Walt Brueggemann translates the vision of the coming "peaceable kingdom" revealed through the prophetic poetry of Isaiah:
Creation will be so thoroughly reordered that a new sense of normal shall be established, "the birth of a new innocence in which trust, gentleness, and friendship are possible and appropriate."
The text is offered to inspire our imaginations about what is possible with God (particularly among humans) and to open us to the promise of God's continuing creative power. What was begun in Eden will yet be made whole.
Brueggemann, a premier Old Testament scholar and United Church of Christ pastor, reflects on the meaning of such a vision as it points forward to the Coming Savior:
This is a somewhat different sense of Jesus than many of us were given in childhood: " . . .insofar as this text, with its clear messianic flavor, can be drawn as an illumination of Jesus, it is a reminder that Jesus cannot be reduced to privatistic salvation or to sacramental operations, but that Jesus was received, celebrated, and eventually crucified for his embodiment of this vision of social possibility."
Hi Scott I can't seem to figure out how to blog it won't let me on. I even had Justin try to help. I love the "Vision" of the "Peaceable Kingdom" with the new sense of "normal". When you are in touch with Jesus in your life and are able to listen and do what he asks even if your scared, you can see and be in that place of "P/K". The innocence of childhood. You cannot take that away from a persons heart but we give it away sometimes in our struggles to live and be a part of "this world". I know some people are crucified for their belief in the "vision" literally but I think to some extent all of us who try to embrace the vision are celebrated yet crucified, either by our own doings or society that we live in. God Bless, Charl
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