Isaiah 11

Oh Tannenbaum

Posted on by Betsy

Is your Christmas tree up yet? I bet for the majority of us it is. Decorating a Christmas tree is such a time of sweet nostalgia. We decorated our tree with the help of our older grandchildren, hanging each ornament up with the story of where it came from. I almost cried when my granddaughter showed me a little gold teapot with sparkling crystals and said it was her favorite one. I gave that to my tea-loving mother decades ago and inherited it back when she died. To see a fourth generation daughter appreciate it blessed me so much, and we had a long talk about her great-grandmother and what a wonderful woman she was.

Have you ever wondered about the history of the Christmas tree and what it symbolizes? Take a look at the first sentence of today’s lectionary passage from Isaiah.

Isaiah 11 (Common English Bible)

A shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse;
    a branch will sprout from his roots.

Isaiah prophesies that a branch from Jesse’s roots will shoot up and receive the Lord’s spirit. Jesse was David’s father’s and of course Jesus was born of David’s lineage. So even back to the Old Testament we see Jesus’ birth associated with trees. We’ve been celebrating Christmas with trees for centuries.

I did some research and discovered that Christmas is a holiday especially suited to trees. Earl W. Count wrote a book called 4000 Years of Christmas (New York: Henry Schuman, 1948). Count reveals that using evergreens at Christmas was a medieval practice from Northern Europe. The green boughs served as devil-proof shields against all the evil forces of the universe, because evergreens refuse to die and never give up their green for the winter.

You probably didn’t realize that your humble Christmas tree is a devil-proof shield, did you? Unless you have a cat, in which case the devil-proofing function is null and void.

Count wrote: “Winter kills most of summer’s train but the greens remain steadfast. Where the greens are, it is not winter. They are the enemies of winter’s white death” (64-66).

According to our United Methodist Website, evergreens are understood as a symbol of the eternal coming to dwell among us as Word made flesh. They are a sign of life and growth overcoming and flourishing in the midst of the dead of winter, and also of the resurrection of Christ.  The symbolism of evergreens points to the unending life of the age to come when Christ returns, the dead are raised, and the righteous enter life in the new creation.

Isaiah goes on to describe the attributes of the impending messiah:

2 The Lord’s spirit will rest upon him,
    a spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    a spirit of planning and strength,
    a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.
3 He will delight in fearing the Lord.
He won’t judge by appearances,
    nor decide by hearsay.
4 He will judge the needy with righteousness,
    and decide with equity for those who suffer in the land.
He will strike the violent with the rod of his mouth;
    by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be the belt around his hips,
    and faithfulness the belt around his waist.

When you admire your own Christmas tree over the next few weeks, ponder these things. We are called to be like Jesus: wise and understanding, strong in our faith, non-judgmental, impervious to gossip, and generous to the needy. We are the lovely branches of Christ. How can you live that out today?

10 On that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a signal to the peoples. The nations will seek him out, and his dwelling will be glorious.

May we stand as a signal to the people as well.

How Lovely Are Thy Branches

Kingdom Come

Posted on by Betsy

When do your Christmas decorations go up? I feel as though people decorate earlier and earlier. In the past, it seemed as though decorations started to appear the weekend after Thanksgiving, beginning with outdoor decorations. A tree might go up somewhere around the middle of December, especially if you use a live tree with a short shelf life. There is nothing worse than having your tree die before Christmas!

But lately it seems that Christmas immediately follows Halloween. Take a look around your neighborhoods and see if that is true where you live. Perhaps it is an economy of effort, as you might as well take advantage of ladders and steps tools already being out for the removal of Halloween decor. And nothing ages faster than Halloween decor in November.

Advent will begin on the Sunday after Thanksgiving this year, in November. It seems as though even the lectionary calendar is rushing us toward Christmas.

But while we are still in October, let us dwell in the moment of realization that a messiah was needed before we get to the manger. Isaiah is probably my favorite book in the Old Testament, and this passage resonates with the hope and heartache of a nation in diaspora who longed for a messiah to come in order to be delivered:

Isaiah 11 (Common English Bible)

A shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse;
    a branch will sprout from his roots.
2 The Lord’s spirit will rest upon him,
    a spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    a spirit of planning and strength,
    a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.
3 He will delight in fearing the Lord.
He won’t judge by appearances,
    nor decide by hearsay.
4 He will judge the needy with righteousness,
    and decide with equity for those who suffer in the land.
He will strike the violent with the rod of his mouth;
    by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be the belt around his hips,
    and faithfulness the belt around his waist.

