Today’s Isaiah reading must be one of the most poetic and beautiful passages in the Bible. It isn’t just the images that flow through the text; what adds to its intensity is the reason for its writing and its message to us.
Assyria was invading Judah from the north, heading for Jerusalem. Besides this external threat the prophet has been assailing the people’s betrayal of the covenant. They were no longer living by God’s rule, no longer following the obligations of the covenant made with God on Mount Sinai. Their rituals were empty gestures and there was injustice in the land. Isaiah had spoken out against the peoples’ infidelities. Their present situation was discouraging. Still, today’s passage is a promise of future harmony and tranquility. The people may have given up on God, but God had not given up on them.
The prophet vividly portrays the people’s present condition. Jesse was the father of King David, whose dynasty was supposed to last. But the throne of David was severely threatened from both within and without. Isaiah offers words of consolation. He reminds the people that, no matter how powerful nations like a Assyria are, they lie under God’s control. We heard Isaiah say last Sunday that “all nations shall stream” towards Jerusalem (2:1-5). God makes a promise to the besieged people: even if the tree of David is cut down to a stump, a shoot shall spring from it — “on that day.” If St. Paul were writing to the oppressed people he would encourage them to have, “Hope against hope.”
Isaiah promised a time of justice, faithfulness and peace. That’s not how things looked to Isaiah’s contemporaries. Still the prophet’s words were meant to sustain hope in a people who saw no hope in their future.
I was in downtown Dallas two days after the election. Traffic was blocked by anti-Trump protesters, who see no hope in the future of the country. There were similar demonstrations, some violent, throughout the country. It has been a terribly divisive year of bitter campaigning; many feel disenfranchised. Isaiah’s image of the “stump” feels very apropos, especially at this time, when we are celebrating Advent, a season of hope.
We believers who hear the Word today put our confidence, not in any worldly power with grandiose promises, but in what we hear from God: “On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse and from its roots a bud shall blossom.” In our seriously fractured nation, that promise seems a mere dream, wishful thinking. But we believers hear a clear, prophetic word of hope and promise as we remember that the “stump of Jesse” did blossom a savior, upon whom the promised “spirit of the lord” rested.
We accept in Christ the rule and reign of God that is not of this world, not of worldly power. Isaiah promised that the savior would bring about a reign of justice and peace, when “the wolf will be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.”
Whatever our political stance all of us are called by the Word of God to hold to Isaiah and Jesus’ vision of a peaceable kingdom and to take concrete steps towards its fulfillment. Is that at all possible in our country these days? Doesn’t seem so to the naked eye and ear; but for those who see through our prophets’ eyes and hear their vision, anything is possible.
What shall we do as we wait and hope? Another prophet, John the Baptist, calls out to us in whatever dry, discouraged, fearful, angry desert we find ourselves. He directs our attention to the approaching reign of God. He doesn’t point to some far off place and distant time… “The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” he announces. John, and later Jesus, call us to reform; a change of heart and a turn away from our former and hurtful ways.
John announced that what the people waited for was finally coming. He calls us to make the necessary changes in our lives that will allow that “kingdom of heaven” to take root and flourish. It’s time, John insists, for us to look at the world around us and do something. Is there a person with whom we must be reconciled? Are there wounds from the past that need to be healed; how shall we seek that healing? Are there problems we have not addressed and now need to resolve? And to add to that list: what are we doing about the larger issues that affect, not just us but our community and our world — care for the poor, the environment, the stranger in our midst, and the other biblical responsibilities we hear from these biblical texts each week? John urges us to take the initiative, “Repent!” His distant urging comes here and now into our lives. Are we waiting for some other person to do something we should tend to?
Later in the Sermon, on the Mount, Jesus blesses the peacemakers. It is not only a blessing, it is also a call to be a peacemaker. Peace begins with ourselves. If Isaiah’s vision of a peaceable kingdom is to come about in our world, then we must do our part in making it happen. Advent is the season to choose again the ways of God — the reign of God — and rededicate ourselves to peace. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).
It’s hard to imagine the new world Isaiah has described where, “the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.” We can’t just blame others for the condition our world is in right now. Nor should we expect others to change and fix what’s so broken — both near and far from us. As the song says, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”