ADVENT 2, December 8, 2013

 

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

 

 

The prophet Isaiah gives us a wonderful Advent image in our Old Testament reading today.  “A shoot from the stump of Jesse.”   Imagine a big thick stump – with hundreds of growth rings indicating a long life for the tree that once proudly grew there.  And out of that dead rotting stump a little green shoot manages to find the nutrients to grow.  Only a keen observer would take notice of it.  But there it is pushing its way forward – it’s inner life force reaching for the sun – it’s roots sinking deep into whatever soil it can find – like the summer weed that breaks through rock and concrete.  This happens all the time in nature and there are scientific explanations for it, but it still seems like a miracle.

 

 

 

The prophet uses this image of a shoot sprouting from a stump to suggest something is coming. It reminds us that God is about to do something new in places where there is only death and decay.  It’s an image, of course, that points us to Christ who is the shoot – the Branch – and who brings us new life.

 

 

 

An ancient Advent tradition is based on this prophetic image from Isaiah.  The Jesse Tree is a bare branch decorated during the days of Advent with symbols of all the people and events in the Old Testament that led up to the birth of Jesus.  The shoot from the stump of Jesse becomes Jesus’ family tree!  It bore fruit in the life of Jesus when he accomplished salvation for the world!

 

 

 

And it all starts from something so small . . . so tender . . . so fragile . . . so seemingly insignificant . . . and barely noticed.

 

 

 

Now this might be a time to remember the old adage:  mighty oaks from little acorns grow.  Yes, great things start small.  We are often reminded of the humble beginnings of great and famous men and women – those who made it big against all odds.

 

 

 

And look what came from Jesse’s shoot:  the Messiah – the Son of God himself!  But Jesus didn’t grow up to be someone who would tower over us.  He did not grow in power and wealth and fame.  Yes, now in heaven Jesus reigns at God’s right hand and we worship him by faith.  But in his life on earth, Jesus never became anything great in the world’s eyes.

 

 

 

The shoot that grew from Jesse’s stump had a small humble beginning – he had an even more humiliating ending!  He was noticed and received by only a few – all of whom eventually abandoned him because he never grew to meet their expectations.  That’s exactly what the prophet Isaiah writes later on of the Messiah.  In chapter 53 he says,

 

For he grew up before them like a young plant,

 

and like a root out of dry ground;

 

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

 

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

 

He was despised and rejected. . .

 

 

 

 

 

It is JESSE’S stump after all from which the shoot grows.  Who was Jesse anyway?  You don’t recognize him as anybody important or significant because he really wasn’t.  Jesse was David’s father.  And David, against all expectations, the youngest of seven sons, went from rags to riched and became the great king and the father of a great dynasty of kings.  In fact all the kings of Judah who ruled after him were called “sons of David.” And we remember that Jesus’ earthly family was from the line of David.

 

 

 

 

 

But Isaiah says it is the stump of Jesse from which the Messiah comes, not David.  Why use Jesse’s name?  Jesse was no king.  He was a poor peasant.  And Jesus grows from this humble experience.  He comes not to live in the palace or sit on a throne, but to live among God’s people.  He comes not with David’s impressive record of conquests and war credentials but to bring peace.  In fact it is the proud heritage of David that is chopped down.  Jesus grows from Jesse – poor, insignificant and forgotten.  He is the NEW David who will rule not in power and might but in humility for the last and the least.

 

 

 

Jesus is the persistent tender shoot that finds its way in the least likely of places.  In the last place you would expect God, he is there seeking and saving you.  Isn’t the cross the last place we’d expect God?  It is in the cross that we see God at work for us and in the shadow of the cross life and salvation grow in us.  Because on the cross, planted into the lifeless soil of our sin and death, Jesus sprouts something new – something so unexpected – a miracle!  The faithful promise of God nudges him forward.  It pushed back the stone from the rock-hard tomb.  He will never give up because in him is the power of God to save.  And it all starts with a tender shoot . . .

 

 

 

The fact that Jesus comes to us in such humility and smallness does not mean that our expectations should be low or that we should hope only for small things.  “Nothing is impossible with God.”  That’s what the angel reminded a poor young girl from Nazareth in whom that shoot of Jesse was first conceived.  But what we learn is that it is the small things – the things that seem like nothing – the dead tree and the broken body – these ARE the significant things.   This is exactly where new life is springing.  In Jesus the unexpected things become more than we could hope for.

 

 

 

In the relationship that seems too broken too mend . . .  in a grief that seems too heavy to bear . . . in the confusion that feels so lonely and dark. . . in the heart that seems too hard to crack . . . in the problem that appears beyond repair . . . in the situation that looks hopeless.  That’s where the shoot comes up.

 

 

 

The Bible says that God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.  Advent corrects and re-directs our hope and expectation so that we no longer value what the world considers important.  So we stop hoping for what is not promised to us.  So we stop expecting what is not even for our good. So we stop praying for what is not according to God’s plan for us.  John the Baptist tells us today in our Gospel that the ax is at the root of the tree – ready to chop down our false hopes and self-centered expectations.  And throught faith in Jesus we start noticing and seeing small things . . . the real things . . . the things that show new life.

 

 

 

Simple gestures.  Baby steps.  A smile from a long frozen face.  A step into a church after years of hurt.  A prayer from lips that haven’t spoken to God in a long time.  A little baby crying in a manger. A shoot from a dead stump. What is fragile is strength.  What looks dead IS life-giving.  What is broken is blessed.

 

 

 

What if we believe these small signs are the beginning of God’s saving activity beginning? Perhaps then we will tend the seedling in our hearts, the place where faith longs to break through the hardness of our disbelief. Perhaps we will nurture it in others. Perhaps we will protect it in those who are weak and fragile.  We may still want to sit on the stump for a while, and God will sit with us. But he will also keep nudging us: “Look — there on the stump. Do you see that green shoot growing?”