the Third Tuesday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
Isaiah 11:1-9
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord— 3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; 4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. 6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. 7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. 9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Numbers 16:20-35
20 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 21 “Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.” 22 But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, “O God, the God who gives breath to all living things, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?” 23 Then the Lord said to Moses, 24 “Say to the assembly, ‘Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’” 25 Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. 26 He warned the assembly, “Move back from the tents of these wicked men! Do not touch anything belonging to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.” 27 So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing with their wives, children and little ones at the entrances to their tents. 28 Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: 29 If these men die a natural death and suffer the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. 30 But if the Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the realm of the dead, then you will know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.” 31 As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. 33 They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. 34 At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!” 35 And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
Acts 28:23-31
23 They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus. 24 Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe. 25 They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet: 26 “‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.” 27 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ 28 “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!” [29] 30 For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. 31 He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!
NIV
New Shoots from Old Roots
Brandon Shillington is Pastor at the Madoc Wesleyan & Free Methodist Church. He and his wife Karen are learning and loving alongside their four children from their home in Belleville, Ontario.
Today’s text from Isaiah brings to mind the many tree stumps dotting the perimeter of our home. When we moved here our single acre of land was ringed with overgrown box elder, or Manitoba maple. These trees grow like weeds but have a short lifespan. Wind storms have felled a number of them; the stumps are what remain after we clean up the fallen trees. The ongoing maintenance involves cutting out the shoots that continue to come up every spring from these stumps. Even though by all appearances the tree is dead, cut down, gone, there is still life down in the roots of these stumps.
Isaiah’s prophecy points us toward the deeper reality beneath the surface. What appears to be true is not, in actual fact, all that is true. By all appearances, the line of David is but a stump, a dead tree cut down and carried away. Isaiah sees something else, however: God is not finished with the line of David. There is life under that which appears lifeless. The Spirit of God will bring something new, a Son of David who will not be deceived by appearances, but will be able to judge beyond the senses of sight and hearing to discern the mysterious wisdom of the Kingdom of God.
My problem starts with the next verse. Isaiah prophesies justice for the poor and judgment for the wicked, using great images of impossible feats of peace—apex carnivores turning vegan and cuddling harmlessly with their prey, deadly vipers becoming cute playmates for children, the whole earth filled with the Shalom of God’s rule and reign. I love these images, these promises, but they are so big—so unattainable. The problems of the world, even of my own life sometimes, seem so hopeless to overcome. World peace is something we long for, but is it actually possible when I can’t even seem to dislodge the discontent in my heart? These big stories and big promises seem so far removed from the ordinariness of my life.
There are times my faith seems a lifeless thing, a dead stump left behind after the weariness of life blew down the tree. There are days when the voice of doubt is so loud and overwhelming that I’m tempted to pack it in. The promises of God are too big, the problems of the world too complex. It is in these times that I need the Holy Son of David to help me see the deeper wisdom. This One who Isaiah foresaw teaches us that the kingdom appears among us in smallness; it arrives as mustard seeds and microscopic yeast, a vulnerable babe sheltered in a stable. The new shoots of kingdom growth don’t show up as a fully-formed tree, they begin as a bud and emerge slowly, gaining strength as they grow.
Advent texts bring with them this tension between big promises for big problems and the ordinariness of kingdom life. It is the small things that build the resilience and readiness for the big promises to become real in our lives. Faith cannot grow if we do not do the ordinary practice of attending to the stories, hearing again Isaiah’s prophecy of hope, listening to one another’s experiences of the ways God’s deeper wisdom sprouts into Shalom in our lives. Justice cannot roll like a river if our hearts have not been transformed through the small practices of welcoming the other and making room for difference. Peace cannot fill the earth if my relationships have not been reconciled through daily practices of listening and forgiveness.
It could be that the big promises are there to help us lift our gaze to Jesus, but in my experience Jesus keeps rooting me back in the small, humble ways the kingdom grows among us—those ordinary, regular and local practices of worship and sacrament, hospitality and prayer, and the myriad beautiful ways we can express love to our neighbour.
Maybe this year, as I cut the shoots away from our stumps, I will remember these things and find, as I so often do, that God has been at work under the surface, bringing life into my faith even when it seems a stumpy thing. May it be so, for me and for you.
Thank you for reading the New Leaf Advent Reader, a collection of reflections from writers across Canada. If you are enjoying the reader, sign up to receive the readings in your inbox each day here: SIGN UP
And please share this reflection with your friends and family who might also enjoy it.
