But true peace, world peace, it isn't as straightforward as you might think it is. For example, it isn't as though all the governments of the world just haven't thought of trying peace out yet, if you see what I mean. It isn't as though humans just haven't considered the idea or the concept of peace. Honestly, we all want peace, but we don't live in a peace universe. We live in a war universe, governed by war rules. Competition reigns. There are not enough resources to go around, and there never will be. It seems as though there will always be too little for everyone to have, and as people tend to bring up frequently, if we were all to live in the manner to which we have been accustomed in North America, we would need something like three earths to make that happen. But we don't have three earths, we just have the one.
Given that there is only one earth, and only so much to go around for an ever increasing number of people, you can understand that this condition isn't going to get any better, I can guarantee that it's going to get worse. If there wasn't enough to go around then, there sure won't be enough to go around now. Look at the oft mocked stampedes for cheap goods and electronics that you find on or around Black Friday, or Cyber Monday or whatever. These low level riots that you see are built around the fact that there are only so many doorcrashers to go around, and when they're gone, they're gone. People will crush one another for the Nintendo Wii, or a cabbage patch doll, or a tickle me elmo, or whatever, because there are not enough of them to go around.
Given that this is for sure the case, I ask you as a question that we will all have to face one way or another, the question of why are we not beating our swords into plowshares, nor our spears into pruning hooks? Well, honestly, the best tool that I have to talk about this is another 'mountain of the Lord' passage, which comes to us from Isaiah, talking about how the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and so on. That passage, if you take it seriously, represents a far bigger issue than just what the lion chooses to eat at any one moment. Do you think that lions chase gazelles just because they enjoy the exercise? Why wouldn't they just eat the hyper abundant food source of grass that is all around them? For that matter, your house is likely surrounded by a ton of grass all the time, why do you bother hunting, fishing, going to the grocery store, or whatever else, when you could just eat grass? Well, it's not just the flavor of the grass, the lion can't just sit down and eat grass while getting any nutrition out of it at all. Cattle, who stay alive by eating grass, have four stomach chambers, and are ruminants who chew the cud, which is designed entirely around grass consumption. How many stomach chambers do you have? How many does a lion have? Do you really think that lions just haven't figured out that grass doesn't run away from them? Or do you think that a lion eating grass would end in a dead lion because they can't digest the food?
I bring this up, because when we think about the nature of the swords into plowshares, we think about this as an ideal that we can and should strive towards, to make peace and to have people know war no more. And that's a nice idea, but it's not as though people just haven't thought about peace yet, you know. Everyone, including known warhawks, always say that they want peace. Nobody says that a war would be totally fun, and we should just have one already. At least in public, people claim to want peace. But if everyone wanted peace the way they say they wanted peace, we'd have peace. The only problem with peace is you can't make no money off it. We don't have peace because we are in a fallen world, a broken world, that operates on scarcity, and insufficient supply. It is a war universe with war rules. It's a sin universe with sin rules.
So what is this passage about then? It's not about wasting your time, surely. What it is about, though, is about making a universe that is not based on war anymore. It is about a world without the rules of war and the conditions of war. It is about a world where scarcity has been abolished, where the military industrial complex has been dismantled, where all those problems have been fully and completely addressed and fixed. And that's the return of Christ. That's what his return looks like.
The reason it's impossible right now is because you know what would happen to a country that disarmed. It's not as though everyone would follow suit and the world would be at peace. If Ukraine disarms, it stops being Ukraine. That is the same for literally every place on earth. If you have the gall to stop defending yourself, or to not have a strong ally to defend you, then you will be subsumed, sooner rather than later. Someone will take over, someone will take what you own, someone will drive you to poverty or death. You many not think about it, but your property is preserved by guns right now. They may not be your guns, but if someone threatens your home, your family, or anything like that, someone with a gun will show up to put an end to the problem. While we are still in a world where lions can't eat straw, they won't. While we are still in a world where nation will fight against nation should it become undefended, swords will remain swords, and will not become plowshares.
Why do we talk about this, then? Becuase this is what the return of Christ will look like, and it's what we have to be prepared for. We have to be ready for his return, and the accompanying beating of swords into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks. And you have to be prepared for him to turn your sword into a plowshare, and your spear into a pruning hook. That's the real trick now, isn't it? The only thing stopping all of this is that we won't let it, so understandably the return of Jesus will be a horrible event in which everything is put right, and wars cease. Given that we don't want to give everything away now, given that we don't want to share our entire lifestyles now, what makes us think that we're going to be very much into it upon the return of Jesus? The return of Christ to make everything right and good will be a painful thing, it will be a hurtful thing indeed for the rich. Which probably includes you.
The rich have much more to lose, because they have taken far more over time. When we think about justice, especially end times justice, it is a matter where every hill will be brought low, and every valley raised up. If you have taken over the course of your life, you will have lots to give. When you ask about swords being changed into plowshares, ask yourself why you want to hold onto your swords, and why you want to keep your spears. Then you will understand what it is that God will make right upon his return. It will be a hard time, and a difficult time, mainly because it will involve us having everything returned to where it should have been from the beginning, and confronting that it was our sins that stopped it from being there. That's why Advent is a penitential season, not a joyful one. It's a time to reflect on our sins, on why ther is war on earth, why we have rules for wars, why we defend and protect our property and why we have so much more than everyone else. When Jesus returns, and confronts you for your sins, will you let him take them away, or will you defend them as not being sins. That is the big question about swords nd plowshares. Do you want Jesus to make everything right? Do you want a course correction? Or are you comfy being rich, happy and full of yourself?
He is the prince of peace. He will make peace for eternity. The question is, for all of us, where do you align yourself with what he will do? Do you welcome him as king, or will you insist that you have nothing to forgive?
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