Isaiah 11:1-2, 10, Out of the stump of Davids family will grow a - TopicsExpress



          

Isaiah 11:1-2, 10, Out of the stump of Davids family will grow a shoot - yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root. And the Spirit of the Lord will 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... In that day the heir to Davids throne will be a banner of salvation to all the world. The nations will rally to Him, and the land where He lives will be a glorious place. The mattering part is never what isnt. The mattering part is never the chopped-off stump. It isnt what dream has been cut down, what hope has been cut off, what part of the heart has been cut out. The tender mattering part is - you have a Tree. Out of the last and forgotten son of Jesse comes forth one tender branch that will grow into a crown of thorns...a rugged cross...your ladder back to God. Jesus will go to impossible lengths to rescue you. Out of the stump of that fallen tree, watered with the living waters that flow from the depths of His grace, a twig sprouts. That twig will be the scepter that defeats your sin...and lets you grow again. Out of that stump and the sheared impossible there springs a singular shoot - tender and vulnerable. There, here, in the midst of the inconceivable, the loud claims, the hard sells, the big spectacles, Christ comes small, the micro- macro miracle who comes in the whisper and says, Seek Me. Just where you are, look for the small glimpses of God - glory breaking in, breaking out, sprouting, shooting, unfurling, bearing fruit, making a Kingdom, remaking the world. Slow and still. And seek the shoot that bears witness to God - the hardly noticed child, the hymn hummed over the sink, the unassuming woman bent at the register, the dog-eared Word of God beckoning from the shelf. Gaze on shoots of glory to grow deep roots in God. The theology of the Tree, of the Cross, always seeks the presence of God in the belittled gifts of the world. The small Babe of Bethlehem, the dismissed Son of God, the stripped and beaten Messiah hanging exposed on the Tree - He begs us to spend the attention of Advent on the little, the least, the lonely, the lost. Because there in the rush, in the hurry, in our addiction of speed - it might just be a bit like stepping on the shoot that sprouts from the stump. Advent, it is made of the moments. This slow unfurling of grace.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 11:44:23 +0000

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