Isaiah 2:1-5

Metaphors are containers of meaning. The Bible leads our imagination to fascinating metaphors, many of which can excite our passion. The scripture passages for this week’s meditations lift up for me the metaphor of “Holy Land Tour” – God’s message from Jerusalem.

Many years  ago  I  took  a group of seminary students on a Holy Land tour. The meetings prior to our trip were times of keen awareness and exciting preparation. We shared our expectations, focused on scriptures related to the places we planned to visit, and became more intensely aware of current events in the Middle East.

This week’s scripture passages invite us to journey through the holy land – not the geographical area of the Middle East but the places of holy mystery where God has a holy conversation with us through the coming of the Christ . It too is a journey that requires awareness and preparation.

In Isaiah 2 the journey takes us to the place of lasting peace. In this place we learn that God wills “to make things right” among all God’s children. The swords of hate, revenge, and enmity will be transformed into shovels of productivity and creativity, “their spears into pruning hooks. ” God will turn hostility into hospitality, grief into grace, haunts into hopes, duels into duets, pain into gain, fear into faith, collisions into coalition, breakdowns into breakthrough .

PRAYER:

0 blessed Prince of Peace, may we seek and find your peace in sun and in shadow, in the darkness of the night and in the bright light of the day, in life and in death and wherever our feet and our faith take us in our journey. Amen.