“Lions, Hyenas, and Peace…Oh My!”
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. -Isaiah 11:6-9
I recently learned what I assumed was useless trivia, until I realized how strangely familiar it is. Hyenas will hunt in packs, and when doing so, often have the same diet as the much hungrier and much stronger lion or lioness. In order to feast, one hyena will go after the lion’s entrée, only to become the focus of the lion’s rage. Needless to say, lions are not great at sharing. While the lion is distracted by the scapegoat hyena, the other pack members will enjoy what was once the lion’s dinner.
Yes, you read that right. In order for the pack to eat, one hyena needs to sacrifice themselves to the lion. While, on one hand, that might sound noble, on the other hand, it’s quite troubling. In this scenario, there is no real winner in the smorgasbord mess. The lion doesn’t eat, at least one hyena loses its life, and the other hyenas, while sharing their new-found feast, question the decaying trust in their pack.
It’s all a far cry from the vision Isaiah shares of God’s kingdom.
Now, before we got into all of the wildlife drama, I mentioned that the whole thing stood out to me as being strangely familiar. It’s not because I’ve witnessed it. Trust me, the only lions I’ve seen were behind thick glass at the Detroit Zoo, and they were most definitely sleeping. Rather, it seemed familiar because, so often in our world, we find ourselves thriving at the expense of another – some we know and some we don’t. Sometimes we’re the lion who is made to feel defensive of what we have and are afraid to lose. Sometimes we’re the hyenas who benefit only when our neighbor fails. And sometimes, we’re the hyena who is sacrificed by the pack. And, yes – sometimes we’re the gazelle who wandered too far from the herd.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we find ourselves praying a prayer that invites God’s kingdom to come “on earth as it is in heaven.” We become like Isaiah, envisioning all of God’s creation lying, living, and playing together. To be clear, this is not my advocacy for vegetarianism. I’m all for the circle of life, the food chain and such. What I’m getting at is that we need to strive for a world in which our neighbor can eat while we’re still thriving. We need to desire to be, ourselves, a nation that can welcome the sojourner desiring a life of safety and prosperity, while we can enjoy the same. We need to advocate for a society in which mutual dignity and worth is not a zero-sum game in which some must lose for others to win. In other words, we need to join Isaiah in a dream wherein we can exist for one another, and not in spite of one another.
Peace.
Pastor Brian
Pastor Brian
