Sunday, Dec. 9 -- From the Stump of Jesse

Passages:
Isaiah 11:1-10, Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19, Romans 15:4-13, and Matthew 3:1-12.

Depiction of the Tree of Jesse

My Take:

Isaiah 11 is one of my favorite passages in the Hebrew Scriptures – it is prophetic in every sense of the word. It is dense in meaning and rich in image, but most importantly it is a powerful vision into God’s intentions for the world. Many Christians see this passage pertaining to Jesus Christ, a descendent of Jesse. I agree, if it is assumed that the final vision of peace and universal understanding of the Lord has yet to be actualized.

In Isaiah 11, I see an outline of sort (I have taken some interpretational liberties):

• A leader will arise from the lineage of Jesse and David (“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a branch will bear fruit” Isaiah 11.1).
• He will be ordained by God in his ministry, endowed with great wisdom and insight (Isaiah 11.2-3).
• His message will be extremely powerful (“He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth”), and the message will advocate for the poor and slay the wicked.
• He will usher in an era of profound peace (Isaiah 11.6-8, described in poetic detail) where the “wolf will live with the lamb.”
• The Lord will be known universally, and the faith will be open to all people (Isaiah 11.9-10).

With one reservation, I feel as though Christ has accomplished – or set the stage – for the things in this outline. He was a descendant of Jesse, and upon Christ’s baptism the Spirit of the Lord “descended upon him like a dove.” His profound message of love and peace has inspired good will and charity to the poor. My one reservation is found in Isaiah 11.4: “With the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.” My understanding of Christ is one of a pacifist – the man who chastised Peter for injuring the Roman soldier sent to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane; the savior who sacrificed himself, forgiving his tormenters on the cross. His message preached forgiveness for the wicked and an opportunity to repent, not death or retribution.

Many say that this aspect of the Messiah – the dispenser of justice – will be fulfilled upon Christ’s second coming. It’s not called Judgment Day arbitrarily. Many of these same people say that it is only after this Judgment Day that the vision of peace where the “wolf lives with the lamb,” can actualize. This may be true, but I think Christ challenges us to rethink justice and peace, and transformed their meaning in many ways. True justice is freedom from wickedness, and Christ provides redemption for all of our imperfections. The chains of sin and death are broken by Christ, and in that liberation there is true peace.

Instead of “slaying the wicked” Christ was slain on behalf of the wicked. Just like Christ’s execution literally freed Barabbas from death row, spiritually we are all sprung from our jail cells of sin. But since the message of Jesus Christ gives “the wicked” a chance at rebirth and renewal, it does “slay wickedness,” in a very metaphorical sense.

There is a lot in this Isaiah passage, and I find it interesting what Paul focuses on and cites in today’s lection from Romans. Paul uses Isaiah 11.10 to explain and justify his ministry to the Gentiles. His translation is different than most standard translations, but still recognizable: “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in him” (Romans 15.12). Paul sees Christ as an open invitation to all people to “glorify God for His mercy” (Rm 15.9) and encourages us to “Accept one another, then, just as Christ has accepted you” (Rm 15.7). Christ opened the Jewish faith, traditionally associated with an ethnic group of people, to all races and cultures across the world.

In Paul’s time, the first generation of Christians, this particularly applied to the Greeks and the Romans. Pre-Rabbinic Judaism was not only struggling with its role in an expanding world that did not share its religious tradition, but also being under the rule of the greatest military force the world had known. It was also confronted with a highly imperialist culture that actively exported its language, education and customs. Passages from the scriptures that assured that “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11.9) must have been a source of inspiration and assurance during this time where their land and culture was being occupied by the Romans.

Paul saw Christ as a way of bringing the God of Israel to the Roman world, and making the “Root of Jesse” a “banner for all people.” I wonder if Paul ever imagined, during one of his many trials or in a jail cell, that four hundred years later a Roman Emperor would convert to Christianity, or that 2,000 years later his words would survive to the information age. Today, knowledge of the Lord – or at least the Scriptures – is accessible at every corner of the earth in any language.

