Swords into Plowshares- 11/27/22

Sermon 2022.11.27 "Hope: Swords into Plowshares” (Isaiah 2:1-5), M. Newheart, FBCEG

When I think of our Old Testament scripture for today, I think of this sculpture, which appears in the United Nations sculpture garden in New York City. The sculpture is entitled “Let Us Beat Swords into Ploughshares.” It was sculpted by Ukrainian sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetech and was given to the UN in 1959 by the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

What do you see? I see a man who is buff. He’s been working out at Gold’s Gym or God’s Gym or somewhere. I see the curve of the sword. I notice that no “man parts” are visible. I see the curve of the sword into the plowshare, which is the part of the plow used for plowing. I see the curve of his toes, the bridge in the background, the point of the base, the sidewalk leading out. And there is that cloud. yes, the cloud. It’s almost like he has descended from the cloud. What do you have to say to this guy? What does he say to us? How does this guy interpret the scripture? He is naked, except for something covering his man parts. We see no signs of nationality or ethnicity, though we recognize him as a man of European descent. What name would you give him? Since his creator was originally from Ukraine, I want to call him Yuki. Hi Yuki.    

As is perhaps obvious so far, I want to take a little different tack in my sermon today. I think that it was because we didn't have Bible study this past Wednesday, and I was adrift, and I did not know what to do, so I went out on my own. Don't worry: Bible study will meet this week, so I will get back on my game next week.

            My thesis is this: We hope to heal with our words. Through our words, from our words. We hope to heal with our words. How can we get that from this guy? He was sculpted by a Soviet, who was also a Ukrainian. A Ukrainian! Do you know what is going on in Ukraine right now? There is a war going on. Yesterday’s New York Times headline read, “At Least 10 Die as Shells Rattle Kherson, Forcing the City’s Hospitals to Evacuate” (p. A6). Oh that Putin would beat his artillery into farming implements.

            So we pair this sculpture with our scripture for today: Isaiah 2:1-5. A parallel appears in Micah 4:1-4. And the reverse appears in Joel 3:10, where plowshares are beaten into swords. It is important to understand the context. Isaiah sees the mountain—Mount Zion, the Temple mount—as the site of the “eschatological pilgrimage of the nations.” Now that’s a mouthful, isn’t it? “Eschatological” means end-times, “pilgrimage” means taking a journey, usually for religious purposes, and “nations” refers to the Gentiles, that is, non-Jews. Isaiah “saw” that at the end of time all the nations would stream to Mount Zion and believe. They would become believers in the Jewish God. This would happen at the temple mountain. The “mountain” is an important place for biblical people. Moses received the law at Mount Sinai; Jesus delivered his sermon on the mount, and God would bring the nations to Mount Zion to judge between them. There they would beat their swords into plowshares.     

            What is our sword? If you take the “s” off the beginning of “sword” and put it on the end, you will have “words,” and our words can wound, maim, and kill—at least metaphorically, but they also bring together, sustain, and give life. So, imagine that this man is taking his wounding sword and beating it into nurturing words, words that can plow the ground and plant seeds of hope. We are hopeful about seeds. They are small things that grow big. So can our words be: they can plant doubt or faith, distance or closeness, cool or warmth. How are you beating your sword? How are you transforming it into words? Remember what we used to say to our toddlers when they attempted to take the ball from their playmates: “Use your words.” And they eventually did, maybe not then but as they grew. They learned to beat that act of aggression into words of warmth. “May I have that ball or that toy or that book or that car when you’re done?” And they learned that you can catch a lot more flies with honey than with vinegar, and that “a soft answer turneth away wrath” (Prov. 15:1). But sometimes they forget, and sometimes we forget. We sometimes speak harshly toward one another, or we speak behind people’s back, or we say nothing and let the anger build up inside and churn and churn and then explode.

            But this Ukrainian is giving us the naked truth: He says, “Let us beat swords into ploughshares.” The scripture says, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares,” that is, the nations and many peoples. This is all going to take place on the mountain of the Lord’s house, that is, Mount Zion, where the temple is—or was, before it was destroyed by those pesky Romans back in 70--a couple of generations after Jesus. We have talked about that in previous Sundays.

            The prophet Isaiah believed that “in days to come,” every nation was going to come to Mount Zion, where many peoples and nations would serve the Lord God. And they would beat instruments of war into instruments of peace for agricultural use. And they would sing the song, “Ain’t gonna study war no more, ain’t gonna study war no more, ain’t gonna study war no more.” And they would sing it in four-part harmony as they were plowing their fields and pruning their crops. That’s what that guy from Ukraine is going to do.

            It’s interesting that the title of the sculpture is “Let Us Beat Swords into Ploughshares.” “Let us.” Isaiah says, “They will.” Those of us of a certain age might say, “The Soviets in 1959 at the height of the cold war were saying, ‘Let us beat swords into ploughshares.’ No way! The Soviet Union is gone, though. GONE, G-O-N-E. Russia now exists, and Ukraine, which are now at war with one another. And we pray for Russia, we pray for Ukraine.  

            In the New Testament, James writes, “Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?” (4:1) The war around us comes from the war within us. Let me say that again the war around us comes from the war within us. The poet Rilke said, “The only journey is the journey within.” Our healing we desire, then, often comes from self-inflicted wounds. We cut ourselves, we wound ourselves. Or someone cuts us, But it’s OK. We have experienced healing, we are experiencing healing, we will experience healing. Tell the story. Tell it all, brother! Tell it all, sister! Tell the story. The story of healing that you have gotten, the story of healing that you are now getting, the story of healing that you are now receiving.

Healing is coming, friends, it’s happening right now. Can you feel it? Can you hear it? Smell it? Taste it? See it? Believe in it? It’s happening. You can taste it in the pumpkin bread. Mine didn’t last long. You can see it in the sculpture, of a man I will call Sammy Soviet, who is beating, beating, beating his sword into a ploughshare. I remember a folk song from the 60s called, “If I Had a Hammer.” Pete Seeger wrote it back in 1949, and Peter, Paul, and Mary made a hit in the 1960s. You probably know it:

If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning

I'd hammer in the evening, all over this land

I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out a warning

I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land

--

Well I got a hammer and I got a bell

And I got a song to sing all over this land

It's the hammer of justice, it's the bell of freedom

It's a song about love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land.

Let us take up our hammer of justice and, with Yuki, hammer all over God’s land.

And all God’s people said, “Amen.”