Quick Summary:

Today, in the first words from the Lord for this first Sunday of the new church year, the prophet Isaiah unfurls a vision of that time when God’s holy mountain will be lifted above all others, drawing peoples together from all nations, all races and cultures. Swords will be beaten into plowshares, instruments of war into tools for cultivating the land; a complete reorientation of humankind will usher in a day of true shalom.

This is a day we long for, a day we hope for, a day we pray for; yet, how absurd it all sounds, this dream from Isaiah! For we live in the world of Darfur and Iraq, of Afghanistan and Haiti, of North and South Korea; the world of the devastated and despairing. We have seen too much of this world to believe it is possible to walk through the door Isaiah opens for us, and yet, that is what Isaiah invites us to do.