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The Mountain of the Lord Isaiah 2:1-5 Sometimes I feel discouraged. It’s discouraging and depressing to read and see the reports of violence here, there, and seemingly everywhere. All of the reports of personal and individual violence in our own communities, and throughout our nation. Young students using violence to express their disagreement with government policy in France, and even in The Netherlands. Violence – in The Netherlands? A teenager going on a killing spree in Finland. Violence – in Finland? Ongoing bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan, bombings and complete political upheaval in Pakistan, and the never-ending sagas of violence and hatreds in Palestine, Israel – Jerusalem. Yes, Jerusalem, a city divided into neighborhoods of folks who can’t stand to be in each other’s company, who hate each other. The prophet Isaiah, were he to come around today, would be very depressed to see that not a great deal has changed in Jerusalem over the course of several thousand years! Prophets are associated with words of doom and gloom. We forget that it’s also the prophets who bring us magnificent words of hope, as is the case with the passage from Isaiah 2:1-5. His beloved Jerusalem is a place of violence and corruption, run by power hungry and evil leaders. (We don’t have any such folks nowadays – do we?) The prophet is speaking to his own people, to the people whom he loves, and to a people loved by God. These are people hungry for words of hope, living in the midst of a time and place which offers little good news. You see, these are people who are discouraged, for their world is one of violence - seemingly everywhere. It is to such people, such eager and receptive people that the prophet Isaiah proclaims: In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills. (2) Can’t you just see the faces of the people in Jerusalem all those many years ago, full of that eagerness to hear more of this good news, this great news? They press in on the prophet and demand that he tell them more, and so he continues: all the nations shall stream to it! Stream to it – can’t you just feel the movement of the people, from everywhere, excitedly climbing and clambering to that mountaintop? More, give us more, Isaiah! God shall judge between the nations – they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (4) Does it get any better than that? Please God, the oft discouraged people plead, bring it on – now! We’re ready! No more killing, no more killing in the name of God. Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! God’s kingdom come, God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!  - Pastor Piet - Dec. 2, 2007, First Sunday of Advent