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Dunbar UCC

December 24, 2006

Isaiah 9:2-7

Endless Peace

 

  1. We just heard the prophet Isaiah say that the people who were in darkness are in the light now. Was he talking to us? Were we the ones in darkness?

  2. What does it mean to be in darkness? Is it emotional darkness, like depression? Or is it a darkness of our intellect -- like ignorance? Isaiah leaves it vague -- except to say that we were in darkness. Maybe all of us know what it’s like, at times, to have no hope, or to not be able to see the difference between right and wrong. There are all kinds of darkness, and to be human is to have both moments of darkness and light. And the prophet wants us to know that there is a light that overcomes the depression, the ignorance, and the hate. But he says more....

  3. He says that God has multiplied the nation and increased its joy. Does he mean Israel or the United States? Because our nation has multiplied. We’ve multiplied so fast, we have to build walls on our borders and send people back to their own countries. We punish people for wanting what we have. Especially poor people. Why does God have to multiply them?

  4. Isaiah talks about God multiplying us like it’s a blessing but maybe we want a God who’s more bigoted. “OK, God,” we can pray, “multiply us, but we want white, attractive and intelligent Americans. And stop making all those gender freaks -- gays, lesbians, bisexuals. Stop it!”

  5. God is so indiscriminate, God will love anybody! Why isn’t God more like us: selective, hateful, rigid?

  6. I don’t know about these prophets in the Bible -- including Jesus. Sometimes they seem so wrong. Isaiah said God increased the nation’s joy. Well, a lot has increased: immigrants, roads, Walmart, poverty, violence -- a bad war we stupidly got into that gets worse every day. But has our joy increased?

  7. I can’t tell you. But I know this: here’s MY prophecy for this Christmas Eve. The joy’s not out there. If we want joy, we have to find it in our hearts. That’s where the manger is today. The Prince of Peace must be born in us. And if he isn’t, then we’ll have to wait for our joy, and our peace. Because our government won’t give it to us. It can’t. Even our church and our families can’t give us these gifts of the spirit. The light -- the joy -- the endless peace -- THE LOVE THAT DOESN’T DISCRIMINATE -- they are from God. They are the only gifts we need this Christmas. And if we want them badly, and desperately, and more than anything, then we will have them.