Isaiah 11:1-9
11 A
shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 The spirit of the Lord shall
rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3 His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the
wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
6 The
wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the
adder’s den.
9 They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
10 On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples;
the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.
11 On that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to
recover the remnant that is left of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from
Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the
coastlands of the sea.
12 He will raise a signal for the nations,
and
will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
and gather the dispersed of Judah
from
the four corners of the earth.
*
* *
Luke 1:26-38
26 In the sixth
month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called
Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose
name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And
he came to her and said, “Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But
she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this
might be. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be
afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. 31 And
now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him
Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the
Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his
ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of
Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Mary
said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The
angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be
holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now,
your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is
the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For
nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 Then Mary
said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your
word.” Then the angel departed from her.
A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom (Genny Tunbridge)
Isaiah’s image of the shoot coming
from the stump of Jesse contains both death and birth, stark ending and new
beginning: the fallen might of the old tree cut down with sharp blows, and the
determined growth of the small new shoot made possible because the old wood has
gone.
Similar contrasts appear in Rowan
Williams’ poem, ‘Advent Calendar’, which evokes a winter landscape in images
that speak of violence and death (‘flayed’ trees, earth ‘choking’ in a shroud,
the sun masked by the dark like pennies placed over the eyes of a corpse) but
also of beauty and startling birth.
Advent Calendar, by Rowan Williams
He will come like last leaf's fall.
One night when the November wind
has flayed the trees to the bone, and earth
wakes choking on the mould,
the soft shroud's folding.
He will come like frost.
One morning when the shrinking earth
opens on mist, to find itself
arrested in the net
of alien, sword-set beauty.
He will come like dark.
One evening when the bursting red
December sun draws up the sheet
and penny-masks its eye to yield
the star-snowed fields of sky.
He will come, will come,
will come like crying in the night,
like blood, like breaking,
as the earth writhes to toss him free.
He will come like child.[1]
Introduction
to the theme (Al Barrett)
This week’s reading from Isaiah is a familiar Advent text –
words many of us will have heard read in church many times over the years. They
are, clearly, words of hope and promise: a description of the coming kingdom of
peace, a transformed creation where all relationships of hostility and threat –
among non-human creatures and among humankind – have been turned into
relationships of peace and harmony. No violence, control and domination; the
small and once ‘vulnerable’ are free to play alongside those who were once
‘predators’. The long-standing enmities that, in this ‘Big Story’, can be
traced right back to the story of the garden of Eden in Genesis 3, are here
made a thing of the past. This vision is, as Hebrew Bible scholar Walter
Brueggemann puts it, of an ‘impossible possibility’ – ‘what the world has long
since declared to be impossible’, is promised here as the future of the world.
And this new creation, this kingdom of peace, the passage
suggests, will come with the arrival of a person: a person who will
‘judge’ and ‘decide’ and bring justice for ‘the poor’ and ‘the meek of the
earth’.
As Christians, we can’t help instantly jumping to Jesus. We
trace his lineage (as the gospel-writer Luke does), back to King David, and to
David’s father Jesse, and we identify Jesus as the ‘shoot’ that comes from ‘the
stump of Jesse’; it is Jesus on whom ‘the spirit of the Lord’ shall rest. And
these are, of course, the ‘dots’ that the gospel-writers join together, as they
paint the picture of Jesus as the long-awaited king, the anointed one (which is
what ‘messiah’ and ‘Christ’ both mean).
But, as we’ve been learning over these last few months, we
need to allow the Hebrew Scriptures to speak on their own terms too. Isaiah is
speaking to the Jewish exiles in Babylon – and, in fact, to Jews living in
exile in a whole lot of other countries (as we find listed in verse 11) –
promising the home-coming, the gathering of the scattered people, that they
have been longing for. Then and there, amid the Jewish diaspora of the 6th
century BC, they long for God to give them a new king – a king who will gather
them together and rule with justice, not with the ‘iniquitous decrees’ and
‘oppressive statutes’ of previous rulers (remember, from Isaiah chapter 10 last
week?). The line of kings that had followed in the wake of the great King David
(himself not always a model of goodness) had failed their people – in the eyes
of the prophet and, by extension, God. That ‘great tree’ God has ‘hacked down
with an axe’, ‘the lofty brought low’ (Isaiah 10:33-34). But now, out of that
hacked down stump, the possibility of a new green shoot is promised.