The humble nature of this messiah is proclaimed right off the bat. By stating that this “shoot” will spring from Jesse and not David reminds us of the humility of the messiah yet to come. David was a king, and Jesse was a plain farmer and shepherd. While both are part of the messiah’s lineage, to name Jesse as the stump is to indicate that this savior would not appear as royalty. Amazing!

6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
    and the leopard will lie down with the young goat;
    the calf and the young lion will feed[c] together,
    and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow and the bear will graze.
    Their young will lie down together,
    and a lion will eat straw like an ox.
8 A nursing child will play over the snake’s hole;
    toddlers will reach right over the serpent’s den.
9 They won’t harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain.
    The earth will surely be filled with the knowledge of the Lord,
    just as the water covers the sea.

Good news for the vegans! This seems to indicate a return to the beginning of creation, when all creatures lived in harmony and there were no carnivores on the earth. It wasn’t until Genesis 9: 2-3 that humans were given dominion over the earth’s creatures and meat was added to their diet. When the messiah comes to reign, even the lion will eat straw and the children will be safe around snakes.

10 On that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a signal to the peoples. The nations will seek him out, and his dwelling will be glorious.

“On that day.” We already know the end of this story as it bore fruition with the birth of Christ. We now anticipate Christ’s second coming, which will fulfill all the promises of peace and harmony that the world today so desperately needs. Let’s not jump ahead too quickly but allow the seasons to unfold slowly as we wait. Jesus is coming! Let us take time to get ready.

Harvest Moon at Sunrise by Stacy Murphy

A Shoot from the Stump

Posted on by Betsy

We are moving into the Advent scriptures that focus on the peace on earth that will prevail when the Messiah comes to reign. I have always loved reading Isaiah in preparation for Christmas. I can hear Handel’s Messiah in his beautiful words of prophecy. In Chapter 11, Isaiah described what will happen to “the proud trees that God will chop down” which he had warned about in Chapter 10. After taking Jerusalem down to the stump, God will send a savior who will lead Israel back to prosperity after Assyria has done its damage. He foretells that a shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse:

Isaiah 11 (Common English Bible)

A shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse;
    a branch will sprout from his roots.
2 The Lord’s spirit will rest upon him,
    a spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    a spirit of planning and strength,
    a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.

Jesse, of course, was the father of King David. Jesus, of course, was from the line of David and so our New Testament glasses allow us to read this as a prophecy about Jesus’ coming. Seeing Jesus through this lens, look how perfectly Isaiah describes our Savior:

3 He will delight in fearing the Lord.
He won’t judge by appearances,
    nor decide by hearsay.
4 He will judge the needy with righteousness,
    and decide with equity for those who suffer in the land.
He will strike the violent with the rod of his mouth;
    by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be the belt around his hips,
    and faithfulness the belt around his waist.

Indeed, Jesus suffered no fools. When we focus on the gentle baby cooing in the manger, we forget about the radical Jesus who threw money lenders from the Temple steps and delivered many a harsh word against sin and unrighteous behavior. This picture of Jesus reminds us that he won’t play favorites with the rich and that equity for all will be the rule of law. He will be adorned in righteousness and faithfulness.

What will you be wearing this Christmas? As you adorn yourself in party clothes and that special Christmas Eve ensemble, will you also wear the clothes of your Savior and put on righteousness and faithfulness? Are you working for equity among all of God’s people?

Isaiah then turned to the “peace on earth” theme and wrote about the most extreme opposites getting along together. Do you suppose there will be a time when Democrats and Republicans will act this way as well?

6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
    and the leopard will lie down with the young goat;
    the calf and the young lion will feed together,
    and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow and the bear will graze.
    Their young will lie down together,
    and a lion will eat straw like an ox.
8 A nursing child will play over the snake’s hole;
    toddlers will reach right over the serpent’s den.
9 They won’t harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain.
    The earth will surely be filled with the knowledge of the Lord,
    just as the water covers the sea.

Someday, SOME day, we will all be under Jesus’ reign and our differences won’t matter. We will all seek Jesus with our whole hearts, and this stump of Jesse born from a trunk that was cut down due to its arrogance will flourish and grow to lead us as a nation of peoples. And that place will be glorious.

10 On that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a signal to the peoples. The nations will seek him out, and his dwelling will be glorious.

Oh, come, oh come Emmanuel!

A Branch Will Grow by Becca Ziegler