Isaiah lived in a time of crisis and fear!  We live in a time of crisis and fear.  Where shall we turn?  Whom shall we trust?

For Isaiah, the great longing is for new leadership.  The kings and heads of state had blundered and led the people in the wrong direction.  Isaiah’s vision is of ‘the world turned upside down’ – just as Jesus’ words and stories often move us to turn our first reactions to him upside down. 

Isaiah sees a world where enemies become friends; where those whom we fear no longer seem a threat; and where God’s way leads us “not to hurt or destroy in all God’s holy mountain.”

The earth – this planet – is God’s – and it is holy.  Yet, fear pervaded people in Isaiah’s day – as fear pervades many of us today.  How to live in a world where fear is rampant – that is our challenge.  Isaiah gives us a vision – and we need a vision – a vision of another way of being.

I am reminded of my experience in Nicaragua during the Contra War.  Our mantra was the hymn, “Be Not Afraid.”  Towards the end of the trip, we were high in the mountains – planning to take a rocky road north to a beaten and battered village called Patio Grande.  Contra mercenaries were hiding in the forest.  We knew that.  We could be attacked.  We knew that.  We might not ever get home.  We knew that.  But we had solidarity – and we had a vision. 

And after an evening of sharing concerns, we got up on a beautiful, sunny morning, piled into the back of an old dump truck and sang our way up the mountain.  From ‘fear’ the night before, a sense of compassion and hope transformed us in the morning. 

God’s way of justice was in our vision, in our songs, and in our faces.  I have never been the same.