The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
Isaiah 2:1-5
2 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;
all the nations shall stream to it.
3 Many 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.
4 He 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.
5 O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord!
My sermon from the First Sunday of Advent (November 30, 2025) on Isaiah 2:1-5.
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In early October at the New York City Comic Con, journalist David Harper asked Hayden Sherman – the current artist of Absolute Wonderwoman and Batman: Dark Patterns – why they loved comics. Hayden responded with – “Easy answer – they’re fun.” He, though, kept going and I’m going to quote his entire response in full. “The longer answer [is] – all different forms of visual storytelling have their inherent excellences – the thing they accomplish that another medium can’t. Film has the joy of a moving image that passes you by, jump scares, all these different things – different tools you get through film. Picture books – … have more limited visuals, a little more text per page, and there’s more of an expansive quality to it [through] the image selection and the choices the illustrator has to make. There’s games where you [get to] interact – [there’s just] all these different ways of having visual stories. Comics are unique because it allows us the breadth to break up a scene. There’s [the kind of] intentionality …you might associate with animation or film but it’s broken down in such a way that you can hold onto individual moments. And so much of the joy of comics is the ability to linger [which] other mediums don’t give you. We do have a pause button so you can pause a show you[‘re] watch[ing] but…. It’s hard to appreciate it [before]… it’s gone. But in a comic you have the artist’s voice and vision trying to find that key moment, the key sequence, the key moments within that sequence and the reader is able to appreciate each [one] of them individually…. There’s this singular relationship with time that comics have that I [Hayden] find enthralling.” Now I realize not everyone here is a giant fan of comic books but I do think we all know what it’s like to linger. When we find ourselves living within a moment of joy and happiness, we do everything we can to linger within it by either focusing all our senses towards it or taking out our phone trying to capture it. There are other times, though, when the lingering we do breaks our hearts because there’s sadness that feels like it will never end. The full impact of lingering is deeply connected to the prayers we offer since we want God to keep us close to the good and transform all other kinds of lingering into something new. Lingering has a habit of letting anxiety, contentment, joy, and worry find a place within our souls. And while we might not know how to move beyond whatever we’re lingering in, today’s reading from the book of Isaiah invites us to notice who is lingering there with us too.
The book of Isaiah is, I think, a biblical book that knows what it means to linger. Within its pages we witness a community living through incredible highs, devastating lows, and everything in between. The words within Isaiah contain spoken reflections by a prophet who lived more than 700 years before Jesus as well as reflections by a community who used those words to ponder what was happening to them nearly two centuries later. Chapters 1 through 39 of Isaiah are, most likely, linked to a prophet named Isaiah, son of Amoz, who from 742 BCE through 701 BCE watched the Assyrian Empire destroy 10 out of the 12 tribes of Israel and then besiege the city of Jerusalem. Chapters 40-55 were from maybe 150 years later when those who remembered Isaiah’s words while exiled from Jerusalem by the empire who destroyed the Assyrians noticed the Persians were coming from the east. When the Jewish community were allowed by the conquering Persian Empire to return to Jerusalem, the work of rebuilding their life together after their long exilic journey were fleshed out in the final 10 chapters of the book. Isaiah, in its own way, is also a kind of comic book since we’re told at the start of chapter 2 that Isaiah saw a word concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Isaiah the prophet preached during the reign of four different kings in Judah whose lingering with God varied in a variety of ways. The first, Uzziah, was described as strong and prosperous, the template that the later kings tried to copy and return to. Those who followed, however, struggled with both Jotham and Ahaz changing their minds, values, and practices while attempting to “win” at whatever challenge came their way. At the end of Isaiah’s ministry, the king Hezekiah was seen as strong, becoming one of the very few leaders the Bible actually likes. Throughout this period, though, the kingdom struggled since the shadow of the Assyrian Empire covered them. The leaders and the people tried to find their way through the various crises that came their way, placing their trust in whatever army, wealth, or power they could build up. They assumed what would keep them safe was if they, and no one else, could inflict their will on others. The key sequence, in their eyes, to being good, faithful, and peaceful was by being strong so no one could push them around. Yet when a different voice used words painting a picture challenging their comfort, pride, and point of view, they chose to linger on what they knew rather than with the One who already knew them.
That’s why, I think, a big chunk of Isaiah feels harsh and judgmental. Its words were meant to hold us accountable for the ways we refuse to seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow. We choose to linger in the status quo because we’re afraid of what we might lose and others gain if God’s promises really came true. Isaiah, though, does more than bombard us with the messiness of life. He also reveals the promise we get to linger with instead. God does not leave it to us to figure the key sequence and moments for our own salvation. God chooses to show us how there’s so much more we get to linger in. When God sits at the center of who we are, the practice of life is fully changed. The old rules of who has value, who doesn’t, and who is part of what God is doing in the world no longer applies. And while we might imagine we have the power and ability to put God at the center of our lives and our communities, God knows what we try we often turn god into something that looks like us instead. So that’s why God, in Jesus, lingered in the lives we actually live. Jesus isn’t afraid to call us out and hold us accountable while showing how being cared for and loved is something that is truly holy and strong. Jesus refused to let our love of glory, power, and violence make up the entirety of our story. Jesus, like the season of Advent and the book of Isaiah, chooses – instead – to linger. We want, I think, for all our joyful experiences this holiday season to linger deep in our souls. Yet when we find ourselves held by a sorrow, grief, and pain that just doesn’t go away, we’re invited to trust that our future doesn’t only depend on us. Our attempts at making every moment into something momentous by filling it with the sound of jiggling bells forgets the ringing Isaiah heard and saw were the hammers hitting anvils as they turned the weapons we build to defend our way of life into something that nurtures life instead. In baptism and through faith, what we hold onto is the promise that God is for us and for the world. And since our God chooses to linger here, we are also lingering in a holy and eternal tomorrow that is already on its way.
Amen.