What Can't Wait | Repentance (Peace) Can't Wait

Isaiah 11:1-10 

Peace is something we often speak about sentimentally, yet the reality of our world tells a different story, one marked by conflict, injustice, and broken relationships. In Isaiah 11, we are given a powerful vision of God’s promised peace, a restored world where fear and violence no longer rule. This promise is not offered during peaceful times, but in the middle of war, corruption, and suffering, reminding us that peace is not rooted in comfort but in transformation.

At the heart of this transformation is repentance, the turning back to God and to lives shaped by justice, faithfulness, integrity, and righteousness. Advent teaches us that waiting for peace is not passive. In Jesus, the Prince of Peace, God enters the world not only as a child in a manger but as the ruler whose life is wrapped in justice and mercy. As we actively turn toward Christ and take real steps toward God’s way of life, peace begins to take root within us, in our relationships, and in our communities.

Peace. World peace. Isn't that what everyone wants? Everyone in the pageant wants that, right? Yes. World peace. And so often for us, peace is one of those things that we give a sentimental nod to. How many of you actually expect world peace to happen in your lifetime? Not a single taker this morning. Look at that. Do we believe in peace? Do we believe in the prince of peace? Or do you and I just want to continue to offer sentimental qualities about this trait that's often considered to be soft in our world? Or is peace something that is worth pushing for? Is peace something that you and I want to get up in the morning and go, I'm going to pursue that with everything in me? Is peace actually worth it for us? Because you and I live in a world where there's a bit of a falseness to it, isn't there? We're sometimes insulated from the scars of our world. And when I look around this congregation this morning, I see folks who have known war, who have known battle, who have known having to take a life. And many of those who I see, who have been in those situations know viscerally what it means to be in a world without peace. I also look around and I see folks who have gone through conflict, relational conflict, business conflict, places that ripped them apart inside. And I know that for those folks, peace is something that's worth it. But it's easy to wake up on a Tuesday morning in the middle of the week and sing, "Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem or whatever the song is of the week in this Christmas time and just act like peace is sentimental. That peace is nostalgia. That peace is just an a conflict. There's an absence of conflict. that if we all just act like we're nice to one another, then surely the world is at peace for a moment. I mean, that is kind of our suburban veneer, isn't it? Right? If we just act nice for at least 30 seconds with one another, the world's all right. Correct? But if you're anything like me, after about 30 seconds of me trying to be nice, right, and you're really pushing on my buttons, guess what happens? The real Justin Spurlock pops out, right? Not peaceful, right? Not nice. Certainly not going to make Santa's list, right? And so then I go, what is this peace that we are talking about? And then within our own Christian tradition, what is this peace that passes all understanding about? And what is any of this if I can't even achieve it while driving through traffic, Walker? Right. Uhhuh. What happens if I can't get to that place of grace in you and grace in all of us? And that brings us into our text today. Isaiah chapter 11. What can't wait? Promise you friends, peace can't wait. You and I need peace on earth. You and I need peace inside of our hearts and our souls. When I lay my head down on my pillow at night, I need peace in my mind. And my guess is most of you are like me and don't actually have that. And so what happens when we come to a scripture text that talks about peace? that talks about this kind of idealic sense of the future where lions and lambs get to play in a field together where children get to go up to the snake's hole and put their hand in the den, right? Where bears and cows are all just hanging out in the fields together. And you and I are tempted when we read this text to just go that happens. I think that's kind of talking about heaven or some future reality. It's kind of a fairy tale. We may use the word legend about it or fable or myth. And I want to implore you that maybe you and I should take it as reality. that perhaps you and I should live into this vision of life and the world because I need it and you need it and our world is desperate for it. See these first 10 chapters in the book of Isaiah are anything but peaceful. What is happening here in Isaiah, and you remember this from a few weeks ago because you remember all the things I say in a sermon, of course, right? Is that the Babylonian army is knocking on Jerusalem's door and there are thousands upon thousands of soldiers that are just over the hill in this particular text. And the prophet Isaiah comes to the people and says, "Hey, um, you can pray all you want. God doesn't want to hear your prayer." Well, that's a nice December message, isn't it? And why doesn't God want to hear your prayer? Because of all of the injustice. Because of all of the unrighteousness. because of all of the infidelity, because of our lack of truth inside of us. That applies to us. It applies to these people almost 2500 years ago. It applies to most societies that have ever experienced what you and I sentimentally call peace to one another. Because what happens in our world and in our societies is all the things that are happening in our world, right? The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the orphans, the widows. These are groups that are mentioned over and over and over again in scripture. They're ignored. They're not defended in the court system. They are pushed aside. They are destitute as the book of Isaiah says almost every chapter leading up to chapter 11 right here. And then somewhere around chapter nine, we read something that fills us with hope. The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light. Oh, wait a minute. We here at Grace read that scripture every Christmas Eve, don't we? Every Christmas Eve, we