Today we lit the 2nd candle in the advent
wreath to remember the prophets.
And today’s readings
are concerned with two of the greatest of them: Isaiah in the Old Testament (Isaiah
11:1-10) and John the Baptist in the New (Matthew 3:1-12). Christians see their
prophetic words as referring to the incarnation of God in Jesus, and the coming
of Christ’s kingdom.
We shouldn’t see prophets,
I think, as being like weather forecasters, or racing tipsters - people who merely
foretell the future without engaging in it. Rather a prophet is someone who tells
things how they are and expresses a vision for how things should be. This powerfully
influences those who listen, so that they act to make that prophetic vision a
reality. Prophets actually change history through their vision!
Let me try to tease
out what these prophets’ words say to me.
Let’s start with Isaiah’s vision of a world of
peace and justice.
‘The wolf shall live with the
lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the
fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.’
Such a beautiful image.
But we all know, don’t we, that the strong prey on the weak; the natural world
is all about survival of the fittest. ‘Nature,
red in tooth and claw’ – the phrase comes from Tennyson's
long poem ‘In Memoriam’ (canto 56). In it the poet contrasts the idea of a good
and loving God with the terrors of an uncaring Nature. He talks about a person
of faith,
Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law-
Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek'd against his creed
Surely Isaiah’s vision
of predator and prey at peace together can be nothing more than a fairytale? That’s
not the way the world works. What’s going on here?
The context is important, I think.
Isaiah is writing in
Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, at a time of great danger. The Assyrians have
just conquered Judah’s twin kingdom of Israel and carried the people off as
captives, and now they threaten Judah. Isaiah believes that the social and
political collapse of Israel was caused by its failure to live up to the spirit
of the law given in Sinai – and he sees the same thing happening to Judah.
Isaiah has just prophesied that Judah too will be overthrown, but he can’t
believe that God will desert his chosen people completely – once the Assyrians
have purged those who have broken the covenant, surely a faithful remnant will
be left.
So in today’s reading Isaiah
prophesies that from the root of Jesse, the ancestor of Judah’s kings, a new
shoot will rise up. From the ruins of Jerusalem, from the ruins of the kingdom
of Jesse’s son David, a new kingdom will arise. It will be a kingdom of
justice and peace, worthy of God’s favour. It will be marked by ‘the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of
knowledge and fear of the Lord’. Its ruler – from the stock of Jesse
– ‘with
righteousness … shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of
the earth’.
It is a vision of the
kingdom of heaven. In such a society the powerful will not prey on the weak.
Isaiah’s vision is about people, not nature. Survival of the fittest should not
– must not - apply in human society, even if it does in nature.
Isaiah was wrong in his belief that Judah would
fall to the Assyrians.
The Assyrians
mysteriously abandoned their attack. When destruction came, 100 years later, it
was the Babylonians, not the Assyrians who laid waste to Jerusalem and carried
its leaders into exile.
But Isaiah’s vision
was not forgotten. His words were remembered by the exiles. His vision inspired
them to hold firm in their traditional faith, to keep their identity as a
people, and to return home when conditions allowed.
Over the centuries
that followed, Isaiah’s words were studied and elaborated. By the time of Jesus,
religious Jews felt quite certain that God would send his Messiah – his
anointed one – of the stock of Jesse, who would rule over the Jewish people, as
Isaiah had prophesied, with righteousness and faithfulness.
John the Baptist believed in Isaiah’s prophecy
and expected God to send his Messiah.
As Matthew reports, he
told his followers ‘one who is more powerful than I is coming after me, I am
not worthy to carry his sandals’. Matthew also believed that John
himself was the messenger that Isaiah said would announce the Messiah, ‘the voice of one
crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths
straight”. John called the people to, ‘Repent,’ – that is, to make a
new start, to change their lives – ‘for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ – the kingdom
of Isaiah’s vision.
Jesus surely pondered
Isaiah’s words too. I believe he realised that they were to be fulfilled in
him. But God gave Jesus the insight that he must come as the Messiah, not in
physical power and glory like a secular king, but as a suffering servant to
lead his people – all people, Jews and gentiles alike – by his example, to the
kingdom of heaven which his loving father God willed.
The early Christians,
steeped in the Jewish Messiah tradition, were convinced that Jesus is the shoot
from the stock of Jesse in Isaiah’s prophesy. The spirit of the Lord rested
upon him. He preached the kingdom of heaven. He died that we might be saved, he
rose from the dead, and he ascended to God. Surely, they said, he will return
to rule with righteousness and faithfulness over God’s kingdom of justice and
peace.
So what of us today? Can we believe in Isaiah’s
vision?
In our own time, as in
Isaiah’s, we are faced with danger and uncertainty. The prophets of today are
the climate scientists and ecologists. They not only proclaim the consequences
of not caring for this beautiful planet as we should, but they also show us a
path forward to a sustainable future in which all creatures may flourish,
including ourselves.
We must never give up
hope. We must hold on to Isaiah’s vision – the world can be like the kingdom of
heaven, filled with justice and peace. John’s call echoes in our ears, to make
a new start because the kingdom of heaven has come near. Jesus has shown us the
way as God incarnate. He has sent the Holy Spirit to lead us, and fire to drive
us forward, just as John said he would. Our calling as Christians is to do our
bit to make his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, a reality.
God is faithful to his
faithful people.
‘They will not hurt
or destroy on all my holy
mountain; for the earth will
be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover
the sea.’
Isaiah’s vision is not
a fairytale – it is a vision of the kingdom that God wants for us all. And Jesus
has shown us how to make it a reality.
I shall finish with
a Collect of the Word:
God of all peoples,
whose servant John came baptising
and calling for repentance:
help us to hear his voice of judgement,
that we may also rejoice in the word of promise,
and be found pure and blameless in that glorious Day
when Christ comes to rule the earth as Prince of Peace;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen
