US Catholic Bishops Speak Out | Song: Maybe Stars

Today's post is from the Southern New England Conference UCC Starting with Scripture Blog. I wrote it several weeks ago and had forgotten all about it!

I'm safely home and recovered from travels, spending a lot of time getting caught up on things set aside. And this weekend I'll be quilting with a seminary friend.

Take time to catch up. Take time to be with those you love, and to do what you love doing.

-Liz

Imagining the Peaceable Kingdom

I love the image of a new heaven and a new earth in Isaiah 65:17-25. "They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat." And "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together;
the lion shall eat straw like the ox."

The image is so different than the story I heard growing up of hanging out on streets of gold after we die. Instead this is about abundant, safe, and rewarding life on earth.

It is important to remember that these words come as reassurance to a people whose lives are completely turned upside. They are returning from their time of exile and there is no order, no certainty, no known path ahead. This is the end of the time of destruction and the promise for the future is over-the-top bounty.

Not the bounty of excess, but of ordinary satisfaction. People will live long, without illnesses to end their lives early. People will have houses and jobs, and will not pass on their crops to a landlord, but get to eat their own harvest. It's a pretty radical promise that the wealthy will not take the workers produce for their own well-being, leaving the workers without enough to eat.

And then the wolf shall lie down with the lamb. Again this is over-the-top peace. It is beyond what we can be imagine. At this stage it's hard to imagine simple kindness in immigration proceedings, but here is God promising that even the animals will find a way to make peace with one another. It's a glorious promise of a Peaceable Kingdom.

Worcester Art Museum has an exhibit of their Peaceable Kingdom (by American folk artist Edward Hicks) and the work of forty-two artists reinterpreting the piece. It's there until February 1, 2026. In most of the pictures the animals getting along are at the forefront, and the people are in the far background, whites and indigenous people finding peace together. This was what the artist could imagine for peace in 1833.

In these times when everything seems up in the air, when people are suffering, when hope seems far away, it is easy to wish that we could go back to what was. Leaving exile and returning home I imagine that the ancient Israelites wanted to find their old homes, government, jobs right where they had left them. But that isn't how it works. We find ourselves scrambling to name what should be true and we feel far behind.

It is the place of the church to imagine what the distant future might be. Rather than images of life-after-death, we are called to paint an image of life after whatever it is that we are part of now. What would good health care look like? What would be a system that would ensure housing for all? What would make it so that all people got a living wage, and the means to have sufficient food? What should be happening with education, with disability services, with gun laws?

There is so much for us to being doing these days. But one of those things is imagining the Peaceable Kingdom. What can we imagine today?

What is your church doing, or thinking about doing these days? How are you being here in your particular place? Just reply to this email to let me know what's happening. ​
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US Roman Catholic Bishops have spoken out about the administration's treatment of immigrants. Interestingly, the describe it as a pastoral, not political statement.

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For more hope for the future, try Bobby Jo Valentine's song "Maybe Stars"

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