A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him? the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD? and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth Isaiah 11:1-4
There is a corner of my basement where there are a number of broken or no-longer-useful items which I just haven't thrown out yet. Usually they are not easily disposed of. I have a scanner that just quit but haven't thrown out.. I have no idea what quit on it. Maybe its just a broken wire, or maybe its a failed chip. Who knows?, but there it sits and will until I figure out how to dispose of it. I just discovered an old printer too. It just quit and I found an inexpensive replacement so it just sits gathering dust. Electronic equipment is especially vulnerable to that kind of obsolescence. Computer chips become dated or too expensive to replace.
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him? the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD?
and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth
Isaiah 11:1-4
There is a corner of my basement where there are a number of broken or no-longer-useful items which I just haven't thrown out yet. Usually they are not easily disposed of. I have a scanner that just quit but haven't thrown out.. I have no idea what quit on it. Maybe its just a broken wire, or maybe its a failed chip. Who knows?, but there it sits and will until I figure out how to dispose of it. I just discovered an old printer too. It just quit and I found an inexpensive replacement so it just sits gathering dust. Electronic equipment is especially vulnerable to that kind of obsolescence. Computer chips become dated or too expensive to replace.
Other things we buy are designed to be discarded. There was a time you could buy small bottles of butane to refill your lighter. No more. When its done, you pitch it.
Ditto the ball point pen. We have a special container for dried up ball point pens which sits on the kitchen counter next to the telephone.
Visit a scrap metal yard sometime and see the automobiles that get scrapped. You'll remember driving one of them.
But there they go!....grind 'em up, spit 'em out and melt 'em down.
It's a good thing God doesn't treat us that way.
One of the other texts for today describes John the Baptizer preaching out in the wilderness. The people come from Jerusalem to hear him. Their attitude seems to have been, "we're pretty hot stuff. We're children of Abraham! You can't talk to us that way."
John's reply is "Baloney, God can make better children of Abraham out of the stones you see around you."
I wonder why God doesn't. Not about the people in John's time, but with me in particular. Why does God persist?
It has something to do with God being God.
In our passage, Isaiah is speaking of a tree stump that starts to sprout.
Isaiah lives in and around Jerusalem toward the end of the time of the kings of Judah.
God tells Isaiah that his people are like a vineyard he has planted. But instead of producing the fruit that befits its loving care, it only produces stinking wild grapes. The result is that God is going to rip it up and tear down all the structures that aided grape growing.
Grind 'em up, spit 'em out and melt 'em down!
But in our passage today God is showing Isaiah a vision of hope.
Judah is going to be conquered by the Babylonians and David's royal line will come to an end.
There will be other kings, but they are not descendants of David.
That line has been cut off.
But in the passage we read this morning, God is telling Isaiah that from the stump of Jesse, will come a Branch.
Jesse is David's father and means the lineage of David.
God has ended the literal Davidic kingship, but there is the promise of a new, future king who will be from David's line.
Matthew takes care to establish that Jesus qualifies as being a descendant of David, and that is how we understand that word from God thousands of years later. God promises an ideal leader, from the lineage of David.
We see in Jesus, the fulfillment of God's promise.
In fact it is hard to see that any other human being could fulfill all that Isaiah was promising.
There was no opportunity for a new king of Judah from David's line and the profile is that of an almost inhumanly ideal ruler.
Contemporary Judaism has largely discounted this as a real person and sees the ideal characteristics as embodied in the community as a whole.
At Advent we look back through the lens of Bethlehem and see Jesus in clear focus.
Of the many thoughts that come to mind, one impresses me most.
God is the God of broken stumps and broken people.
Ours is not a throwaway God.
It is out of the old that God brings the new.
God persists with us as the focus of divine love.
God could have consigned homo sapiens to the scrap heap.
Many contemporary writers portray us as the scourge of the earth, responsible for its pollution, wars and destruction.
They might say, "grind 'em up, spit 'em out and melt 'em down."
God says, "no".
In spite of all their failed promise, I have a better promise.
In fact my promise is going to come directly out of the old failed material.
But I will put My Spirit in him and He will not disappoint.
Jesus does not consign us individually to the scrap heap and he does not consign us collectively to the scrap heap.
It is out of the failed hopes and broken promises that God brings new life.
It is into the darkness of your discouragement and your despondency that God comes to invest Himself.
And the new promise is not that God will whisk you and I out of our homes and communities to live some whole new existence.
God reinvests us with hope and forgiveness and His Spirit and sends us back into the place of hurt.
And the result of God's actions in our lives in the middle of our struggles is that we begin to see the green leaf of hope where we thought hope was not possible.
God renews the old, not throw it out.
Advent reminds us that the solution to our difficulties is in Jesus at work in them.
God does not promise to give us whole new lives. He promises to be with us in the lives we have now.
He promises us a leader.
He has given us a leader.
