Devotion on Isaiah 11:1-11

Devotion
All we have to do is read the newspaper or listen to the news in order to recognize how little peace there is in the world. If we are honest, all we have to do is look into our hearts and lives. Most of us note plenty of internal warfare that we often inflict upon others. Yet, the vision of Isaiah still challenges and inspires us.
That language is that of apocalyptic hope. What is this apocalyptic talk and what are contemporary Christians supposed to do with it?
Apocalyptic language is language about what we might call earth-shattering events. We strain for language to describe those events, those moments when it as if the world tilts on its axis and everything that once was crumbles and something new is born. An earth-shattering event is usually more disrupting and shaking than an earthquake, though I am writing metaphorically. When, in the book of Daniel, or Ezekiel, Jewish writers speak of the moon turning red, the clouds descending, angels gathering Israel, they write of earth-shattering events. They wrote in poetry, which is always better than prose for this sort of active, energetic language pushed to the limit.
They said it in poetry, for only poetry has the power to move us to the depths, to shatter, to tear down and rebuild a world. Such language reveals the true theological significance of these events.
Robert Frost wrote a few verses in which he mused upon the significance of "God's own descent" into our troubled world in the incarnation in which God engaged "in risking spirit in substantiation."

But God's own descent
Into flesh was meant
As a demonstration
That the supreme merit
Lay in risking spirit
In substantiation. (Robert Frost, "Kitty Hawk," In the Clearing [Holt, Rinehardt, 1962], p. 49.)

Apocalyptic visions promise the fulfillment of humanity's deepest desires for a better world. Perhaps one reason why this biblical literature no longer speaks to us is that we are too satisfied with the present, too content with current arrangements! The writer Flaubert spoke of that sad place where we reach our "accomplished desires."

"Our desires, though they often make us restless and unhappy, keep us moving. Perhaps the saddest thing that can happen to us is to arrive at that place where our desires have been accomplished."

Peace exists within the vision God has for our destiny in the kingdom of God, but we do not have to wait for that life as if it were a distant dream. Putting into practice the way of peace will manifest peace in our lives and the world. We will find peace with God, peace with others and peace in our actions – from home to communal life, and far beyond. We will experience a deep, abiding sense within that we know our purpose and that by God’s grace we will live into God’s dreams for us.
How can we keep Jesus the main character in Christmas? Imagine you are a stagehand for Jesus. Your only role is to set things up for Jesus to be seen, heard and experienced. What will you do? How will you focus the spotlight? How will you elevate Jesus? What kind of mood will you create so Jesus is best received? If we were to live as Jesus’ stagehands, how would we build a “set” for peace? How would we live our lives as part of that “set”?