Community Church Sermons

Year A

December 8, 2013

The Second Sunday of Advent

A Christmas Family Scandal

Isaiah 11:1-10

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

Senior Pastor

Now wait just a second here!

Is Isaiah completely out of his mind?

This vision of his is just so…wrong – so completely wrong! His idea of heaven – referred to in this prophecy as God’s “holy mountain” – is just plain crazy!

The wolf will live with the lamb! The leopard will lie down with the goat; the calf and the lion and the yearling together! And a little child will lead them!

This is just so wrong!

The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. And get this…The infant will play near the hole of the cobra (and just a little aside here to say that the original text reads “The infant will play near the asp hole”, but evidently some preachers were taking too many liberties with that.

And the young child will put his hand into the viper’s nest.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

Snakes in heaven? Bears? Lions? Leopards? Wolves?

Why I’m not even sure Presbyterians go to heaven let alone predators like these!

Right?

Weren’t you always taught as a child that some folks go to heaven and other folks don’t? The folks who go to heaven are people like – well, like US! Good people! Nice people! People kind of like lambs and calves and other well-behaved domesticated animals.

But vicious predators? I’ve known a few people in my day who are just like wolves – bears – lions – leopards – and snakes in the grass. People who hunt down others and take advantage of them. People who eat-up other people just to satisfy themselves. Have you known people like that?

My third grade Sunday School teacher Betty Perry told us people like that don’t stand a chance.

And yet…here comes Isaiah!

You can insert into this text whoever or whatever you want in place of any of those wild predators or their victims – Adolph Hitler will lie down with Jewish people – kids up in New York playing the “knockout” game will drink tea with the Women’s Fellowship – the serial killer will play nicely with his victims.

Do you see how absolutely crazy this is?

This is the scandal of Christmas.

And although it runs counter to almost everything I grew up believing, this crazy vision has taken hold of me and won’t let me go. And the best way I can describe the tension I feel in all this is by saying I want a heaven where people like that aren’t allowed. I want a heaven where all us lambs, goats, cows, and innocent children can be kept safe from all those wolves, lions, bears and snakes out there.

That’s what I want. I want a Christian Final Solution where my own version of the Master Race is kept pure by consigning all others to the burning gases of Hell.

That’s what I want.

But – according to Isaiah – according to the Christmas story - it’s not what God wants.

God doesn’t think like me. Thank goodness. God doesn’t look at things like me. God doesn’t see the world the way I see it, or people the way I see them.

A little further along in Isaiah it says, “Your thoughts are not my thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

And from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, the story is told of God working away – at a plan that will be fulfilled in the fullness of time – a plan for bringing together all things – things in heaven and things on earth.

And the center, unifying hub of all these things being brought together, is Jesus Christ.

The wolf WILL lie down with the lamb. And even Methodists and Lutherans will sing in harmony together.

And if you have good spiritual eyes, you can actually see this plan of God’s working its way toward fulfillment in the background of history. Did you catch the opening verse of this passage from Isaiah?

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.”

If you know anything at all about Jewish history you know that when the Babylonians swept into the land in 597 BC they captured and then destroyed Jerusalem and its magnificent Temple. Nothing was left but rubble. And to make sure that the city and Temple would never be rebuilt, the Babylonians cut down all the trees and set fire to the stumps.

Can you picture this in your mind? A land of smoking fire-charred tree stumps?

Now add this to your mental image of smoking stumps: “A green shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse…”

God is in the business of resurrection and new life. That’s one of the most important things you can come to know about God. We can look out at our world today and see lots of charred stumps out there where the powers of evil have chopped life and people and even societies to the ground. And we can look at our own lives – and into our own families – and see the smoldering remains caused by mistakes we’ve made, sins we’ve committed, sins committed against us by others, and even the natural wear and tear of life.

But listen to God’s promise: “A shoot will come forth from that burned up stump of yours…”

God will not let evil and brokenness and division win.

And the fact that this message of hope comes out of the image of Jesse’s stump is so beautiful! Do you know who Jesse was? Yes, he was the father of King David. And it was out of David’s line that the Messiah would come! And here’s what happened many generations later in a passage we’ll read at Christmas: “And Joseph also went up from Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. And while they were there the time came for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger...”

The shoot that grew from that burned out stump of Jesse eventually turned into Jesus, the Savior of the world!

But there’s more. Jesse was not only the great-great-great-great-etc. grandfather of Jesus. He was also the son of Obed. And Obed – as I’m sure you know - was the son of a man named Boaz. And Boaz was married to a woman named Ruth.

And what a scandal were they!

You see, Ruth was not Jewish. She was a dirty, rotten Moabite! And you know about those Moabites, right? They were the people who – when Moses and the people came out of Egypt – refused to help them or even to let them pass through their land. And so years later when the laws of Israel were being written there was this strong regulation found in Deuteronomy 23:3: NO MOABITES ALLOWED! EVER!

Moabites and Jews hated each other. But God arranged for a Moabite woman and a Jewish man to fall in love. Isn’t love wonderful? It’s one of God’s sneakiest gifts. They fell in love. Got married. And they had a baby boy. They named him Obed. And when he grew up Obed and his wife had a baby boy named - Jesse. And out of the stump of Jesse – the scandalous family tree of Jesse - the Messiah came into the world.

Don’t ever presume you know who’s in – and who’s out. You and I are not qualified to judge what God can or cannot do with lions or tigers or bears. But the one thing you need to know about God – one thing above all others – is that God loves this world – and all its creatures – and all his children, every last one.

And what God calls us to do with our lives is this: “So far as possible, and as far as it depends on you, try to live in peace with all people.”

We started this service today by lighting the Peace Candle on our Advent Wreath. It illumines the way to that day when the wolf WILL lie down with the lamb…because all things have been united in Christ, the Savior of the world.

And we saw in our Children’s message that God is at work creating Shalom in the most unusual places – like South Africa – and through unlikely heroes – like Nelson Mandela.

So where do you fit into this dream that God has for the world – this vision that is made real in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior?

You are an outgrowth of that beautiful branch still growing out of the burned out stump of Jesse.

Today on the Second Sunday in Advent, take another step closer to Christmas. Go and proclaim shalom. Let there be shalom on earth. And let it begin with us.