Advent 1 – REFLECTION - 03 December 2017

Readings: Isaiah 11:1-6, 10-12 & Mark 13:24-37

Today, this first Sunday of Advent, we remember the prophets of the OT – those men and women who looked for, and anticipated, and kept alive, the hope that one day a Messiah would come to bring in the reign of God. they also called people in their time, to live lives that reflected God’s priorities of faithfulness and justice.

Just as we are waiting for the coming of God’s reign, just as we wait in this advent season, the prophets act like a key for us to understand the life and ministry of Jesus and the kingdom that he inaugurated and which we are a living sign of today.

This prophecy from Isaiah begins with a fallen tree. The tree represents the monarchy established by David which lasted until the deportation of the royal family in 587 BCE. This prophecy contains a paradox – on the one hand the fact that the tree has fallen, represents the divine judgement that came upon the house of David. Yet the same prophesy speaks of a shoot coming out of Jesse’s stump. what we see here is the power of hope. That is what messiah means – hope.

The prophet proclaims that God will bring hope into the hearts of people who have suffered the horrors of war, and lived for many years in the agony of hopelessness and despair. The shoot that comes out of the fallen tree represents the restoration of the house of David, a sign that the house of David will survive, and will accomplish God’s purpose in the world.

The coming of the ideal Israelite king is an announcement of what God will do. The kingdom of Judah’s humiliation when the son of David, the king ruling in Jerusalem, what taken into exile, will be transformed into exaltation when the new son of David makes his appearance in the manger of Bethlehem. But the new son of David will establish a kingdom of peace and righteousness.

The anointing of the new king by God’s spirit will allow him to rule in righteousness and to restore peace to all creation. the messianic king, peace will prevail – peaceful coexistence between humans and the whole creation, just as it was in Eden. Is 11 tells us that this will all be possible because the earth will be full of the knowledge of God.

We, like the first Christians who were steeped in the OT, find resonances between the hope we have in Jesus, and the image that Isaiah paints in this prophecy.

It is an extraordinarily beautiful image. There are very few times, very few eras where humans would not find this, this ideal, attractive and something to be hoped for. And it is not surprising that this vision resonated with the experience of the first followers of Jesus of

Nazareth. They began to link their experience of Jesus with the prophecies of Isaiah, Micah, and Daniel.

Although Isaiah’s chief concern seems to have been the events of his time, and the lack of faith of the people in his time, the hopes and concerns were also present in Jesus time. As well as calling the people back to faithful service of God, Isaiah paints a vision of a world in which people life lives of equity, justice, and service.

When the first Christians, who were also Jews, tried to reflect on what they had learned and experienced in Jesus, they no doubt drew on their own scriptures, the OT, to try and understand who Jesus was, and how they should act. In texts like the ones we’ve heard this morning they found in that vision of a new world, the kind of kingdom that they believed Jesus has inaugurated. We see these links in the many verses in the New Testament that are direct quote from OT prophecies. We see the links in the way Jesus birth stories are shaped. We see those links in Mark’s words around the need for being alert, for watching while we are waiting.

Here in Australia as we approach summer, we too are waiting. One of the things we are waiting for is the onset of bushfires. But like the waiting described in the passage we heard from Mark, it is not a passive waiting. Our firies are busy preparing – they are getting ready, they are alert, constantly prepared to go out to fight any fires that might start.

We too are waiting. But let our waiting not be passive. While we wait, let us be always alert to God’s presence in our world. Let us be always contributing to God’s vision of a better world – a world of justice and peace – for the whole earth. Let us be the hope, the hope that is still needed in our world.

Advent is a time of change. The vision of God that Isaiah brought to the people was of a world completely changed, utterly transformed. The advent of Jesus also envisioned change and transformation.

During the Advent season we too much change. During advent we must again realize that Isaiah’s vision, and Jesus vision for the world, has not yet become a reality. Advent challenges us, as Jesus followers today, to accept God’s call to minister to a hurting world, a fearful world.

It challenges us to truly believe that God can bring hope into seemingly hopeless situations. The metaphor Isaiah presents to us is of the powerful and violent to lie beside the weak and the vulnerable. They’re still helpful metaphors. But I also want us to think about some of the intractable problems of our time:

Can we ever see an end to the many conflicts in the middle east – of Israel and its neighbours sitting together at a table, let alone finding a pathway to peace?

Closer to home, I and many others have been protesting, writing letters, making phone calls and more, for years now, working for a more humane response to those people who arrive in Australia by boat. I struggle every day to remain hopeful that these calls might be heard.

Many of also live in hope that our world will come to its senses and make the changes needed to stop the destruction of God’s good creation.

Advent challenges us to hold on to hope, to reflect the hope of the prophets, and to live out the hope of the longed for messiah. To be disciples of the one we call the Christ (which means messiah) is to be God’s hope in the world.