We can’t read the hope of Isaiah 11 without the judgment of
Isaiah 10. The ‘gathering together’, the ‘kingdom of peace’, that we glimpse in
this chapter can only happen in the context of a ‘putting right’, a ‘judging’
with ‘righteousness’, that ‘brings low’ the ‘lofty’ trees not just of the big,
powerful empires that surround Israel, but also Israel’s own rulers.
Later on in Isaiah, we will hear of a good king (Hezekiah),
whose reign is nevertheless fleeting. We will also hear the language of the
coming king used, not for any human king, but for God – YHWH – himself.
And then, some six centuries later, Luke will tell of an
angelic message to a young girl, telling her that the child she will carry in
her womb will be given ‘the throne of his ancestor David’, will ‘reign over the
house of Jacob [Israel] forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end’.
Interestingly, it is Joseph, not Mary, who we’re told is ‘of the house
of David’ (i.e. one of David’s descendants). And we’re also told, very
explicitly, that Jesus is not Joseph’s biological son. If this child is indeed
the promised ‘shoot … from the stump of Jesse’, then God is planting afresh.
And ‘how [will] this be?’, asks Mary. Echoing Isaiah (and also the beginnings
of creation in Genesis 1, when the spirit of the Lord ‘broods’ or ‘hovers’ over
the waters of chaos), it will be ‘the spirit of the Lord’ that will rest on
her, we’re told – before it rests on her son.
Reflection (Allannah Brennan)
So, what do the two readings we have heard
today from Isaiah and Luke have in common? Well I wouldn’t expect them to
happen – I wouldn’t expect those animals to be comfortable together and I
wouldn’t expect a girl of about 13 to be given the responsibility of delivering
the salvation of humankind. What does it
teach about God – well with God anything is possible and we shouldn’t be
surprised when amazing and unexpected events take place.
Growing up in a house church as I did, Mary
didn’t figure greatly in my young life as Bible passages about both Christmas
and Easter never featured in our services – sadly I don’t know why and there
are few people now that I can ask. But I knew about Mary, the Mother of Jesus,
of course, from school where we faithfully did the Nativity every year. And for
lots of people today, those much-loved nativity plays featuring ourselves, our
children and our grandchildren are as far as it goes – a very sanitised version
of life 2000 years ago.
Theologians
and historians say that Mary was a peasant girl about 13 -15 years old at the
time of the annunciation that we heard about in the Gospel reading. So she was just a child and it made me think
of some of the young people who left their homelands to go to Syria to be with
ISIS in the last few years and are now wanting to return home. I am not
agreeing with their actions but I notice some of them were about Mary’s age.
My first real encounter with Mary was at Walsingham –
I have been there three times, once on an overnight visit and twice for stays
of 4 days. On my first two visits I was surprised that Mary was such a huge
part of their set up and worship feeling then it was just like being in a Roman
Catholic church – perhaps being a bit dismissive in my thinking of her. I joined in with the third visit, but this
time I experienced something of a conversion and I came to value Mary
greatly. Just as well as my
grandchildren are being brought up as Roman Catholics and Mary is very much
part of their lives at school and church.
Mary
was in lots of danger. Firstly, pregnant outside of marriage could have led to
her being stoned. We are horrified today
when we hear about women in some middle eastern countries being punished for
adultery – for Mary there was the very real threat that she could have been
stoned to death if Joseph had reported her to the authorities or just made a
fuss about it. Thank God for
Joseph. I sometimes wonder if that was
the reason for Mary going off to see Elizabeth during her pregnancy leaving
home before her condition was noticeable.
I wondered would we entrust the Saviour of the world to a woman who
might be executed?
Secondly
apart from the stoning, Mary stood a 1 in 4 chance of dying in childbirth 2000
years ago and infant mortality was also very high in the first few months of
life. Giving birth and being born in an
animal shed, far from home and family to attend to them, would have made the
risk even greater for them both – just think of all the e-coli germs that must
have been about. I once told the Nativity story to the Cubs and they got very
excited when I mentioned all the poo that must have been around in that animal
shelter. Would we entrust the saviour of
the world to that situation?
Having chosen such a
potential non-starter for this job, God through the angel, gives Mary the
choice to go through with it or not. And she says “Yes” she says “Here am I,
the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.”– we don’t
know whether she considered all of the problems that might arise for her personally
– perhaps this was a plus for choosing a young person who might not have
thought so deeply about the implications at the outset as someone older - Mary trusted God and was prepared to do what
he was asking of her and asking only practical questions not doubting
questions.
