AND HE SHALL BE CALLED
THE PRINCE OF PEACE (Isaiah 6:9)
The Rev. Harold Shepherd, CD, M.A., S.T.M., LL.B., LL.M.,
Ph.D.
Sermon from December 4, 2004
A shoot shall come out from the stump
of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The
spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the
spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD… The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down
with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling
together, and a little child shall lead them… They
will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the
earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the
waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11: 1-2, 6,
9
Today’s reading from the Hebrew Bible looks forward
to the day when peace will rule the nations of the world at
the advent of the Messiah. Knowledge of God will displace
knowledge of war. In an effort to hasten the day when this
vision will be fulfilled, eight Canadian Churches,
including the Anglican Church of Canada, formed the
ecumenical coalition Project Ploughshares in 1977 under the
auspices of the Canadian Council of Churches to promote
peace through research, policy analysis, training and
advocacy. According to its newsletter of the Summer of
2004, “In 2002 the world’s arms suppliers
exported over US $25-billion to recipients around the
world. Two-thirds of these weapons went to nations in the
developing world, where 35 of the world’s 37 armed
conflicts took place in 2002. Besides fuelling conflict,
the international weapons trade exacerbates human rights
violations, repression, and criminal activity and thwarts
sustainable development.” The United Nations
Millennium Declaration established “Millennium
Goals” that include peace, security and disarmament/
poverty eradication/ protecting the environment/ human
rights, democracy and good governance/ protecting the
vulnerable/ and meeting the special needs of Africa in
order to build sustainable peace. According to Kofi Annan,
the Secretary-General of the United Nations, “Every
step taken towards reducing poverty and achieving
broad-based economic growth is a step towards conflict
prevention.” Promoting peace is not just the absence
of war, but the presence of shalom as understood in the
Hebrew Scriptures- the presence of God’s blessing
through access to a minimum standard of living, quality of
life and the support of a compassionate community. The
following is Project Ploughshares understanding of the
Biblical imperative behind promoting peace.
Biblical Principles of Project
Ploughshares
1. The Scriptures witness to the creation of the world by
God who intends that creation reflect the fundamental
harmony we have come to call shalom. We derive our
understanding of security from a vision of peace informed
by the biblical idea of shalom – the ancient
recognition that peace is not simply the absence of war,
but a sustainable state of well-being and of harmony among
people and with nature.
2. God calls us to be peacemakers, to heal a world in
brokenness, and in the deep solidarity of the spirit, to
work for a world in which justice will flourish and peace
abound (Psalms 72:7).
3. God’s intention breaks into our world in Jesus of
Nazareth, who is central to our understanding of peace
through reconciliation, forgiveness, and freedom from
oppression, fear, and conflict. The ancient prophets
heralded Christ’s entry in human history as the
Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). In his Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus outlined the essential elements required for building
the kingdom of justice and peace on earth (Matthew 5:1-12).
Followers of Jesus are called to love their neighbours and
to seek justice for the poor, the disinherited, and the
oppressed (Matthew 25:31-46).
4. God calls us to reconcile neighbours with each other,
and to be instruments in achieving peace and justice in our
world. "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice
and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?"
(Micah 6:8). The peace of God transforms our attitude
towards life and thus we seek to witness to the peace and
justice we have with God.
5. In partnership with God and creation and the power of
the Holy Spirit the church is called to act out God’s
peacemaking in worship, reflection, education, and action.
Shalom is a vision of action, and it demands our commitment
to faithful response. When the writer of 1 Peter called on
the early church to "seek peace and pursue it" (1 Peter
3:11), he was emphasizing that it is not sufficient merely
to seek peace, but that there is a requirement for the
pro-active pursuit of peace as well.
6. A holistic approach to security for people and nature
asserts the indivisibility of development, environment,
human rights, democracy, and peace, and accords with the
Christian understanding that "peace, justice, and the
integrity of creation" are all essential elements of a
sustainable society.
7. The foundation and inspiration of our work in
peacebuilding is the reconciling and renewing life, death,
and resurrection of Christ and Christ’s moral
teaching. The witness of Christ demonstrates that all
people draw life from a single source and are members of
one global community. Christ’s teaching demands that
evil in human society be overcome with good and that
justice and peace be built by means of love and nonviolent
action. What God calls us to is costly unity – a
koinonia – with humanity in which the interests of
our neighbours become our interests.
8. "God shall judge between the nations, and shall decide
for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into
ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks; nation shall
not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn
war any more (Isaiah 2:4).;
I encourage you to visit their website and consult their helpful
documentation.