Live in the Light of Christ

First Sunday of Advent 11/30/2025 Year A, RCL

Isaiah 2:1-5Psalm 122Romans 13:11-14Matthew 24:36-44

Isaiah talks of a place where all people and nations will stream to it. He calls this place the mountain of the LORD, the house of God. People will go to it to learn God’s ways so that we can walk in the path of God. Notice that Isaiah moves from speaking about all people to us as individuals. In this place, God will judge between nations and arbitrate for people. And if we read further into chapter 2 of Isaiah, we hear of the judgment against the haughty people, the lofty and proud people, and the idolaters. What we don’t find are people thrown into a place of fire and gnashing of teeth. Everyone is humbled, brought low, in the presence of the Lord. All the sinful receive a changed heart. A heart that is changed. We again see this in the last portion of today’s Isaiah reading. There is no mention of destruction. Through God’s judgment and our repaired hearts, swords are beaten into plowshares, and war will not exist between nations.

Last week, I spoke about the Peaceable Kingdom. The description offered seemed to focus more on animals living together in peace and solidarity than humans simultaneously living with other humans. Today, Isaiah speaks directly to humans living in the same conditions. A place where we, as individuals and as nations, build one another up and not tear each other down.

Isaiah is not a fortune teller. He is not predicting the future. Isaiah’s purpose is to convince people to return to the LORD. To listen to God once again. His vision is what Judah and Jerusalem, the two great Jewish kingdoms, should be like. The Hebrew nations and people should be a beacon to the world as to what life in God should be. He says all we need to do is return to the LORD, learn His ways, and follow His paths.

Paul, on the other hand, is dualistic. You live in the light of Christ or the darkness of evil. Your actions either serve God or are sinful. There is no gray, just black or white. We know the world around is full of gray. We ourselves have both good and bad characteristics. Life is complicated. Rarely is it as simple as Paul would like us to believe. Yet, with this said, Paul’s overarching point is true. We have the choice to live lives in the shadows, doing shadowy things that, if published in the new paper, we might be embarrassed about. Or we can live in the light, doing good and honorable things. And if they were in the paper, you would be proud of what you have done, or at worst, they would be mundane and not embarrassing.

The New Testament vision is not that different from Isaiah’s vision. When we come to God in humility, our hearts are changed and healed. We desire to follow God’s path. We find a place deep within our being to live lives of peace. In this place, we can forgive past grievances so that we can live in the place of peace.

It is challenging to live a life of peace when the world around us punches us in the gut or pokes at our hearts, leaving us bruised and fragile. This condition is more of a reflection of the world around us than an image of the Peaceable Kingdom. It takes a lot of inner work to truly be humble, to live each and every moment of our lives in a way that pleases God. Actually, for most of us, it takes a lifetime of work. Yet this is why God sent his Son to us. Christ is not only an example of the divine on Earth. Christ is not only an example for us to follow. Christ offers us what we cannot offer one another. Forgiveness and ultimate healing. Christ knows that we are broken people living in a broken world, and yet Christ knows that many of us try our best to change this. Christ knows that when we do things that separate us from God or one another (sin), we can try and try again to restore our relationships. To heal our brokenness.

Both Isaiah and Christ talk about the end times. There are several schools of thought about the eschaton. Through St. Matthew, Christ offers us an example in which the end is filled with chaos and violence. A world where all must be destroyed, like a refiner’s fire, before the Kingdom of Heaven can come.

Two books in the Bible are centered on the Apocalypse: Daniel, from the Old Testament, and Revelation, from the New Testament. Yet, there are many images of the Apocalypse in other books, especially those influenced by Hellenism. Other books, like Isaiah, describe the end times more like the Peaceable Kingdom, in which Earth slowly becomes the New Heaven.

Recently, I’ve been thinking that both could be true. Maybe the scenario depends on how we, as God’s people, and as nations across the globe, work to gather. Suppose we are on a trajectory of individualism, fear of neighbor, and violence. Is it then possible that we end up having to go through the Apocalypse? Or if we turn to God, build trust and love, do we usher in the new world where Heaven and Earth merge?

I, like many Episcopal priests, have been in the latter camp. In which we, as the hands and feet of Christ, will bring Heaven here on Earth. But why could the other not be equally true? Both theologies ultimately lead to the same outcome: the Peaceable Kingdom. It’s just that in one, we slowly get there, while the other comes out of pain and anguish. I guess it is up to us to either live in the light of Christ or to live in the darkness. And hopefully, through Christ in our lives, we can help change the hearts and minds of others.