Proclaiming Our Deepest Longing

Isaiah 11:1-10
Matthew 3:1-12

We’ve all seen those cute videos on You-tube and national TV. You know the ones with that show unlikely animal friends such as a crow befriending a kitten, or the lioness adopting a baby antelope. Then there’s the over the top video of a rat, riding a cat who is riding a dog through the streets of San Francisco. However the video that brings tears to my eyes is the reunion of Christian the lion with his former human caretakers a year after the lion was released into the wilds of Africa. It is impossible to think that a predator such as a lion being so affectionate with what should be its prey. What is it that causes these homemade videos to go viral, to be passed electronically from person to person until the viewership reaches over a million and said video is shown on the national news? What is it about predator and prey playing together that captures our attention? Could it be that such a vision captures a sense of our deepest longing of the world as God would have it?

In the Hebrew scripture this morning, we hear the prophet Isaiah give this exact vision of what the world will be like when God raises up a king to rule Israel with justice and equity. No more will aggression rule the day for when God reigns violence and brutality will be no more and even the animals will overcome their carnivorous nature to lounge together in the safety of God’s abundant creation. Now it is important to note that this vision of was not Isaiah predicting of the coming of Jesus Christ. In this passage Isaiah was pinning all his hopes unto a young Hezekiah who would succeed Ahaz after the Northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians 721 years before the birth of Christ. However this vision illuminates what the incarnation of Jesus means as we read this text through a Christian lens. Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann states that this interpretation “establishes a linkage between the Jewish expectation” of God setting things right through an earthly king who will rule with righteousness and “the powerful, compelling reality of Jesus” A responsible interpretation of this text is that what Isaiah had hoped for in his own time was actually embodied and enacted through Jesus’ life and ministry.

However it is over 2000 years since Jesus’ birth and violence still pervades every corner of our world. Today, we have enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world four times over. The news is filled stories about new terrorist plots, economic uncertainty and conflicts between countries in far away places that effect life in this small town. And there are many of us who have experienced violence and the abuse of power on a personal level. In spite of God’s incarnation through Jesus, the wolves still circle where the lambs graze and the lion ravages its prey.

In his commentary on Isaiah, Brueggeman notes that this passage begins with a stump which is a dead plant from which nothing will grow. The context is a deep failure of the Davidic dynasty. The kingdom has become divided and all the hopes of Israel are spent. “And now” Brueggeman states, “the poet asserts a new generativity” a new birth so to speak “with a sprout, unnamed and unidentified, but a faint sign of life, growth and possibility…the ‘spirit of Yahweh’ is a force that enlivens, gives power, energy and courage, so that its bearer is recognized as one designated, who has the capacity to do what the world believes is impossible…Judah will have in its midst an agent of new possibility who counters all its despair.” Hope gets its start from an unexpected place where transformation can begin from the ruins of dreams dead and discarded.

In the Gospel reading John the Baptist proclaims that the kingdom that Isaiah promised has come near. We’ve all seen the bumper sticker, “Jesus is coming…look busy.” What John is essentially saying is “The Messiah is coming…Everything is about to change.” John looks back to the tradition to point toward God’s new future. The writer of the gospel is careful to note what John is wearing, camel hair and a leather belt because that was the garb of Elijah a prophet of old. Scholars note that in Jesus’ day there “was an expectation that one day God would bring in the messianic age, setting all things right, restoring the fortunes of Israel, and placing an ideal king on David’s throne. A sign that this was about to happen is that Elijah would reappear. Symbolically, then John the Baptist is old Elijah returned from the past and his appearance in the wilderness stands as a sign of the nearness of the messianic age.”

Because the kingdom was near, John tells his congregation to repent, to turn away from the visions of this world and turn toward God’s vision for the world. To proclaim for one’s own longing, God’s great desire for all of creation to live in right relationship with each other. In this repentance, this re-orientation, the believer’s world view is changed from seeing things as they are to seeing things as they could be. The repented believer becomes open to God’s surprising will. Essentially the believer begins to live their life as if the reign of God is here and now, living a life where love rules over fear and hope rules over despair. Repentance is not about judgment rather it is about taking responsibility for the times we have fallen short of God’s vision. However, we know that we can honestly confess our shortcomings confident in the knowledge that God does forgive our sins.

A colleague shared a poem with me about being in church which fits nicely with both the texts we’ve read this morning.

Why are we here?

“We are not here to “do a bunk” from the world.
We are not here to “get in touch with our ‘inner selves’”.
We are not here to “recharge our batteries”.

Why are we here?

We are here because the world is not right,
because we are not right,
and because we are angry about injustice,
sad about suffering,
and ashamed of ourselves.

Why are we here?

We are here because God so loves the world
that he is making it right,
turning it into a new creation;
and because God so loves us
that he is making us right.
turning us into a new people,
making us like Jesus:
faithful, truthful, peaceful, hopeful.

We are here because God, in his grace, has called us here.” *

In this time of Advent, we prepare for the incarnation of Jesus by examining ourselves. Where do we need to make room for Jesus who embodied and expressed the peace, love and mercy that God wills for all people? Do we live our lives according to the faith we have in worldly things or according to our faith in the promises of God? How are we called to proclaim our deepest longing of peace on earth, wholeness for creation and an end to all violence?

May it be so.

Amen.

* http://virtualmethodist.blogspot.com/2010/11/call-to-worship.html adapted slightly via http://apearldownunder.blogspot.com/2010/12/impossible-kingdom.html