Old Testament: Isaiah 2:1-5
1The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2In 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; all the nations shall stream to it. 3Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; 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. 5O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
When will this day come? Swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. We could update that with today’s words, couldn’t we? Guns into rakes, tanks into combines, aircraft carriers into cruise ships.
When will this day come?
The light of the Lord will bring this about.
This is a repeat from an blog entry earlier this year.
One of my favorite hymns is “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light.” It is a song that lifts my heart, and finds hope in the midst of darkness.
In the midst of darkness and brokenness and evil in our world, all we can do is sing.
And songs can be powerful. A song that was instrumental in the destruction of the Berlin wall took place in Leipzig, Germany. In the months that led up to that incredible event, people gathered to sing and to pray.
Gathering on Monday evenings by candlelight around St. Nikolai church – the church where Bach composed so many of his cantatas – they would sing, and over two months their numbers grew from a little more than a thousand people to more than three hundred thousand, over half the citizens of the city, singing songs of hope and protest and justice, until their song shook the powers of their nation and changed the world.
Sometime after the fall, a journalist asked one of the commanders of the East German secret police why they hadn’t crushed these protests like that had so many others. He replied, “We had no contingency plans for song.”
Evil has no contingency for song. Darkness has no contingency for Light.
I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light
Song by Kathleen Thomerson
I want to walk as a child of the light I want to follow Jesus God sent the stars to give light to the world The star of my life is Jesus
In Him, there is no darkness at all The night and the day are both alike The Lamb is the light of the city of God Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus
I want to see the brightness of God I want to look at Jesus Clear sun of righteousness, shine on my path And show me the way to the Father
In Him, there is no darkness at all The night and the day are both alike The Lamb is the light of the city of God Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus
I'm looking for the coming of Christ I want to be with Jesus When we have run with patience the race We shall know the joy of Jesus
In Him, there is no darkness at all The night and the day are both alike The Lamb is the light of the city of God Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus
Here is a video of the hymn.
Let us pray: I want to walk as a child of the light - I want to follow Jesus. I want to see the brightness of God - I want to look at Jesus. I'm looking for the coming of Christ - I want to be with Jesus. Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen