The Peacable Kingdom
The Peaceable Kingdom
We’ve just heard that wonderful messianic passage from Isaiah 11 in which we see a vision for the new peaceable kingdom of the coming age - when the wolf will live with the lamb and the cow and the bear will be friends. Such a telling and amazing hope for justice and universal peace! Not only will our human conflicts and struggles be resolved but even the ancient enmity of the wild beasts - and all creation will be transformed. What a stunning vision of hope!
The pleasant feelings we all seem to have when we are trusted by wild animals (though not many of us would be brave enough to enter a cage with a lion or tiger!) may be an indication that in the heart of every person is a longing for the harmony that once reigned in the Garden of Eden. In fact, the Bible describes not only that lost paradise in the opening chapters of Genesis, but also a future paradise in the prophecy of Isaiah and in the final chapters of the Bible in the Book of Revelation. And that may give us comfort in a world torn apart by violence, by wars and conflicts in all continents, by the rape of nature causing threats to the survival of many species such as the Orang-Utan. I gather that there are over 17,000 endangered species presently listed.
During most of recorded history, it has been the Christian religion that has provided the world with visions of a peaceable kingdom in which all of nature lives in harmony. And orthodox Christianity has been behind most of humankind's organized efforts to encourage humanity to live at peace with each other and to compel society to treat animals kindly. Christian beliefs try to provide some of the answers to the question, "Why does disharmony characterize the relationship between God and man, between fellow human beings, between humanity and animals, and even plants?" One such answer is the account of the Fall after the stories of the creation of the world. It’s significant that as soon as Adam and Eve are expelled from the garden, life gets tough and then the fratricide follows as Cain and Abel squabble over the inheritance of the earth.
Some of you may have seen one of a series of remarkable paintings by an American artist called Edward Hicks (1780-1849), an itinerant Quaker preacher who lived during the first half of the nineteenth century. He sought to express his religious beliefs in his art, and his most famous work is The Peaceable Kingdom, of which he produced almost one hundred versions.
When this Quaker artist painted his first Peaceable Kingdom painting, just before 1820, it is unlikely that he could have foreseen the role of the resulting series of images. He struggled as a painter, facing the opposition of his own religious ‘friends’ who thought him too decorative. There were protestations against "such pandering to vanity, when (according to the Quaker tenets of plainness and simplicity) he should be preaching against it". Yet Hicks had to paint in such a way to earn money. It is during this period in the artist's life the Peaceable Kingdom paintings evolve. The schism forming within the Society of Friends, and a growing facility and success in his painting produced in Hicks an overwhelming desire to paint a sermon that would unite the Quaker factions through a message of peace and love. This was the denomination that had created a Quaker state with its capital city of Philadelphia, the city of ‘brotherly love’. If they could not resolve their own differences then how could they preach a gospel of justice and peace to their fellow American citizens? The Peaceable Kingdom became iconic. Sadly within 30 years the nation was tearing itself apart in a bloody civil war. For half a century afterwards, despite its best endeavours the American nation found its armed forces in action in Europe as well as in the Americas.
There is a classic scene in the film The African Queen where a grubby sailor played by Humphrey Bogart is invited to high tea in an English missionary’s home. This sailor is addressed very formally by his last name, “Mr. Ornack.” As Mr. Ornack, dirty, sweat-stained, and no doubt smelling rather ripe, is holding his tea cup, his stomach begins to gurgle. After several repetitions of this noise, Mr. Ornack shrugs his shoulders and says, “Can’t help it…it is just natural.” The spinster sister of the missionary, prim and proper, who has been trying to ignore these rude noises, says, “Nature, Mr. Ornack, is what we were on the put on this earth to overcome.” Although the sister speaks in a rather stuffy way, what she says is right. Peace comes from a re-ordering, a re-fashioning—a transformation from what we call natural. We are to set aside lionish anger and wolfish violence and bearish grabbiness. That kind of peace can only come from God, the Creator, who seeks a new creation. Peace comes from God but it is not static or even stable. Peace is a struggle rather than a place of rest. It is an active endeavour on the part of all those who seek the Peaceable Kingdom.
Edward Hicks kept painting the Peaceable Kingdom. In some of the later paintings, the animals become more agitated. Some show the leopard and the lion with a growl and extended claws. Hicks, as a peace-loving Quaker, found that his own church was split by divisions and squabbles, hurts and factionalism. His beloved Quaker church was split; there was fighting over how to interpret Scripture…there were disagreements about lifestyles. He was heartsick over the division in the church. Doesn’t it sound rather contemporary? So, some of his later paintings show the animals in more aggressive stances…showing teeth and ready to pounce. Sadly, even the animals in the peaceable kingdom show signs of resuming their old ways.
Peace comes from God…peace is a struggle…and peace is possible. Early on, Edward Hicks added the scene in the background. What you see is a group of native Americans talking to some Europeans - a great event in the work of early Quakers in colonial America, as William Penn, their founder, is making a treaty with the Indians in the area that would come to be known as “Penn’s Woods” or Pennsylvania. His treaty was unique: it stressed mutual respect and the welfare of all parties, unlike so many of the treaties made with Indians, which were about how go grab as much land as possible. William Penn treated them with a respect and mutuality that continues to be remarkable. Peace is possible. But it comes at the cost of not seeking to dominate.
The old protest song from the Vietnam War era of the Sixties said: “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” How do we give peace a chance? It begins as we open ourselves up to God. New desires that reshape the lion or leopard or wolf or bear or snake that is in us. Edward Hick kept painting the Peaceable Kingdom because our desires keep getting in the way of peace. Here is the good news: the peaceable kingdom comes as we live what we pray: Not my will but Thy will be done.
Peace begins with God and continues in the struggle. Recall that Jesus once said to his disciples, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Jesus brought struggle. Recall those words of Jesus in the Upper Room, when he said to his disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27). Here is the contradiction: peace is not rest but a struggle. Where is peace to be found? Peace is found in the struggle for love overcoming hate; joy facing despair; generosity confronting greed; letting go of self in the face of self-centeredness. Peace is a struggle. The animal in us says: Fight or flight! Fight: Get mad, rant and rave, take vengeance, get your pound of flesh. Flight: Hide in your room, in your work, in your books, in your playing, in the drugs of your choice. Run away. Edward Hick kept painting the Peaceable Kingdom because it is never a once and or all proposition: the animal in us that only knows fight or flight. God intends more.
So let us remember with gratitude this day those who have paid the price for securing peace and security for us and others. Let us pray for those peoples of Afghanistan and Darfur and Palestine who still seek a lasting peace which will enable them to rebuild their lives. And let peace begin with us as we seek the Peaceable Kingdom that Isaiah holds out not as a naive hope but a realisable objective if we seek transformation.