What seems sensible or
foolish in our eyes is not always right or wrong in God’s way of doing
things. In the Isaiah reading we heard
about the peaceful kingdom – and all our knowledge and experience screams, that
can’t happen but then would we have believed in Mary being chosen if it was
just left to our knowledge and experience?
By choosing Mary to be
Jesus’ Mother, against all the odds, God is showing us that there are other
ways of doing things – situations that look foolish to our eyes, God can use
and work through bringing salvation to people.
You know that phrase that crops up now and then and often in works
training sessions – it’s called “thinking outside of the box”. Well with God there are no boxes – what God
can do is not constrained by our limited human perceptions.
Mary played a unique
role in the mystery of salvation whereby God humbled himself to be born as the
baby of a peasant teenager in order to reconcile the world to himself. We can only stand in awe of this woman who
was faithful to God's call to such an improbable role in redemption.
There is often mystery
with God - when he calls us to do something, often we can see only part of what
is required – Mary could not have known what would be the outcome of the life
of her son, Jesus – but she didn’t need to know. What she had learnt in her short life and did
know, was that she could trust God and she did.
And we can trust him too saying “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.”
Reflection (Lyn Lynch)
I love the season of Advent, with all its appropriate
readings giving us time to look back at the story of God’s people and to
reflect on the roots of our faith. As we live in the present, we also see the
budding of God’s kingdom, and at the same time we look forward to the
blossoming of a new age full of hope.
Today we hear words from one of the greatest of prophets, who
proclaimed the coming of Jesus into our world to establish a new realm. Isaiah
sees changing times and has visions of two realms, of earth and heaven, of the
present and the future. Isaiah seems to be speaking from a personal connection
with God, and the experience of seeing God and receiving forgiveness seems to
sustain him throughout his life. He really needs such assurance because God sends
him to plead with his people, a nation struggling to survive. They needed
encouragement and a message of hope. Isaiah gives them just that: his vision of
a new shoot emerging from their roots, to bring into being a new kingdom, was
hope indeed.
Living in exile, the people of Israel became acutely aware of
their need for good honest leadership, for true peace, justice and integrity,
just as we do today. Isaiah gives us a connection with them and their yearning
for justice. We can sense their longing as they look forward to God fulfilling
the promise of the Messiah. Isaiah also shares the brightest of visions of a
new God-centred earth, with the whole of creation brought back into balance and
harmony in an age of holy restoration.
We can begin to see our own bright visions, that from the
deepest oceans, to the wells that spring up from the earth; from the great
mountain ranges to the deepest valleys and the driest deserts; from the largest
of animals to the smallest insects; from the oldest, most beautiful of trees to
the delicate saplings of new growth; from the most powerful to the very
vulnerable; from the mighty to the most lowly and from the known and the
unknown among us, all are known, loved and held together in the hand of God our
creator.
Justin Welby said, “It is as if God is re-stitching all the
wounds of our divisions.” In God’s re-stitching we are given hope, and today we
live in expectation that a little child will bring in a new age, and lead us in
the ways of true peace and harmony.
But how can this be? The same question the young Mary asked
the angel when she was told she had been chosen to carry a holy child.
So we move from Isaiah’s visions on to real life events seen
through Luke’s gospel. Through the faith of a young woman, we see the birth of
a new beginning. In saying yes to God, Mary made it possible for God to come
among us as one of us, and a little child shall lead us. God chooses the young
Mary, an ordinary girl from a back of beyond little town known as Nazareth. In
John’s gospel we find Nathaniel saying, “From Nazareth? Can anything good from
that place?” But God did bring something extraordinary out of the ordinary, and
Mary was in the centre of it all.
I am always amazed when I think of this young woman and her
response when she is told by the angel that she has been chosen to carry a
child of the Holy Spirit. She listens, and just asks, “How can this be?” There
were no ifs or buts, and no excuses, she just asks, “How are you going to do
it?” Unlike the rest of us who, if we are honest, would be coming up with all
sorts of reasons not to say yes. We seem to think it is easier for God to work
miracles in other people than in ourselves.
