Longing For Armistice - Isaiah 11:1-9
As we consider the
veterans that we just recognized for their willingness to lay their lives on
the line to protect us and protect others around the world, it drew my mind to
my own father. It makes me think of my
dad for reasons you probably wouldn’t expect.
My dad, whom some of you have met, is a retired Chief Warrant Officer 4
with more than forty two years of full time service in the Army National Guard
where he served as the Heavy Mobile Equipment Leader at the CSMS. He was one of the first trained to repair the
M1 Abrams tank, and was actually on standby to go to Desert Storm to lead a
team in tank repairs when that action came to an end. Most of his service with the guard, the part
that I think he enjoyed the most, was spent in disaster recovery. However, that’s not the real reason that Veteran’s
Day draws my dad to mind. Yesterday was
my dad’s birthday…he was born on Veteran’s Day—born at eleven o’clock on
November 11th. Well,
technically my dad is older than Veteran’s Day.
It was his tenth birthday when it officially became Veteran’s Day.
Before it was Veteran’s
Day, though, it was a still a holiday…November 11th, beginning in
1918, 99 years ago, was known as Armistice Day.
It was celebrated as the cessation of hostilities during World War I,
with the armistice signed at 11 am on the 11th day of the 11th
month. It was established as a national
holiday not just in the United States, but in many of the nation of the
Allies…today it is celebrated as Veteran’s Day in the United States and Denmark,
as Remembrance Day in Canada, England, Australia, South America, and many other
places. It is a day in most of the
nations in which they remember those soldiers who have risked their lives, but
it is also a day, from the very beginning that celebrates peace. Sometimes the idea of peace would seem like
something that runs contrary to a day in which we remember the men and women who
have served in the military. I think,
though, it is our society that tends to glorify war and the killing that goes
along with it—from video games to Hollywood to even songs in the popular
culture, we encounter the idea that war and violence should be celebrated.
However, as I reflected
over this past weekend, over conversations I have had with veterans over the
last thirty years (going all the way back to the 4 ½ years I spent in
Fayetteville outside of Fort Bragg), there are very few, if any who loved the
idea of war. Most desired peace…most
longed for a time when there would be no more war and no more killing. Most were marked by witnessing their fellow
soldiers die in battle. Many lived with
scars at their involvement with the taking the life of another human being. Many can’t even bring themselves to talk
about what it was like to be in the midst of war, or can only do so with tears
rolling down their cheeks, revealing tender hearts over a tough exterior.
I believe that most
veterans, and many of our active duty personnel, long for that ultimate
Armistice Day. It feels like we live in
the midst of the warning that Jesus gave about the end of the age: “And you
will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this
must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in
various places: all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”[i]
Birth pangs…if wars and
rumors of wars are, as Jesus says, are the birth pangs of the end of the age, creation
has been in labor for centuries. And I
think we are ready for Creation to give birth to Isaiah’s Armistice Declaration:
"A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a
branch shall grow out of his roots. The
spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the
Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what
his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall
judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall
strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he
shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and
faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the
leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling
together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child
shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my
holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea. "[ii]
I believe we all long for
that day when there will no longer be wars or rumors of wars…that day when,
throughout all of Creation, those who had once been enemies will come together…they
will rest together…they will eat together…they will no longer be a need for any
sort of weapons…that day of Armistice when we will “beat our swords (and guns)
into plowshares, and our spears (and missiles) into pruning hooks;” that day
when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war anymore.”[iii]
I believe, my brothers
and sisters, that is what our hearts have to long for and that is what our
efforts have to work towards…that day when every veteran and ever active duty
and reserve duty service person can lay down their weapons forever, knowing
they will never have to take them up again.
When will that day
happen? That day will happen when we all
surrender our lives to no other agenda that that of the Prince of Peace; that
day when we all align our wills with the will of our Savior. True Armistice will happen when we surrender
ourselves to the One who gave up His life, “for He is our peace; in his flesh
he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that
is, the hostility between us.”[iv] That day of celebration, of partying on the
streets, will happen when the world realizes that evil took its best shot and
lost. It will happen when we realize
that evil has been defeated and it is time for peace. Will all the world stop fighting at
once? Probably not, but as we began our
worship today, “let there be peace on earth and let it begin with [us.]”
In the Name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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