Psalm 72; Isaiah 11:1-10: Advent 2010

First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10

11:1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

11:2 The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

11:3 His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;

11:4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

11:5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

11:6 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.

11:7 The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

11:8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.

11:9 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.

11:10 On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Second Reading: Psalm 72:1-14

1 Give the king thy justice, O God, and thy righteousness to the royal son! 2 May he judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with justice! 3 Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness! 4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor! 5 May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations! 6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth! 7 In his days may righteousness flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more! 8 May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth! 9 May his foes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust! 10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts! 11 May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him! 12 For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. 13 He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. 14 From deceit and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight.

Psalm 72 was written in the days of the kings of Israel, in hopes that a future king would bring God’s holiness and truth and mercy to Israel. Consider how great this hope was for a righteous king that would come from God and establish God's will.

This king, it is said: “He will have regard for the poor and needy. He will hear their cries . . .

“He will redeem their souls from violence and deceit . . . And, their blood will be precious in his sight.”

I hear these words,and I know there aren’t any kings of Israel that lived up to this hope. But, a few tried. And, this hope kept arising in the faith of the Jews in history, even when they were often betrayed by leaders, and even when they were carried away as slaves by the Babylonians almost 600 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And, even when they were being oppressed some 200 years before the birth of Christ by the Seluecid ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes, who tried to humiliate them and defile their places of worship. The hope for a true king, that could deliver justice . . . that hope never died among the Jewish people. For, they were a people born out of the Red Sea, and led towards a new land by Moses, the righteous prophet of God.

And, these words from Psalm 72 echo down through history even til today: “He will redeem their souls from violence and deceit . . And, ,their blood will be precious in his sight.”

Another car bomb exploded in Iraq, and over twenty people are killed. Another child wanders through the streets of another city of the world, with nothing to eat and no one to take care of him or her. Another child is sold into sexual slavery somewhere in the world. Another man is robbed and beaten. A woman is raped. Others are deceived into buying this or that, and they can’t afford this or that, and now others will soon take all that they have in interest and penalties, and they won’t be able to rest at night.

“He will redeem their souls from violence and deceit. . . And, their blood will be precious in his sight.”

Blood spilled on all the continents of this earth, it is precious in his sight, just as it means nothing to so many who cause that blood to be spilled.
Yes, the hope for a truly good king, with justice and compassion and an ability to deliver. That hope runs right down into our day. And, that hope has a foundation in the history of this world, because it is a hope grounded in God’s saving presence in human history. “When Israel was in Egypt’s land, let my people go. Oppressed so hard they could not stand, let my people go. Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt’s land. Tell ole Pharoah to let my people go!” And, for once, God’s will was done on earth, as the slaves of Israel were set free, as his people came through the Red Sea into a wilderness of freedom under the leadership of Moses.

Yes, this hope has a foundation in the history of the world, because God has been revealed as the God of liberation, and God delivers to heal and make whole and bring peace. As it says in our passage from Isaiah: “There shall be peace, because all the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.”

To know God is to be at peace in one’s body and soul and throughout ones relationships with others. To not know God is to be at enmity within one’s own mind and soul and body and to be at enmity with others. It is the greatest blessing to be full of the knowledge of the Lord, a knowing that fills heart, soul and body – the knowledge that is a living faith and devotion to the living God of all life.
But, the Israelites knew back then when our Psalm was written and when Isaiah prophecied . . . they knew back then that they needed a savior, a deliverer, who could bring hope to the hopeless, solutions to problems that overwhelmed their society and world. They yearned for a king who was more than a king, a king who was a savior sent from God, to pour out God’s will onto the earth, and liberate human beings who were caught in their own webs of violence and deceit and sorrow. “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