Sunday Dec. 2 -- Liturgical New Year

Passages:

Isaiah 2.1-5, Psalm 122, Romans 13.11-14, and Matthew 24.36-44. I will be dealing primarily with Isaiah and Romans.

My Take:

The first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of the liturgical calendar, so it is a sort of liturgical New Year’s Day. New Year’s is one of my favorite holidays because it is both reflective and forward-thinking. It anticipates the coming year, and puts forward resolutions. It’s fitting then that our lections for this week deal with prophecies for the future, and with regard to the New Testament lections, the second coming.

The second coming has always been the part of the New Testament that I struggle with most. Passages like Romans 13.11-14 have even affected my attitude toward Paul and the Epistles. It can be gathered from his writings that Paul believed that Christ would return in his lifetime to pass judgment and establish a new era. In this passage, Paul writes, “it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.” The tone of this passage is one of impending collective judgment. This is not a personal passage – that as mortals each of our times are near – but one that has the presupposition that the entire world will face judgment soon. Seeing this assumption in his words 2,000 years later naturally casts doubt on his message.

His false belief that Christ’s historical return would happen soon affected a lot of Paul’s message, particularly his attitude toward children and marriage. Paul had almost nothing to say about children and their role in the Christian community and his attitude about marriage was that it is better to stay celibate (like him), but if you cannot control your urges, marriage is preferable to immorality (1 Corinthians 7.1-7). To Paul, there was little value in long term planning for the church and instituting how Christ’s message would be passed through the generations – it was important to get things right now, immediately, before it’s too late.

However, this opinion of Paul made too easy for me to dismiss the parts of his message I struggled with. I enjoy life – even through the roughest of times, I have always been thankful for the gift of life that God has afforded to me. It is not comforting to think the Apocolypse is right around the corner; or that this era would be wiped away “like a thief in the night” as the Matthew lection describes.

I prefer the message in Isaiah – the Kingdom of the Lord will be established slowly by obedience to God’s will. When we make God our highest priority (“established as the highest of mountains”) the world will begin a transformation where instruction flows forth from Zion and is accepted around the world – or, in New Testament terms, disciples are made of all nations. Isaiah’s vision of peace is promising, especially in a time of global warfare and strife: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

I think Isaiah’s message resonates stronger with many modern Christians because of their ability to influence society, and their missionary and activist spirit. In the 2,000 years since Christ’s sacrifice, the Christian community has had a long time to establish, formulate and grow the church. It now has a great deal of global influence, and it seems more optimistic to believe the church will play an active role in bringing about God’s kingdom than Christ suddenly returning on a cloud of glory and wiping the current society away.

Because of the “Left Behind” series, Christian movements that anticipate and fantasize about the Apocalypse have been put into the spotlight. Throughout Christian history there have been brothers and sisters who believe that their lifetime will see the Second Coming. And not to overly generalize, but they tend to be very dissatisfied with the spiritual state of the world. I mean, it stands to reason that if you pray for Christ to come, right now, and establish a new world, you must not like the current one very much.

Because I hope to have a long life serving God and helping better society, I’m partial to the lection of Isaiah. But, it’s important for me – as a Christian – to take the words of Paul and Matthew seriously. Judgment could be tomorrow, for all I know. This resonates on a personal level more than a cosmic level – I could die crossing the street. These really could be the last days of my life, and I shouldn’t take the future for granted.

With respect to personal action, Isaiah and Paul’s visions for the future are not as contradictory as they seem. The manner in which “Kingdom of God” is made manifest may be different, but the mandate to the individual is the same – obedience to God. If I work toward the peace in Isaiah, I will be ready for the judgment in Paul. Perhaps I will have a long life where I am afforded the social power to positively impact the world and “beat swords into plowshares,” or perhaps my end is around the corner, and “the day is near.” Either way, the message remains the same: “Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13.12) and “come, let us walk in the light of the LORD” (Isaiah 2.5).