Commentary on Lectionary for December 5, 2010

Second Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12

The first two readings have to do with the ideal king. We in the U.S. have a hard time imagining what it would be like to have a king, especially one whose main concern is the poor. It is difficult to find a single king in all of history who made the poor his chief concern—unless you are talking about Jesus, of course, and recognize Him as a “king.”

Besides the incredible biblical assumption that someone in power would care about the poor, the other issue that defies belief is the peaceable kingdom that the painter Edward Hicks illustrated from these words of Isaiah. If the wolf and the lion lie down with the lambs and the calves, they will starve to death. We speak of them being “hard wired” to kill and eat. They are predators. Some say we humans are hard wired, too, to protect our families and property, to expand our reach through war.

In her book Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver makes a strong case that predators such as the coyote must be allowed to survive or the world will be overrun by rodents. We have all learned that the accidental or purposeful introduction of species where they are not found naturally has often led to disastrous consequences for the environment.

Amid this talk of kings and predators, Matthew’s gospel portrays John the Baptist talking about Jesus as a powerful figure, someone who will thrash about with his pitchfork and send people into “unquenchable fire.” Ever after, preachers can use that quote to try to scare people into righteousness. Unfortunately, righteousness often meant a public confession followed by hefty contributions to the preacher’s organization.

However, when Jesus begins his ministry, He gives very little evidence of a winnowing fork, and instead He associates and appears to LOVE the people that the righteous condemned. And so He shows Himself the kind of king that Isaiah and the Psalm were talking about. The people He befriended, lifted up, cured and healed, were most often people who were poor. They were lacking in the eyes of the elite.

And so we come to the big questions: Is Jesus someone who would relate to you? Would He understand you? Would He LIKE you? Would you like Him or even love Him? If yes, is that because you are blameless and have perfectly observed all the commandments from your youth?

No worries. Jesus gave a clue right from the beginning that he was separating himself from the establishment. He went to the river Jordan to be baptized by John, this upstart who eventually was executed by the current King. Then He begins showing a shocking favoritism to those whom Isaiah calls “the meek of the earth” (Is. 11: 4).

And so this is the way Jesus demonstrated for us what He meant by a “spirit of Wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord” (Is. 11:2). And we are still hoping, in the waning weeks of 2010, to walk in His way and so bring to our world those gifts of His Spirit.