Sermon Text: Isaiah 11.6-9 Title: "What kind of animal ARE you?"

Preached: December 6, 1998 (Second Sunday in Advent)

Do you make value judgements about animals? You know: cats are better than dogs. Humming birds are prettier than pigeons. Bunnies are nicer than rats. Trout are smarter than bass. Butterflies are prettier than cockroaches. Sleek, Arabian horses that can carry you to a far off magical kingdom in your dreams are better than that real, live, uncooperative pony that bit you when you were nine.

We do judge animals, in much the way we judge all the objects of our lives. We assign them value, as better or worse, in varieties of ways. And we give them characteristics, usually defined by the characteristics we give human beings. Cats are aristocratic. Dogs are loyal. Snakes are sneaky. Lions are ferocious. Sheep are peaceful. Mules are stubborn. Pigs are messy. Monkeys are clever. Rats are clever, too, but in a nasty sort of way. Bunnies are cute. Dolphins are smart. Worms are icky. And then, based upon our own human valuation, we hold certain animals as having greater value. Since bunnies are cute and rats are nasty, we tend to cuddle cute bunnies and put rat traps in the basement. Since dogs are loyal, smart, and loving and cockroaches are dirty, disgusting vermin that sneak out at night, one is welcome in the home and one is not. Since dolphins are smart we have Flipper, but since sharks are bloodthirsty we have Jaws. Since cats are soft and warm, we pet them, since spiders are icky and crawly, we stomp them.

In the prophecy we read this morning, Isaiah does not seem to be making any value judgements about the animals he uses. (in his image) The wolf is not portrayed as a rapacious predator; nor is the leopard seen as a fierce, blood-thirsty hunter. Isaiah's lion is not roaring and his bear is not chasing after any prey. The lamb, the kid, and the calf are not wobbly, cuddly, innocent, skittish, or cute. The animals are simply there, named as animals, together.

And yet, by juxtaposing them, Isaiah has caused us to see the scene with our own expectations of the animals characteristics in mind. For we know about wolves. And even though we, of the late 20th century, have learned that wolves are more intelligent, loyal, or even noble than Isaiah would have ever meant, we also know that a wolf would live with a lamb only until it became hungry. Likewise, we know that a leopard would lie down with a baby goat only if the leopard was tired of standing to eat dinner. The cow would graze, but the bear would not. The ox might eat straw, but the lion would not. And a baby who sat on a snake pit would soon need medical care. Without placing value on the animals, Isaiah portrays a world of peace by saying that animals will live together which we know cannot live together. Yet it is clear that Isaiah is not talking about animals -- at least not physical, real, literal animals. For God's Reign of peace is about a lot more than just wild predatory animals getting along somehow with baby domestic animals. For Isaiah is talking about the inhabitants of God's holy mountain -- Jerusalem in the eighth century BCE. He is talking about the people. And when we choose this passage as an Advent text, "because a little child shall lead them," we choose it understanding that it is referring to people, and more specifically, to us. Simply because Isaiah talks about lions and lambs living at peace, we are not left off the hook.

I do not believe that saying that is any great revelation. When we read that the leopards will lie down with baby goats, we know that Isaiah is really talking about human beings. And when we read this passage we have a pretty good idea of which human beings are which animals; after all, we assign characteristics to people as quickly and easily as we assign them to animals. Often we assign them concurrently; when we say, "I'm such a pig!" that means that I, a particular human being, may be messy; but it also assumes that pigs are messy, too. Given the state of my car, the pigs may have a right to feel insulted

In Isaiah's passage we see mostly small, meek domestic animals and large wild predators, juxtaposed together. We are immediately reminded of the wealthy and powerful who snatch up as much as they can, and the powerless poor who are the victims of greed. In our current society, we might easily interpret the lions, leopards and bears to be those huge multi-national corporations, along with their boards of directors and CEOs. We might easily interpret the lambs, baby goats and calves to be much less affluent children or the economically marginal elderly.

Moreover, if we interpret the passage as large corporations threatening society's weakest, we really do get to what Isaiah had in mind. We remember that Isaiah considers the great sin of Israel to be their mistreatment of orphans and widows. In our social world, the expansion of profit margins through the medical needs of the elderly and the theft of education from our children to save tax dollars are not much different.

Are Prudential, Aetna and MetLife a pack of circling wolves? Is Microsoft a rapacious lion? Is Shell Oil a sneaky leopard and Bank of America a growing, growling bear? I may suspect so, yet I cannot say for sure. Yet I can say that there is an increasing supply of people who are wobbly lambs, starving on the edge of society, one minimum wage, service sector job away from being snatched up in the jaws of a predator.

Yet, to characterize wider society is also to miss the point of Isaiah's image. For though we might imagine that he meant that only those powers outside Israel were accountable to God as nasty predators, remember the setting. "They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain." The prophecy is for all the nations, including those who already live on the mountain; it is for God's people, too. And if we assign the roles of the passage to those outside this sanctuary alone, we are not taking the passage very seriously. For we, too, are the animals mentioned.

Are not some of us lambs and sheep? Then we must have a few lions, bears, and wolves, too. Surely there are a few mules in the congregation. {I know of at least two Parrots.}

The Isaiah passage is a call to peace for the sake of God's Reign. It says that the animals, everyone who is every kind of animal, shall find a way to get along when God's Reign has begun on earth. If we are to take seriously our call to work toward God's Reign, then we need to begin working for peace within the congregation. If our own lions cannot keep from eating up our own lambs, then how are we ever going to focus on taking on the corporate lions and bears out there.

Moreover, if our own wolves continue to eat our little lambs, their will be no sheep left in the flock; and if the leopards change their spots but still sharpen their claws, the kids will run away in fear; and if the lions continue to roar threateningly, the calves will not stay to grow into the oxen we need to move forward; and

if we cannot build a space safe for children to play without the local snakes poisoning them, then we've accomplished nothing.

Please, understand, that I am making no value judgement here. I do not believe that the lions need to stop being lions, that the wolves and leopards need to become puppies and kitties. For as we face some of the less peaceful animals of society, out there, we will need a few lions, a few bears, and possibly even some snakes to keep our lambs and kids and calves safe from harm and neglect. Our predators are very valuable to us in the long run, yet valuable only with a qualifier -- a serious, challenging, unyielding qualifier: we cannot build God's Realm in this place, or any other place, if we persist in dangerous, threatening, intolerant behavior.

We must become, ever more and ever more a people led by the little child we meet in this ancient prophecy: the little child of the manger, the little child destined for the cross; we must become, ever more and ever more, a people led by child-like peace, hungering for child-like understanding and shaped by child-like acceptance; we must become, ever more and ever more, a people ruled less and less by anger, and appetite, the desire for power, and need for control. We must become, ever more and ever more, a people seeking God's will, God's guidance, God's priorities, God's pathway for us.

For we must become, ever more and ever more, God's people.