But Mary seems to grasp that the greatness of God will be
enough to transform her ordinary life into an extraordinary experience. She is
the first of us to hear the good news of the gospel, and her response is
simple: “Be it done to me according to your word.” Being the mother of Jesus,
she is also his first disciple, and she teaches us that we don’t have to
understand everything before trusting God enough to say yes! Being chosen and
highly favoured of God, Mary still had to hear and accept the word of God
throughout her life. She knew the deep joy of new birth and the delight of
holding her beloved child in her arms. She knew the great sorrow that pierced
her heart at the cross, and she saw the dawn of the resurrection.
We can learn so much from Mary as we follow Jesus in our own
times. When she didn’t always understand, she remained faithful and pondered
everything in her heart. I think this seems to be a simple definition of
prayer. There is so much we don’t understand, but we must remain faithful and
trusting even in these strange times we live in today. Pondering the mysteries
of God with Jesus may lead us to say our own yes to God, opening a new door to
a renewed faith deeply rooted in the word of God.
So let us this Advent live in the expectation of growing the
Kingdom of God in our own time, and look beyond to see the Kingdom in full bloom.
Let us join Mary in saying, “Here I am, the Lord’s servant, let it be as you
have said.” Amen.
Reflection (Wendy Millman)
When I first looked at the readings for this
week, I had no idea what to write about. The readings are both such well known,
iconic readings and I didn't feel knowledgeable enough to comment on them. I
spoke to Gloria about it as I was in a bit of a panic, but she told me not to
worry as I was perfectly capable of doing it. She said I would know what to
write and the ideas would come. Of course she was right!!
I want to talk about Angels, not the image we
have in our heads of a heavenly being with wings, a long robe and maybe a halo.
I kept thinking of Mary and how that visit
from the angel Gabriel had such an effect on her life. I think we all try and
imagine how we would feel in that situation and hope we would be as trusting
and as obedient as she was.
So the Angels I have been thinking about are
those who I believe to be an agent or messenger of God represented in human
form.
When I heard the news that Olive had died, I
really felt like she was one of those angels. I know she had an effect on my
life and probably a lot of others. Olive made me realise that you don't have to
do big things to have a positive effect on others. Olive gave the best hugs and
a hug or a smile from Olive could change your day. I would be happy to have
that as my legacy. Olive was an Angel to me.
So, thinking back I can think of other Angels
who have touched my life and showed me that the Kingdom of God is here with us
now. If you think back you can probably remember times when you have felt the
touch of an Angel. Maybe somebody just sat and listened to you when you really
needed to talk. Not everybody in our lives have this gift, there are times when
you just need someone to listen, not interrupt or try to tell you what to do
just listen. When you really need this God will send one of his Angels.
Maybe there has been a time when you have been
unsure what to do about a certain situation in your life. You might have prayed
and then a friend offers advice that could have only come from above. Sometimes
I find the answer in the words of a worship song or poem, obviously written by
one of Gods Angels. Sometimes we need a lift
somewhere or a loan or a gift of something. Remember that person who was happy
to help, here we meet another of God’s Angels.
I think what i am trying to say is that we all
have a part to play in Gods Kingdom. We see others who excel in all manner of
things. There are people in power and in the media who appear to influence
people's lives. But we can influence people's lives with God's help. We are just as important and never forget
that. The hug or the smile that you offer, the time you give or the prayer you
say are important and significant in people's lives. So, let's continue to
create Gods Kingdom here on earth by being his voice, his ears, his hands and
his feet. We can be angels to those around us and effect their lives in a
positive way.
Questions for reflection / discussion
As I read / listened to the
readings and reflections for this week…
·
what
did I notice, or what particularly stood out for me?
·
what
did they make me wonder, or what questions am I pondering?
·
what
have they helped me realise?
·
is there anything I want to do or
change in the light of this week's topic?
A prayer for this week: Elizabeth’s Blessing, by Jan
Richardson
On the day
when you have agreed
to what you could never
have imagined,
let this blessing
first lay its hands
upon your belly,
your brow.
Let this blessing draw you
into the litany
of your breathing in,
your breathing out –
the ceremony of
the beating of
your heart
as it spends itself
in gathering
and release.
Look
at each thing
you have drawn into
the circle of your life:
fashioned of
glass and stone,
paper and clay;
how each object
remains unchanged
but for how
it now inhabits this world
where you have
spoken yes,
have offered the word
you will never now
unsay.
(from Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace: A Book of
Blessings for the Seasons)
[1]
Published in the collection After Silent Centuries, Rowan Williams
(Oxford, 1994).
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