A Reflection for Tuesday, December 17, 2024 by Amanda Munroe
Lectionary reading for 12/17/2024: Isaiah 11:1-9; Numbers 16:20-35; Acts 28:23-31
Selected Passage for Reflection: Isaiah 11:1-9
Read
Isaiah 11:1-9 NRSV
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow[a] out of his roots.
2 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.
3 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,4 but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide with equity for the oppressed 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.5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
6 The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid;the calf and the lion will feed[b] together, and a little child shall lead them.7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.9 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.
Reflect
Visual artist Joel Schoon-Tanis paints the animals from this passage in a motif that shows up like an easter egg across his body of work. One of my most treasured versions of this take, called Balancing the Peaceful Kingdom, is a long and narrow bumper sticker in which the animals are stacked one on top of another like a pyramid of acrobats - cow, bear, lion, calf, leopard, kid, wolf, and the tiniest lamb - together, precarious and peaceful.
The image is powerful in that it makes no sense (a lion balancing atop a bear?), yet, rather than annoy in its absurdity, the pyramid delights in its playfulness (a hallmark of Tanis’s), inviting the viewer into worlds of colorful possibility.
Like the bumper sticker, which I am tempted to paste all over, including most recently on a neighbor’s political yard sign, Tanis has painted his take on the peaceful kingdom in some not-so-peaceful places around the world. I first discovered the image in the foreground of a painting of the Washington Monument, capturing the day in 2018 that thousands of schoolchildren marched to demand freedom from gun violence. I later learned that Tanis had painted the kingdom on the concrete wall in the West Bank that separates Palestinians from Israelis. He has painted it on images of the U.S.-Mexico border. Sometimes it feels like it is painted as a dare.
Peace is possible. Peace Studies scholar-activists distinguish between “negative peace,” a truce, a ceasefire, or the absence of overt hostility, and “positive peace,” the presence of justice, wholeness, and balance; a place where it is safe to play and create. In this prophecy, Isaiah painted a peaceable picture that championed balance, equity, and justice for the poor. And he painted it during days of extreme violence: the Assyrian invasion had decimated the Northern Kingdom, and thousands of refugees were fleeing south to Jerusalem. Perhaps Isaiah was daring his listeners both to imagine and even to enact a world of positive peace as they grew accustomed to their new immigrant neighbors.
Our Messiah, too, spoke of a peaceful kingdom. He called it the Kingdom of Heaven, and he said it was like a mustard seed (Mt 13, Mk 4). He told his listeners something they already knew: that the ingredients for the largest, most expansive, and flourishing of plants were already present in the smallest speck of a seed.
Like Isaiah, we close out 2024 surrounded by suffocating violence. What would it take to dare, with Isaiah, with artists like Joel Schoon-Tanis, with Jesus, and with each other, to imagine our lives otherwise? What if all that we needed for peace were not somewhere else but in fact already here?
Respond
Spend a moment in reflection today on times and places in your life when you experienced positive peace, and another moment remembering times and places where peace was absent. Can you identify what made those times and places so different? Write down one way you can contribute to a robust, vibrant, positive peace. (It is OK if it is small, so is a mustard seed).
Rest
Consider a centering prayer. Settle your body and mind, then imagine yourself in a place that is safe, comfortable, beautiful, and undisturbed. Select one or two words that help you connect to peace, like “peace/ful”, “whole/ness”, “here / now”, “be/still”, or words of your own choosing. Repeat them in your mind as you breathe in and out. Like this: breathing in: - peace - / breathing out: - ful- . Re-read the scripture passage to close your time in prayer.
About the Author
Amanda Munroe lives in the Hudson Valley and loves to hear crunching and sloshing sounds when they walk, whether it’s through leaves, snow, or slush. She spends her days imagining a peaceful world and crafting strategies for how to get there in her job directing restorative practices at a small liberal arts college populated by as many trees as it is people.
Amanda holds an M.Div from Union Theological Seminary and an M.A. in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University. They enjoy guest preaching and offer one-to-one spiritual care. Reach out to Amanda at am5520@utsnyc.edu and https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandamunroe123
Peace seems so elusive. But then you hear how people are making their small dent in the kingdom and hope springs anew! Thank you for your writing.