Advent 3: Desert Greening

 Last week we explored Isaiah 11 through the eyes of painter Edward Hicks and his favourite subject, the Peaceable Kingdom. If you recall, he painted Isaiah’s words: the wolf living with the lamb, the cow feeding with the bear; leopard and goat, lion and ox, lying down together; children playing amongst vipers and not being hurt. We reflected on the complete change in animal nature. And if animal nature can change – is there a possibility – a hope – that human nature can change too?

 

Fast forward from chapter 11 to chapter 35 of Isaiah. Isaiah has returned to the same theme, but this time rather than change in animal nature, the focus is on ecological change. Isaiah takes readers to the desert – barren, wild, and windswept; inhospitable for travelers and a harsh environment for anything that tries to grow.

Isaiah writes of a changed ecology - where fresh water runs through the desert, burning sand turns into refreshing pools; and the growth of plants like crocus cover the ground with abundant blossoms. Dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus, it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. 

 

Deserts.

Dryland. Parched places. The barren, the wild, the windswept. Inhospitable and harsh environments. 

The world has an alarming number of physical deserts - approximately 32 million square kilometres of desert.

The world has an alarming landmass of physically barren and inhospitable land due to human actions of open pit mining, tailing ponds, nuclear meltdowns, toxic poisoning.

The world has dangerous unusable tracks of land from war that have left 110 million landmines in the ground.

The world has other deserts too. Deserts that are not physical land specific places. There are deserts of trauma, grief, loneliness; climate anxiety, marginalization, poverty, debt, famine – of all kinds physical, emotional, relational, spiritual.  Deserts expand in the situations and circumstances that have humans experience abandonment; feelings of emptiness; a dullness or boredom in every day living.

 

‘The other deserts’ are affecting our lives in pronounced ways.

 

For a month now the Hallmark channel has been showing Christmas movies. Many of the movies have scenes placed in Christmas markets. Like the Evergreen Festival on the waterfront in Halifax, the staged market areas have wooden kiosks with fronts that open. Kiosks hand out warm drinks, provide Christmas cookies, display ornaments and other crafts for sale, and may include a wrapping service.  The areas are strung with lights, festooned in greenery, and filled with live holiday music. Seating areas are provided around fire installations and welcoming photo vignettes engage visitors. People in the Hallmark movies are seen as happy and smiling – full of joy, peace, and goodwill.

 

 

This fascination with ‘Evergreen Christmas markets’ has dramatically increased in the past few years. I wonder if it is connected to ‘the other deserts’ we find ourselves living in?

 

Are the Christmas markets and the Evergreen Festivals an attempt to reclaim the desert or at least momentarily stop the desert from spreading? Creating beauty and ambience, a place for people to gather and be a community; a place to connect with the smell of nature and the warmth and glow of fire; to draw on memories, nostalgia; offer a few moments of comfort, hygge – where the spirit is lifted.

 

‘Desert greening’ is an actual thing.  It is human action in reclaiming desert areas. It takes patience and time, using multiple techniques and expertise. Greening deserts is ecological change that has the potential to return life and biodiversity to the world. It is also possible that reclamation of desert can solve the world’s water, energy, and food crisis.

 

As church, not all churches, but this church – we practice what the Evergreen Festivals and Christmas Markets are trying to do – pushing back the desert:  offering hope and comfort; creating an ambience of peace by candlelight; gathering community, around a table, coffee fellowship; offering kiosks that include scripture stories, life application, theatre, music; and if anyone wants a present wrapped – there is a crew well practiced from wrapping shoeboxes for the Mission to Seafarers.

 

The trouble is there is a desert, and our work in here, as good and as healing as it is to us, will not draw in much of the world around us.  The world has tired of a church -in the broad sense of church- that is though of as irrelevant, ineffective, stogie, having caused more harm than good. And their arguments are fair.

 

 

What would happen if we set our sights on offering a different kind of Christmas Market or Evergreen Festival, based on chapter 35 of Isaiah. Imagine kiosks where one is given sight- free to the visitor optometry appointments and if needed free glasses. A kiosk with a hearing technician with free hearing exams and free to the visitor hearing aids. A kiosk with fittings and free to the visitor braces, canes, walkers, or wheelchairs. A kiosk with a speech pathologist for free assessments and therapy.

 

And let us not forget ‘the other deserts.’ ...and this time I mean us.

How many centuries have people prayed the words of Isaiah? That the deaf hear, the blind see, the mute speak? Imagine kiosks – that open ears, eyes, and mouths – changing human nature:

The Deaf- changed -to hear the cries of marginalized and poor

The Blind- changed -to see the plight of others and injustices

The Mute – changed – to have mouths open to speak out, speak up, advocate

Once you see injustice, you can’t un-see it. Once you hear the cries of the poor, you cannot unhear them. If your mouth is opened, you cannot stop speaking out.

This kind of kiosk changes human nature; it is relevant and effective, and far from stogie.

As one takes their leave from Isaiah’s Evergreen Christmas Market, the hand-painted country-crafted sign at the exit encourages taking the market-spirit with them. It is God’s message to us through Isaiah’s hand – to face the desert and work at desert greening. The sign reads:

 

Strengthen – the weak hands

Make firm- the feeble knees

Say to the fearful – be strong,

 

May a change in human nature, work through us, work through me.

Amen.