Word to the Wise
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - 1st Week of Advent - Tues
[Isa 11:1-10 and Luke 10:21-24]On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a Spirit of counsel and of strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord.....
Isaiah's words are intended to give hope. The stump of Jesse speaks to the loss of the line of King David when Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 BC. Isaiah offers the hope of a new leader with gifts from God. This "messianic" hope would eventually be recognized by Christian tradition as applying to Jesus, and the gifts of the Spirit would be incorporated as a "seven-fold" presence of the Holy Spirit that comes with "confirmation" in the faith. The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus is from the line of David and is the person to whom Isaiah was referring in a distant way. [Cf. Matthew 1:17, 20 and Luke 2:4] God, then, is preached as a God who keeps a promise! The hope is expanded further on in this passage in the words that Edward Hansen would later depict in his famous painting, THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM. Ancient and natural "enemies" become reconciled and the world is filled with the knowledge of God.
A vision of hope that is so broad seems beyond our human capacities, even in this day of "globalization!" Yet, each of us in this season can accomplish it by our own efforts to be reconciled with those from whom we are divided by hurts and ideologies of all kinds. Can we fill our Advent and Christmas seasons with knowledge of God and not just information about how to work the latest gadget we acquire as a "present?" Can we look at that "crib set" we take out of the closet and see Isaiah's hope preached to us? His vision is only as far away from us as we are willing to let it be. AMEN