Gather, grow, go (Is. 2:1–5)

This Advent season, we are going to journey through Isaiah. In the New Testament, no prophet is quoted more than Isaiah. Today, we hear of a vision that Isaiah saw. It tells us about the mountain of the Lord, the ways of the Lord, and the light of the Lord.

Introduction

You have probably noticed the blank wall behind me. Our old mission statement—which I haven’t been able to get a consistent story about when and how it was introduced, and which I’m sure you can all speak to me from memory—is no longer current. Since we adopted a new set of statements at the meeting last Sunday, the old one no longer applies. We start again from a clean slate, or a clean wall.

The usefulness of mission and vision statements is debatable. Many of them seem to say the same thing. They are often quite vague. They often get forgotten and after getting excited about the new statements, they disappear, and no one notices. The old one was hung on the wall (I assume) to avoid that outcome and keep it at the front of our minds. I’ll let you be the judge of whether that worked or not.

Mission statements do have some benefits, which are why Vision Team was convinced that we needed to create new ones. When they are well-written and used properly, they can help to focus a congregation on its core tasks. They can remind a community why it was established and why it continues to exist. They can help us to return to our heart when we get distracted by other less important matters. These reasons are why we bother to renew them.

Regardless of what has happened in the past, we have a new set of statements now. They consist of a tagline and three short statements (mission, vision, and action).

The main inspiration and the clearest definition of who we are is in the tagline: gather, grow, go. The Christian Church, and this congregation as a small part of it, exists to do these things. It exists not just to be, but to do. We are a community that acts.

The mountain of the Lord

2:1 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

2 In the last days

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
    as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
    and all nations will stream to it.

Isaiah 2:1,2

Isaiah lived in a time when there was one worship building that mattered more than any other. There were local synagogues around the place, but the pinnacle of Jewish worship and the place of God’s presence was the temple in Jerusalem.

As we enter the season of Advent, we prepare for the coming of the Messiah, the promised Saviour and Lord of all, Jesus Christ. It is Jesus that became the transition point between Jewish temple worship to worldwide Christian worship as we know and experience it today. We can only have access to God and be in his presence because of Jesus.

What makes him so special? How can be make such a difference to how human beings relate with God? What gives him the authority to come in and change everything?

During his time on earth, Jesus physically entered the temple and literally turned the tables.

2:18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

John 2:18–22

Jesus could take away the need for a physical temple because he became that place. He come to this earth to be the very presence of God in a human being. God established his holy mountain as the highest of mountains when he sent his Son, who became the head of the church, which is his body, Paul says (Co. 1:18). “…and all nations will stream to it.”

Gather, grow, go. The church, and this congregation, is called to gather in God’s presence under Christ, the head of the church. All nations, all people, are drawn to him and, therefore, to the church. This relationship with Christ is created at our baptism and is sustained by the Lord’s Supper.

St Martin’s exists to gather.

The ways of the Lord

3 Many peoples will come and say,

‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
    so that we may walk in his paths.’
The law will go out from Zion,
    the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Isaiah 2:3

It’s all well and good to come together, but the purpose for doing so is incredibly important. We gather, grow, and go. We gather to grow.

The temple was as much a place of teaching as a place of worship. There were priests responsible for worship practices and there were rabbis responsible for teaching the word of the Lord, or the Law.

In that sense, the church is a continuation of the temple or an updated version. We gather to worship God, be in his presence and be served by Him. We also gather to hear God’s word together and grow in understanding and in faith. We gather to grow.

“Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord. He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.” The rabbis did the teaching, but they only taught what was in God’s word. Therefore, it was God who did the teaching through his servants.

“So, neither he who plants, nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” (1 Co. 3:7)

We talk about “planting seeds” all the time. A subtle mention of the hope you have in Jesus. A sly invitation to a friend to come to church some time. We scatter seed all over the place, but we trust in God to bring about the growth.

To scatter seed, we need God to plant his word deep within us. We need him to sustain that seed in us and make it grow. Only then can we scatter some seed of our own. God wants us to be ministers of the Gospel in collaboration, not isolation. We learn from each other, support each other, and we grow together.

We gather to grow.

The light of the Lord

4 He will judge between the nations
    and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into ploughshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
    nor will they train for war any more.

5 Come, descendants of Jacob,
    let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Isaiah 2:4,5

This is a vision of a perfect world, which can only come about when God comes to sort us out. Like a loving parent who has to settle arguments between their children, which sometimes takes firmness and dealing out some consequences, God will judge the nations of the earth.

When that day comes, there will be no need for war anymore. The current state of the world with its conflicts and wars is no exception. I am certain that there has never been a time in the history of the world where there wasn’t a war between two countries somewhere. We can’t help but argue and fight each other.

God’s will for the world is complete peace. Military peace. Political peace. Spiritual peace.

By our baptism, God has brought us out of darkness and into the light. We are children of the light, so walk in that light.

The church should be a place of light, no darkness. It should be a community that shows people what the light of Jesus does for people. It should show the world the difference that the light of Christ makes in our own lives.

We gather and we grow, but then we go. The church is not a lighthouse in that we don’t stubbornly stand on the coast and wait for those in the dark to come to us. We go out to them, taking the life-giving Word of God with us.

Nationally, the national statistic for “no religion” is just under 40%. In Mount Gambier, that stat is 52%. At least half of the people in this postcode have likely never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If they have, they haven’t been convinced yet.

Gather, grow, go. These three verbs are equal in importance and feed into each other. We participate in each of them, but it is God that does the work. He gathers us. He brings about growth in us. He goes with us.

In the name of Christ, who was sent into this world to save us. Amen.