Yes, the world is full of darkness. The world is full of all of this despair, but the people who've walked in darkness have seen a great light. Well, that makes us feel good. And and the text goes on and talks about how there's this child who has been born, this new ruler that has come to us. And of course, we go Jesus, right? Yeah. He's the prince of peace. Isaiah 9 tells us, but that rest of that text goes on to talk about some really terrible things actually happening to the people because the people who are walking in darkness aren't there just simply because they are victims. The people who walk in darkness are actually the oppressors themselves, oppressing their own people, enacting injustice in the world, or sometimes just sort of passively ignoring all of the justice that needs to be done in the world. And it brings us to Isaiah chapter 10 where Isaiah looks at the people and says, "Will you turn to God? Will you return to God?" And it's this Hebrew word shu. Say shu with me. Shu. You just learned a new word this morning. Okay? I want you to remember shuv because it is this turning that happens in us. It's related to this other word that we find in this advent season. It's in a lot of the lectionary advent text. It's this word repent. Repent. This turn that you do this. I'm walking this way. I'm doing whatever I want in life. And God's saying, "Hey, come back here and turn and return to who you really are. Return to me." God says to us, "It's both a command and an invitation. It's getting back to who you're supposed to be, who you're created to be. So turn and come back and repent and enact justice. Live a life of righteousness. walk in this holiness, in this faithfulness, in this fidelity, in this integrity, this integrated character of life that God invites us into and actually equips us, resources us, and supports us in living. What happens when you and I turn? Now, last week, we had this mishap in the middle of the service. if you all remember it, right? We went to sing the canacle of turning and it didn't work out. And I thought, well, that is a great metaphor for my sermon this week, right? Because so often in life, we go, "Yeah, I should be doing these things, right? I should be living this way." But I get through halfway through the second slide and I go, I don't really know this tomb. I don't really know how to turn back to God and live in this faithfulness and enact this justice and this righteousness on a daily basis, I tend to find that by about 10:30 in the morning, I've already screwed it up. Right? Anyone there with me? Yeah. Exactly. Right. And so just like us last week, sometimes this song, this canle of turning needs to be practiced again and again. We have to make these steps towards peace. That in the middle of Advent, in the middle of the waiting, this is not a passive waiting. It requires preparation. Jesus doesn't just get born in Bethlehem, right? There's a journey there, right? There's things that had to take place to make it to Bethlehem. And for you and I, this waiting is an active one. that when you and I look around our world, it can often feel like the world of Isaiah, particularly to all the people in and around the globe, to anyone who's experienced any sense of poverty, any sense of war, any sense of trying to fight a massive disease, any place that's experiencing famine in the world, any place that you just fill in the blank. Most of the world knows of this world that is listed here in Isaiah. And you and I get enough news input into our lives that we should see it too if we're willing to look past all of the interpretive commentary on it. and see a world that is in so need and desperate need of peace that we discover that right here in Isaiah chap 11 that there is a promise there is a turning there is a one who brings this peace as we're preparing for advent as we're trying to get to Bethlehem. As we're trying to get to December 24th and Christmas Eve, what might happen when we discover that there is a Messiah, a Christ, who literally has righteousness and justice as a belt around his waist and faithfulness as a belt around his loins? What happens when we discover that in Christ we don't just have a sentimental birth and we're holding a little baby, but instead the very ruler of the universe has come into our lives in the flesh. When we were listening to the reader theater, did you see how that connected the beginning of creation and this word made flesh living and dwelling among us? That this very word, this very Jesus Christ who's at the very beginning is the God who's literally right at the heart of it all. And if we begin to make steps, if we begin to believe in that, then maybe, just maybe, you and I will begin to experience peace. Peace inside of ourselves, peace in our relationships, peace in our communities, peace on the roads back there, right? world global peace for all people. What if what if that is the reality that God's asking you and I to lean into this morning? What if you and I could actually take some steps, look at that, towards peace in our lives? What if you and I open up a card that most of us are hesitant to fill out? What if you and I walked in the sunny morning going, "What's Justin going to really ask me to do again this morning?" And you actually gave, listen to it, peace a chance this morning. What if you and I look at our cares and concerns and we go, "Oh, I do care about the world. I do care about conflict and war. What if we put some of those things in there next to some of the illnesses that we already wrote there? Because I assuming you've already written something here, right? And what if in the celebrations and blessings I might name a few places maybe in my relationships, maybe inside of my mind or inside my soul where I have discovered some peace. What if under this community spotlight, I spotlight someone who's actually bringing peace into my world and yours. And yes, sometimes it is that barista at Starbucks that's doing that very thing. Or like our new employee, Grace Gruner, back there who used to work at Lost Coffee, right? Who made that great coffee for you. and you walk in, you go, "This is exactly what I needed this morning." And what if in that invite section, you write someone down there that you're like, "I need to invite them into an experience because me and that person could experience peace together.