Justice is reestablished. And, there is no hurt in all of God s holy mountain for God again tabernacles with his people. Here the visions of contemporary ecological and political prophets don t hold a candle to the wonder evoked by their ancient mentors. Modern visions are darkly pessimistic. They are not apocalypses of hope.
Trees are commodities of commerce, and the death of a child is the factored cost of waging war.
Only the divine presence can create a peaceable kingdom. Without a sense of the sacred at the very center of things, modern-day ecological and political sanctuaries are easy targets for chain saws and political ambitions. Certainly, if we are a sanctuary of divine dwelling in the midst of a troubled world. Without question this would mean that the church would become a refuge for all God s creatures great and small. A place where the hurting, the marginalized, the disappointed could find safety.