As it says in Isaiah 14:3: “And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage in which thou wast made to serve.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Yes, I said, Come, Lord Jesus. Because, he alone is that ruler, that authority, that savior that is just, holy, full of kindness and compassion. O, we see glimpses of his truth in human beings on this earth. We see men and women and children who show compassion and work for justice, but none has the ability to set things right in the deepest places. Certainly, there are people of good will that do good things,and we give thanks and praise to God for that, but no one among humanity has the power and wisdom to really set things right, to answer the deepest questions of the human heart and heal the wounds of the broken link in the chain of creation. And, we are that broken link in the chain of being. We, human beings, “bleeding wound that will not heal,” as Bruce Cockburn used to sing. But, even with our wounds, we human beings bear an image of glory within us. Our good deeds and creative work and humor and kindness bear witness to this image of the Creator who is all goodness and wisdom and love and truth and fairness. But, our evil deeds bear witness to the cloud that separates us from our God who brought all things into being. Our darkened thinking and self-destructive actions, our words and deeds that undermine others’ sense of purpose and meaning and hope – these bear witness to another reality,our alienation from God, others and even our separation from who were are made to be. This cloud between us and God,between us and each other, between us and ourselves, is the reality of sin, which is the brokenness in our communion with God and each other and even ourselves.

Whatever it is that drives us to hurt and destroy what is good and beautiful in life, I for one, would like rid of it, or to at least be able to gain some power over against it. Highest hope, to be liberated from all destructive and self-destructive impulses and desires – that would be to be full of the knowledge of the Lord. That would bring peace to me, to those who are influenced or impacted by me, including not only humans, but other animals and the natural environment I affect and live in.

“They shall neither hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

“Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” Those are wise words.

But, is there really one who can bring reason to our unreasonableness? Is there really one who can comprehend the deepest problems of humanity and can rebuild the human race in goodness and wisdom and mercy? Clearly, if there is, he or she is not like anyone we have ever known. Though, we have seen glimpses of this goodness and truth and mercy through human beings we have known. Because, humanity has something very high about it, something very promising and hopeful that just can’t seem to be crushed even by all the evil we humans have thrown out on each other. There is at the heart of the human race, a beauty, and this beauty and goodness is not an abstract idea or mere wish, this beauty and justice and love and hope at the heart of humanity is a living being, who is one with the flesh and blood of humanity and one with the Spirit of the living God. This is our hope: born of a virgin in Bethlehem of Judea, a little over 2,000 years ago. His mother was named Mary, his father Joseph. He grew up in a small town in the hill country of Judea called Nazareth. And, how God poured out the Divine life through Jesus’ human flesh, we can never really understand, but somehow, we do understand in a way that touches our souls but evades our minds, in a way that lifts our hearts and dazzles our heads with delight. Because, now as we hear this hope of so long ago, something tells us:

THESE WORDS ARE TRUE. THIS HOPE IS REAL. MY HEART IS LIFTED BY THESE WORDS. AND,SOMETHING ABOUT THESE WORDS IS MORE TRUE THAN ANYTHING I HAVE EVER HEARD. THEY ARE TRUE, BECAUSE HE HAS COME AMONG US, FRIEND OF TAX COLLECTORS AND SINNERS AND PEOPLE TO THE RIGHT AND LEFT AND SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN. HE IS THE VERY SON OFGOD, FLESH OF OUR FLESH AND YET ONE WITH THE HOLY BEING OF GOD. OPENING A WAY TO GOD, OPENING A WAY TO OUR NEIGHBOR, AND EVEN OPENING A WAY TO OURSELVES.

"He will redeem their souls from deceit and violence…"

HE WILL REDEEM OUR SOULS FROM DECEIT AND VIOLENCE . . .

"Their blood is precious in his sight . . ."

OUR BLOOD IS PRECIOUS IN HIS SIGHT.

AND, HIS BLOOD IS PRECIOUS IN THE SIGHT OF GOD, AND OUR SIGHT. ALLELEUIA, AMEN. MORE LOVE TO THEE, O CHRIST, MORE LOVE TO THEE.