Jesus was born into the world, left a legacy of teaching and action, died, rose from the grave and is present in Spirit to bring life into situations we thought were dead.
That is the gospel.
Jesus lives to give life.
New life is possible in the most impossible of people, relationships or circumstances.
Follow the king.
Preached
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian Church
Victoria, British Columbia
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him? the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD?
and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth
Isaiah 11:1-4
There is a corner of my basement where there are a number of broken or no-longer-useful items which I just haven't thrown out yet. Usually they are not easily disposed of. I have a scanner that just quit but haven't thrown out.. I have no idea what quit on it. Maybe its just a broken wire, or maybe its a failed chip. Who knows?, but there it sits and will until I figure out how to dispose of it. I just discovered an old printer too. It just quit and I found an inexpensive replacement so it just sits gathering dust. Electronic equipment is especially vulnerable to that kind of obsolescence. Computer chips become dated or too expensive to replace.
Other things we buy are designed to be discarded. There was a time you could buy small bottles of butane to refill your lighter. No more. When its done, you pitch it.
Ditto the ball point pen. We have a special container for dried up ball point pens which sits on the kitchen counter next to the telephone.
Visit a scrap metal yard sometime and see the automobiles that get scrapped. You'll remember driving one of them.
But there they go!....grind 'em up, spit 'em out and melt 'em down.
It's a good thing God doesn't treat us that way.
One of the other texts for today describes John the Baptizer preaching out in the wilderness. The people come from Jerusalem to hear him. Their attitude seems to have been, "we're pretty hot stuff. We're children of Abraham! You can't talk to us that way."
John's reply is "Baloney, God can make better children of Abraham out of the stones you see around you."
I wonder why God doesn't. Not about the people in John's time, but with me in particular. Why does God persist?
It has something to do with God being God.
In our passage, Isaiah is speaking of a tree stump that starts to sprout.
Isaiah lives in and around Jerusalem toward the end of the time of the kings of Judah.
God tells Isaiah that his people are like a vineyard he has planted. But instead of producing the fruit that befits its loving care, it only produces stinking wild grapes. The result is that God is going to rip it up and tear down all the structures that aided grape growing.
Grind 'em up, spit 'em out and melt 'em down!
But in our passage today God is showing Isaiah a vision of hope.
Judah is going to be conquered by the Babylonians and David's royal line will come to an end.
There will be other kings, but they are not descendants of David.
That line has been cut off.
But in the passage we read this morning, God is telling Isaiah that from the stump of Jesse, will come a Branch.
Jesse is David's father and means the lineage of David.
God has ended the literal Davidic kingship, but there is the promise of a new, future king who will be from David's line.
Matthew takes care to establish that Jesus qualifies as being a descendant of David, and that is how we understand that word from God thousands of years later. God promises an ideal leader, from the lineage of David.
We see in Jesus, the fulfillment of God's promise.
In fact it is hard to see that any other human being could fulfill all that Isaiah was promising.
There was no opportunity for a new king of Judah from David's line and the profile is that of an almost inhumanly ideal ruler.
Contemporary Judaism has largely discounted this as a real person and sees the ideal characteristics as embodied in the community as a whole.
At Advent we look back through the lens of Bethlehem and see Jesus in clear focus.
Of the many thoughts that come to mind, one impresses me most.
God is the God of broken stumps and broken people.
Ours is not a throwaway God.
It is out of the old that God brings the new.
God persists with us as the focus of divine love.
God could have consigned homo sapiens to the scrap heap.
Many contemporary writers portray us as the scourge of the earth, responsible for its pollution, wars and destruction.
They might say, "grind 'em up, spit 'em out and melt 'em down."
God says, "no".
In spite of all their failed promise, I have a better promise.
In fact my promise is going to come directly out of the old failed material.
But I will put My Spirit in him and He will not disappoint.
Jesus does not consign us individually to the scrap heap and he does not consign us collectively to the scrap heap.
It is out of the failed hopes and broken promises that God brings new life.
It is into the darkness of your discouragement and your despondency that God comes to invest Himself.
And the new promise is not that God will whisk you and I out of our homes and communities to live some whole new existence.
God reinvests us with hope and forgiveness and His Spirit and sends us back into the place of hurt.
And the result of God's actions in our lives in the middle of our struggles is that we begin to see the green leaf of hope where we thought hope was not possible.
God renews the old, not throw it out.
Advent reminds us that the solution to our difficulties is in Jesus at work in them.
God does not promise to give us whole new lives. He promises to be with us in the lives we have now.
He promises us a leader.
He has given us a leader.
Jesus was born into the world, left a legacy of teaching and action, died, rose from the grave and is present in Spirit to bring life into situations we thought were dead.
That is the gospel.
Jesus lives to give life.
New life is possible in the most impossible of people, relationships or circumstances.
Follow the king.
he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
Preached
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian Church
Victoria, British Columbia