I would like to seize on the word, welcome. You are a welcome presence-we want you to feel welcome. Is. 11-gifts of the spirit here- (we attribute to baptism) worldwide hope for peace-look at the tools of this messianic figure-3 pairs of gifts-all related to the wisdom figure of Prov. In the previous chapters trees have been felled as the result of a conquering army, out of that stump, that remnant will come a leader, an antithesis of the boastful Assyrian of chapter 10.Justice, dispassionate justice will be a mark-V. 3 probably means dispassionate disinterested who looks beyond appearance and hearsay better standards
. Is.11- trees from 10 Assyria may stay down but Judah will rise a cutting? Lo a rose- --rod virga in Latin -the Hebrew word for "shoot" (11:1) can also mean "rod" or "scepter." Virtues in paris Assyrian boast of 10:13 counsel and might could be strategy and strength spirit given
. Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation's final law- Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw/ With ravine,2 shriek'd against his creed (Tennyson) -Peaceable kingdom again-Rod shifts to verbal rod or standards the wolf passage is precisely against the predatory role in 9 and 10. v. 10 magnetic image root of Jesse changed in LXX it is a signal -11:10 as christ’s tomb .
Rom. 15:4-13 Welcome (accept, embrace, get hold of take their hand, make a companion)one another-not division but harmony-not polarization We ar ein the holiday time of hospitality, of making people feel welcome.
Romans 15 accept/welcome inclusivity as Christ has welcomed you. How does Christ welcome us? Opens arms for Zaccheus-the open arms of a cross, the holiday gathering of communion.
Build up This advent of Christ, can never be claimed as a privilege by one group. Rather, everyone is invited, those who are inside and those who are not, into song!. The goal but also the witness of living together in harmony, of welcoming one another, is communal song! Psalm 72, appointed for this Sunday, picks up on this theme. The psalmist prays for the king of justice, for the righteous one to come, whose kingdom will bring justice to all, who is like life-giving showers, covering the earth and whose peace will abound until the end of time. Again, the vision and hope is broad, communal and all-encompassing.
As the community is invited into this praise so it is invited into this radical welcome. Christ has become the "servant" (verse 8) of one community but only to make this community's praise a praise that opens up windows and doors. in order that the promises given to the patriarchs, the promises given to all (like stars in the heaven) might be fulfilled. We might say that the vocation of this circumcised community is precisely to now be a servant to all people.
We have here a version of Luther's happy exchange: Christ takes upon himself everything that separates us from God and in return gives us all Christ's benefits, as we welcome the neighbor and as we are welcomed, as we live in harmony with one another in accordance with Jesus Christ Dirk G. Lange |
Jesse Trees-visual way of drawing our Isaiah passage to Jesus directly. It follows the lineage of jesus from Jesse to David through the centuries. Others link prophecies to the birth of Jesus. God welcomes the history of his people, history of a family, into the very life of jesus. "God loves human beings. God loves the world. Not an ideal human, but human beings AS THEY ARE; not an ideal world, but the REAL WORLD. ...this is for God the ground of unfathomable love. God establishes a most intimate unity with this. God becomes human, a real human being. While we exert ourselves to grow beyond our humanity, to leave the human behind us, GOD BECOMES HUMAN; and we must recognize that God wills that we be human, real human beings. While we distinguish between pious and godless, good and evil, noble and base, God loves REAL PEOPLE without distinction. (Bonhoeffer)
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