SERMON SERIES

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“…as the waters cover the sea”

Isaiah 11:1-9

Delivered by Rev. Ray Kostulias

At the United Church in Walpole

December 9, 2007

“A branch from the tree of Jesse.”

First question: who is Isaiah talking about?

Here’s where the fun begins my faithful scholars. We have to go all the way back to the book of Ruth—the 8 th book of the bible (whereas Isaiah is the 23 rd book)—to find out who Jesse was.

The story of Ruth is a poignant and charming one. During a famine in Judah, a Jewish couple from Bethlehem, Elimelech and Naomi, traveled to a foreign land, the land of Moab with their two sons. There, Elimelech died and the two sons took Moabite wives. Then the sons, Mahlon and Chilion also died.

Naomi decided to return to her own country and she told her daughters-in-law that they should stay in Moab where they had family. Naomi would understand and give them her blessing, no hard feelings. One of the daughters-in-law reluctantly agreed. But the other, Ruth, insisted she would stay with Naomi, and she uttered those now famous, beautiful words: “Where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

This was more than just beautiful poetry. Think of the barriers of clan and culture that were overcome by love. Think of an Arab and a Jew today, saying to one another, “your people shall be my people.”

The tale has a happy ending. Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem. Ruth marries Boaz, a rich relative of Elimelech, and presents Naomi with a grandson, named Obed. Scripture finishes the story: Obed “became the father of Jesse, who became the father of David.”

Yes, that David! David the King! From whose line would issue…the Messiah! “A branch from the tree of Jesse.”

Jesus himself was a branch from that tree. In the first chapter of Matthew, a genealogy is given from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to Obed and Jesse, the father of King David. Through the kings and their sons that Isaiah was particularly writing about, his contemporaries, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, on down to “Matthan the father of Jacob and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary of whom Jeses was born…”

When you look at where Jesus came from-the descendent of parents from two enemy races-personal love conquering traditional hatred-is it any wonder that he is known as Prince of Peace?

Second question: did Isaiah know about Jesus?

Well, I’d have to say no, he did not. How could he? Seven hundred years before Christ’s birth? Isaiah was speaking of his own time, to the people of his own time and to them he addresses his message of hope. Just a few verses beyond the passage we read, Isaiah says the Lord will “recover the remnant which is left of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt…” and all the other powers that had conquered and exiled God’s people.

Isaiah wasn’t looking into the far future. That’s what fortune tellers do. That’s not faith. That’s magic. And it’s a fraud. We’re not capable of seeing the future. Prophets didn’t see the future. Isaiah didn’t see the future. But he saw the present, his present day, and he understood what it might lead to in the future.

Isaiah didn’t know about Jesus, but Jesus knew about Isaiah! Isaiah was part of Jesus’ bible-the Hebrew Scriptures-and I think it was Jesus’ favorite part of the bible. I think Jesus was inspired by the words of Isaiah: “with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.” And the first chance Jesus got to preach, what did he say? “Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the meek.” Almost the exact words of Isaiah!

I think Jesus studied every line of the book of the prophet Isaiah and it spoke the word of God to him and he saw himself and his mission in its prophetic poetry. All his life and purpose were defined in its precious passages.

He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth…and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.

The basic truth of Jesus life, the essence of his being, the will of his Father in Heaven was this: Never! Ever! to use or excuse violence, never rationalize or glamorize violence, in any situation, any cause, any extreme.

Even unto death! Even unto his own death on the Cross!

Remember, when they came for him –that SWAT team from the Temple police- and some of Jesus’ friends wanted to fight back and Jesus said, No! Put down your weapons! It’s not about who kills whom for the right reasons! It’s about not killing for any reason.

Third question: Are we getting this message today, in our time, in our circumstances?

Isaiah preached a glorious vision of peace on earth, in which even nature itself will be cured of its violence. “The leopard will lie down with the lamb.”

But I think we’ve become rather cynical about this vision. It’s all right to make pretty pictures of the peaceable kingdom with the fierce animals and the mild animals side by side, but of course, it’s not applicable to the real world. Woody Allen puts it humorously, saying, “The lion will lie down with the lamb, but the lamb won’t get much sleep.”

We miss the deeper truth that Isaiah was preaching-that human beings are capable of rising above animal instincts. We have alternatives to violence. We can reason. We can speak and listen to one another. We can understand one another’s situations, concerns, and fears. We can put ourselves in each other’s shoes. We can feel each other’s hurts and disappointments. We can negotiate, compromise, reach an agreement, even if we don’t completely trust each other.

And we can, and we must do all of these things before we ever raise our hands against one another.

I have to tell you: it is heartbreaking to me when I look around today and see how often, in so many ways, we have surrendered our principles to the old myth of might makes right-the false and evil notion that violence works, violence can fix things, violence can make things better.

Sometimes I feel like I fell asleep and woke up in another century. Are we really debating the ethics of torturing prisoners? What is there to debate? I thought we realized long ago that torture is not effective. A person who’s being tortured will say anything to make the torture stop. How can we trust that?

And besides, torture is wrong!

There is a philosophy that says: violence works. That philosophy trickles down into almost every aspect of our daily lives. It’s hard to find a movie or a TV show these days whose plot is not resolved by some form of violence.

When I went to acting school many years ago, I took courses in stage combat-swordplay and the like-in case you were cast in a Shakespeare play. Today actors have to learn how to hold a gun, you know, with 2 hands and how to sweep the room and how to reload quickly after you’ve just shot 12 people.

Violence is deplored by most people in real life. We’re shocked when a 19 year old carries out a massacre in a shopping mall in Omaha. But very little is said about the assault rifle he stole from his stepfather to commit the crime. Because there are still some people who believe that every person, regardless of race, creed, or criminal background, has the “right” to own an assault weapon!

The philosophy of violence even influences so called “religious” teachings.

You’ve probably heard of James Dobson who runs Focus on the Family. He has a book out on Parenting and what he calls “control issues.” The book is supposedly based on Christian principles but I was absolutely horrified by excerpts which I found on-line. Dobson says the way to get control of a willful, disobedient child is the same way he got control over his dog, which was to savagely beat the dog into submission. You have to do this with your son or daughter too if they’re misbehaving. And if they don’t learn the lesson the first time, you do it again. You do it until they – quote - “surrender their will to yours.”

It infuriates me that this character would have the nerve to associate his pathological behavior with the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Can you imagine parents taking Dobson’s advice-seriously? They’ve tried everything-or so they like to think. They’re at their wits end, desperate for help or guidance. And Dobson says, the answer is violence! Violence works!

Sadly, these are just a few examples of how this poisonous mythology has seeped into the very structure of our society. And often it seems to us just inevitable – it’ll always be that way. It’s just human nature, we say. But that’s exactly the myth that Christ came to expose.

Friends, if the words of the bible mean anything to us, if Christmas means anything to us, if the life, death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ, means anything to us, we cannot buy into the deadly game our world is playing.

If we’re waiting for the Advent of Christ, in our hearts, once again, we must open our hearts to the kind of world Christ saw: a world where we rise above violence, a world where love is what works.

Last question: why does Isaiah say, “…as the waters cover the sea?”

Waters don’t cover the sea. They are the sea.

Just so with peace.

We are not covered by peace. We are peace. Peace on earth. Amen.