Advent IIA - 2014 - Images of the Kingdom - The Stump
This year for a series of sermons for Advent have decided to take
the suggestion of Dr. Barbara Lundblad and focus on the images which
come out of the Isaiah texts for the season in year A. Her suggestion
is offered in this article found on the Working Preacher website:
To read the Isaiah 11 text click here: Isaiah 11:1-10
Images of the
Kingdom: The Stump
Have you ever noticed how no matter
what happens you can never keep nature at bay?
For example, after a major forest fire, when acres and acres are nothing
but black and charred remains, when it looks like an explosion had occurred and
nothing remains, that all you have to do is give it a little time and a little
rain and then watch and you will see little shoots of life begin to emerge. It is not all destruction. There is life there still and this life will
reassert itself and reclaim the devastation in time. We can see this same thing manifested in a
whole variety of different scenarios.
Chop down a tree, leave the stump – Do you think it is now completely,
irreversibly dead? Think again…
A shoot shall come out from the stump
of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots…
Isaiah was an 8th
century BCE temple prophet at Jerusalem and he lived through some terrible
events. The nation of Israel had been
one, unified nation from King David through King Solomon, but after the death
of Solomon they had fallen into a civil war which eventually led to Israel
breaking apart into two separate nations: The Northern Kingdom – also called Samaria
– consisted of 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel and their capital was in
Shechem. The Southern Kingdom – also
called Judea – consisted on the remaining two tribes (Judah and Benjamin) and
their capital was in Jerusalem. Only the
Southern Kingdom focused their worship at the temple (this was one of the
issues that led to the civil war!) The
Northern Kingdom worshiped at Mount Gerezim (for
an interesting discussion of this see Jesus’ dialog with the Samaritan woman in
the Gospel of John, chapter 4 – especially verses 16-26).
During the time of Isaiah the
Assyrians swept down from the north and attacked the Northern Kingdom. Instead of rushing to the aid of their northern
brothers and sisters, the King of the Southern Kingdom negotiated a treaty with
the Assyrians and then stood on the sidelines.
They watched and did nothing as the Assyrians completely obliterated the
Northern Kingdom. The Assyrians had a well-earned
reputation for being particularly blood-thirsty and unusually cruel, and they
unleashed all of this on the people of the Northern Kingdom. By the end of it all nothing remained
of Samaria. Thousands had been massacred
in the most brutal way. Cities and
villages burnt to the ground. There was
no exile this time, because there was no one left to exile. And the Southern Kingdom had simply stood on
the sidelines and watched it happen.
The image of the cut off tree,
destroyed with only a stump remaining is an image that comes out of this
experience. Isaiah is surveying what is
left of Samaria and there isn’t much.
The people of the Southern Kingdom are filled now with grief, terror,
fear and guilt. Who knows, maybe they are next (actually they are – but not right away – it will be another 100 years
or so before the Babylonians sweep through and destroy Judea). The biggest casualty is hope – hope is gone. Samaria
is gone – completely. The stump is cut
off down to the ground and then burned.
There is nothing left. They are
gone forever.
But wait says Isaiah – not so
fast. Look carefully at that stump and
what do you see? Why a little growth, a
little green shoot has sprung up from the roots and has worked its way through
the destruction and into the light. It
is growing. This image is an image of
the word of God that Isaiah saw.
There is hope. In fact, says
Isaiah, there is always hope. God will
bring life from death! God will bring
growth from destruction! God will bring light into the darkest night!
And for us it is Jesus who is the
foundation of our hope. God has entered
into the world of human experience in
Jesus – God has entered into the darkness – God has entered into the pain, the
suffering and death – God has entered into human hopelessness and has brought
light and life and promise and hope!
This is what Advent and Christmas together proclaim to us – look there
is a little green shoot growing out of that stump – there is hope!
What are the stumps in your
lives? What is it that leads you into
hopelessness? What dreams and
expectations of yours have been shattered?
What losses, what illnesses, what struggles and failures have led you to
a sense of cynicism or hopelessness? The prophet speaks to you to say: Look and
see – out of the rubble, through the rock, out of the charred remains, out of
that stump there is growth, there is life, there is hope. Can you see that little green shoot? Well, it is there. For in Christ, there is always hope! And Christ will bring life and light and hope
to us – now and always!
John the Baptist cries out as a
voice in the wilderness! Isaiah stands
with him. Together they stand among the charred remains of the stumps of life,
of death and destruction and both of them are crying out the same joyous
message – “Prepare the way of the Lord!”
Hope is alive – a shoot shall come out of the stump of Jesse and this
shoot is hope!
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