Transcript:
Once we've made our sphere. Once we've made the tip and forged in the blade, can it ever be anything else? Can our weapons, can our tools of conflict ever be anything else Can our lives ever be anything else? When we are people of conflict, when our words are angry and sharp, can we ever change? I suspect that the prophet Isaiah had been to a blacksmith shop. He knew the answer for the spear that yes, it could be reformed. The metal could be softened again in the fire. The tip could be reshaped. It could be folded over into a pruning hook. The blade could be redone. It could be rehardened. It could be a different kind of tool. No longer a weapon, but something that helped things grow. A pruning hook. Our lives can be changed. We can change. Our hearts that have grown hard can be softened. Our edges that have grown sharp can be redone. We can make new words. I think it's harder for us to change. I know it's harder for me to change than it is for the metal to change. The metal, this sphere, has no will of its own. Whatever it does with these tools, whatever I want it to do, however I want to form it, that's how it will be formed. But for me to change, for us to change, we have to want it. We have to look around and be unhappy with how things are, unsatisfied with conflict. We can be different. We can take our angry words and we can form them into words of peace. We can take the things that we used to say. These people are different from me. They are other, and we can look for similarities. Instead of conflict, we can build compromise. We can build community because I think more than we ever really want conflict, even conflicts we win, we want to know the people around us. We want to be known by the people around us. We want to be loved and understood and cared for. We want to feel safe. We want to be at peace. And peace. Real peace. Deep peace. What the Bible calls shalom requires different tools. It doesn't require spears. It doesn't require swords. It doesn't require anger. It requires us to do away with all that. So let's make a different tool out of this. Let's make a garden tool.
