to embrace the vision of peace and live accordingly, but when all we
see is conflict and violence, we have difficulty believing in the vision.
So, what do we do? How do we pursue peace? I don’t have an
easy answer, but giving up on the vision is not an option. We are called
to close the gap between the heavenly vision of peace and the earthly
reality of violence. Perhaps we cannot change the actions of nations,
perhaps we need not sacrifice our lives, but there are things we can do.
For example, when we build relationships with people of other
faiths, including Jews and Muslims, we are pursuing peace. When we
serve the poor through our clothing ministry or backpack buddies, we
are pursuing peace. When we welcome immigrants and refugees
directly or through CBF field personnel Marc and Kim Wyatt, we are
pursuing peace. When we decide to forgive those who have hurt us, we
are pursuing peace. When we say a prayer or sing a carol, simply hold
onto our hope in Isaiah’s vision, we are pursuing peace.
We do a lot already. It’s just a matter of doing more. And the
natural tendency is to add that we should teach our children to act in
peaceful ways, and we should; but the truth is our children often teach
us. Isaiah does say that a little child shall lead them.
CBF field personnel Bob and Janice Newell tell the story of two
children in Tirana, Albania who led the way for many adults (Newell
Post, January, 2005). The father of one of the boys was killed by the
other’s father and then, pursuant to obligations of the Balkan blood feud
tradition, the uncle of the boy whose father was killed, killed the other’s
father, leaving both boys fatherless.
The tradition of vengeance called for an ongoing cycle of hatred,
but the boys decided to stop it. They developed a covenant of
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forgiveness through which they declared a willingness to forgive “those
who did not give us the possibility to be like all the others… those who
do not know what it means to forgive… because we know what it means
to lose parent, family, precious life, school…” Very often children lead
the way in the realm of peace, if only we are willing to follow them.
A Methodist minister who served a church in Richmond had a
brother who ran a circus. Every Advent this text from Isaiah was read,
he would bring a lion and a lamb to that lovely Methodist sanctuary and
place them, with trainers and restraints, at opposite ends of the dais. It
was better than a power point presentation! I’m not sure we have room
on this dais to pull it off and I’m not sure it’s a great idea anyway. The
point is not for the literal lion and lamb in this world to become pals.
But would it be any easier to put an Israeli and a Palestinian up
here, a Sunni and Shia, a fundamentalist and a liberal, a republican and a
democrat right after this election, two church members who have been at
odds, two family members who have hurt each other? The thing is - this
is the point of Isaiah’s prophesy and Jesus’ life. The question is – what
are we willing to do about it? We are the lion and the lamb in this very
real world. Are we willing to live in the ways of peace?
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