Desperate
times. The people of God to whom Isaiah spoke, looked around them and it seemed
nothing good in the world was left. Even if it had not all been lost, it soon
would be. The nation of Israel had been conquered and destroyed. Huge swaths of
their population had been chained up and taken away into exile, to live out
their lives as foreigners in a foreign land. Not exactly held captive but definitely
not allowed to return to their homes or their homeland. The nation had been
left in pieces. Their cities were destroyed, their fields laid to waste, even
if they could return home, were there even homes for them to which to return?
The people of the neighboring country of
Judah, was left. They were witnesses to the destruction of their sister county.
I am sure they were relieved to be left out of the current carnage. But Assyria
was an insatiable beast who had consumed Israel for a mid-day snack and would return
soon, appetite whet and ready to devour them as well. It did not an act of
divination to let them know that soon their fate would be the same as Israel’s,
it was only a matter of time. They were a people holding their breath waiting
for destruction, hoping for salvation.
It
was into this world of fear and despair which God gave Isaiah a vision for the
people. A vision of a stump, a great and mighty tree, cut down. A people
brought to their knee, whose end is in sight. God shows them who they are. They
are but a stump. A tree cut off, destroyed, dead. The end is inevitable.
But
then something amazing begins to happen. A small green shoot begins to grow, a
soft pliable bit of growth. It is frail, it is fragile, but it is a alive. The
tree is not dead, it lives, it will grow again, it will one day flourish again.
All is not lost. It may seems as if this is the end but it is not. Their nation
may die, but they will live again. This is not the end of the story for the
people of God. Death, destruction, war, chaos may surround but from the
darkness a light will break forth, faint at first but it will grow strong and
one day, death will give way to life and peace will reign.
The
spirit of the Lord will be within the people. They will know God, this
understanding will guide their steps and they will proceed with wisdom, down
the paths which the Lord will lead them. They will judge each other with wise
council, the widow will be fed, orphans cared for, none will go without and all
will be looked after with kindness and caring. Justice will be given;
recompense to all who need it and punishment for all seek the harm of others.
The nation will be strong and mighty like a tall oak tree, not easily felled.
And upon them will be the mark of ones who know the knowledge and the fear of
the Lord God. They will worship the Lord with gladness and will follow God’s
commands with joy.
The
knowledge of God will be like a vast ocean covering all the earth and all
creation are sea creatures living and breathing the goodness of God, living by
God’s statues and surrounded by God’s justice. The righteous would treat the poor
with equity and the wicked would no longer prevail. The law of God would once again
be the law of the land. Peace would reign and justice would be known throughout
the land.
But
the peace they will know will not end with them, it will extend to encompass
all creation. The predators of the natural world will rest beside their prey.
The one will not move to strike and the other will not shrink back in fear. Not
one will pursue, and not one will run away. All creation will live at peace,
not even the youngest of human children will be afraid of death at the hand of
even the deadliest of animals.
The
once dead tree will grow and all will see that the Lord God bring life out of
death and will settle the land which once only knew war and chaos with an
everlasting peace, which will blanket the ground like leaves in the fall, or
snow after a blizzard. But it will be the signal of growth and life, in a place
which one only knew death and destruction. The peace of the Lord will thick and
enduring, covering all the world. It would be like never ending rich food from
which all would eat until full and satisfied.
When
I was in college, my friends and I would go out in the evenings on the weekends
and explore the city. We would take the train and get off somewhere in the city,
usually at park street and head in a direction and just walk, enjoy the freedom
of college life and the fun of the city after dark. Sometimes we would wander
over to the Esplanade, where one anonymous weekend evening we found a tree.
Like many trees in this city it was old, most likely having been here when
before the first Europeans founded this city. From the first time we discovered
it, I declared it to be my favorite tree in the city. I would return to it over
and over again throughout my college years, it really was my favorite tree.
When I returned to the city in 2009, on one of the first Sundays we were here,
I took my family across the river on a Sunday afternoon in search of the tree,
so I could share it majesty with my family. And over the last decade there have
been many pictures taken of the girls playing in that tree, walk along its
giant branches, resting among it limbs. There are also several pictures of Mike
and I in the tree both individually and together. It is still my favorite tree
in all of Boston.
