Sermon

The Peaceful Kingdom
Isaiah 11:1-10

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him. We are no strangers to “cut overs” or “clear cuts” in south Arkansas. Our timber industry has worked through the math, so to speak, of harvesting the wealth of our wood lands and replanting and refurbishing the soil and making sure that new forests appear in due time. All of that not with standing, a cut over, a harvested forest does look barren and forlorn the first year or two. I know that some of you have walked a cut over, a harvested forest. It’s your business. Others of us have not. But there is a wonderful reality that occurs in nature. God’s earth has a powerful capacity for regeneration. One of the amazing things to me is to see trees growing out of stumps that have been cut down. One would think that cutting a tree would be the end of it. Sometimes that is the case and sometimes it is not. Take a gum tree, for example. I don’t know whether one can kill a gum tree by simply cutting it down. You can cut it down but the next season you will find a shoot growing out of the stump. And in due time, a new tree will emerge. It is amazing to me. The truth is, of course, that there is more to the tree that what we see above the ground. A tree is a complex multifaceted organism. So are people. What you see is not always the totality of what is the essence of the person.

In the first 11 chapters of the prophet Isaiah we read words of destruction and despair visited on God’s people in the form of God’s judgment. It seems, as we learned in part last week, that the people of God just could not seem to comprehend and value the special place and position that God had given to them when God named them and claimed them and gave them the promise of the ages. At that time, the people of God had to do but one thing….obey! Pretty simple folks. Here are the laws. Obey the laws and prosper. Disobey and pay the price. Well, we see the price in the first chapters of Isaiah’s prophecy. And the picture is not a pretty one. God’s chosen people looked like a clear cut forest. All of the bounty of the promise of God, from the land to the temple to the position of the kingdom, lay in ruins. It seemed as if all hope was gone. And, in truth, it should have been. God’s people did not deserve any more chances. But you know, God’s ways and humanities ways are not the same. Can anyone say thank you Jesus?

In Isaiah 11 we see God once again opening a door that seems to have been slammed shut. A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse. The season of Advent is about celebrating the reality of this prophecy. The season of Advent is about celebrating the wonders of God’s recreative, regenerative powers to bring into being that which has ceased to be.

Look at it this way. It is not too hard to look at our world today and to make the argument that we stand on the brink of chaos and despair. The litany of problems and challenges that we face are astounding. HIV, war, hunger, poverty, pollution, starvation, genocide, over population, impending shortages of resources from fuel to shelter, I don’t even like to name them for they seem so immense. One can almost understand what the people of Israel must have felt so many thousands of years ago. But as in that time, so too in ours, it is important to listen to the Words of the Lord. So, let’s do that.

Hear again Isaiah 11:1-10. Now, as then, I believe that God is not yet giving up on creation. A shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse. When one does the genealogy one realizes that what we have here in Isaiah is a reference to Jesus, God’s messiah, our savior. This scripture tells us that God will redeem creation. God is not willing to let what has been created come to naught. Things may look pretty bad. But God has plans that we cannot fathom nor can we deter. And, of course, when one reads verses 6-10 we see a glimpse of what this new reality will be.

Many of you may have seen the picture by Edward Hicks of the Peaceable Kingdom. This picture helps us to begin to understand the power and the magnitude of what God has planned for us. In this picture, and in the words of the prophet, all that we know and understand to be the normal way things are are turned up side down. Let’s face it, usually the wolf eats the lamb, yes? Of course! And the wolf can be a canine or the wolf can be the CEO of some corporation. It doesn’t matter though. The strong destroy the weak. That is the way it goes in the world in which we live. The leopard shall lie down with the kid. Ah, I don’t think so. The calf and the lion and the fatling together! Give me a break. A little child leading the parade! But wait, what is it that Paul teaches in 1st Corinthians; God has chosen the weak to shame the strong! The cow and the bear will graze together. God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God has chosen things in the world that are not, to reduce to nothing the things that are! Is there a pattern here folks? Can we make the connection? Is God doing something wonderful here or what? Isaiah speaks of a shoot growing out of a stump. Wolves and lambs playing together! A little child leading a parade! God’s foolishness defeating all of the wisdom of the world!

Hey, it’s Advent. There may indeed be many who will give this no heed and call it all poppy cock. But my friends, this is advent. We are called to celebrate God’s unmitigated gift of love to the world. We are called to be a part of that vision that has its genesis in God’s words to the prophet Isaiah. We are called to join that vision of a peaceful kingdom in which the standards of the world are turned upside down and the values of this world are cast aside for the power of the rule of God in the hearts of humankind. God placed that vision in the heart and mind of Isaiah. Paul knew its power. Jesus personified this divine message and today we have the privilege of deciding to follow the world and its madness or choosing God’s vision of hope and peace and salvation. I wonder, this season of Advent, will be chose the peaceful kingdom, or will we continued to be lured into the chaos of this present age? And a little child shall lead…….hmmmm!

Halleluia, Amen