It
is an old tree. At some point it had fallen and cut off, because most of that
old tree is growing out of an even older stump. But that is not the only time
it has been knocked down. Most of the tree grows sideways in several arching
leaps, which makes me believe it has fallen over several times. Each time
finding new life and continuing to grow. It has survived and survived again. Storm
after storm, rain, and winds, long cold winters, hot dry summers, through it
all, it has just kept on growing. In circumstances where other trees might have
died, this tree, continues to grow and to flourish. Right now when all we can
see is how is today, its near destruction is hard to see, but there were times
when a passerby would have thought it was dying, there was no hope for the poor
old thing. But it did not die; it managed to continue to find life in the midst
of death.
Most
people when they listen to Isaiah’s prophesy here, think of something like this:
or this:
but when I hear it I
think of my favorite tree on the Esplanade.
Isn’t
it amazing! At one point it was probably more like the first picture, but now
it is a vibrant strong tree, which has weathered the storms and has come back
from the brink of death more than once.
This
tree is the people of God to whom Isaiah was speaking. It is the people of God
anywhere and everywhere there is death and destruction. It is the people of God
when it seems all hope is lost; when war and chaos reign and there seems to be
no way forward. It is the people of God strong after the storm, continuing to
grow, finding strength in God in the face of death. This is a tree which knows
and understands that we worship a God who brings life out of the ashes of
destruction.
When
I look at the world around me today; when I look at the events which are
happening not only all around the world, but in our nation, here in the US, I
can understand the perspective of the nation of Judah to whom Isaiah spoke when
God gave him this vision. The world around us seems to be on fire. We stand in
the middle of it all and can see it all as burnt hollowed out stump of a tree.
All around us are the seeds of death, the portents of destruction, the remnants
of chaos and floods of despair. It is not even that we see nation rising
against nation, but we live in a land where a people is rising up against
itself. Too many times we cannot even speak civilly to one another.
We
remember the words of Jesus from the Gospel text just a few weeks ago, “Nation
will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great
earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and
great signs from heaven,” We live in a time when we know and understand these
kinds of signs. Our world is at war with itself. It seems as if we are standing
in the middle of the destruction, in the middle of the chaos. And it would be
easy to lose all hope, to look around and say, nothing good can come now.
There
are times when the darkness in our lives seems to great. Our lives are in
chaos. There are more bills than money. Our health is continually failing, one
illness piles on top of another. Our car broke down. We hate our job, or find
that we no longer have one. There are so many death events in our lives. We
stand in the smoldering ashes of own lives. There is no hope, there is no peace
and we are at a loss to find any life or growth around us. It is into these places,
into these situations in our lives God speaks this morning. A shoot will grow
up in the place where there is only death.
Life
can be found. We may not see it now, but here in this world where only death
can be found, God will bring life. We may not know it now, it may not yet be
seen, but soon, a shoot of growth will spring up. There is hope, there is
peace. God is here in the midst of the storm, in the middle of the chaos, and
God will bring new life. Death will not have its victory; we worship a God of
resurrection and new life!
But
the message of the stump speaks to more than just our individual lives, it speaks
to US. I don’t know about you but I look around and I feel like we are the
people of God to whom Isaiah give his message this morning; so many have gone
from us; so many have died, so many have moved away, so more and from our
number are not able to join us on Sunday mornings. We feel like the stump of a
once great tree, which grew and flourished but now, not so much. We are all
that’s left of something that once was great. Once we were a tree, flourishing,
full of life and growth. But now we are a stump.
God
promises life. God says a shoot will grow out of the stump; small and fragile
at first; frail in it new life, but with the hope and the promise of one day
being a new tree, a strong tree. God’s tree, God’s people spreading out our
branches and fill the world around us with the grace and truth and love of God.
But
now, just as he did then, Jesus says this is not the end. In Isaiah this was
true and it is just as true now. THIS is not the end. God promises growth in
the midst of destruction, peace in a world at war, and life in the midst of
death.
As we prepare ourselves for the Lord, this Advent Season, let find Hope in the Peace which God alone provides.
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