Based on Isaiah 11:1-9, Romans 15:7-10, Matthew 3:5-11
How do you understand Christian hope? Pastor Liddy Barlow tells a story about how powerful and resilient this hope can be. She writes, “…Nestled into Hadrian’s Wall at the northern edge of England, the elegant Sycamore Gap tree rose from a dip between two hills. Its dramatic setting made it one of the most photographed trees in the country, featured in calendars, guidebooks and postcards…On a windy night in September 2023, vandals came to Sycamore Gap with a chainsaw. The tree, which took over a century to grow, fell in minutes. The nation awoke to an icon chopped down for no apparent reason. Thousands who loved it reacted with anger and sorrow, confusion and lament. The tree’s tall trunk and graceful branches were trucked away to be turned into furniture and memorial art, leaving only a stump behind….”
What a senseless tragedy! In situations like this we often engage in “wishful thinking” that somehow things could be different. We humans are like that, taking a powerful and substantive force like hope and diminishing it to a shadow of what it can be. However, Bible-based hope is never wishful thinking. Hope in the Bible is the foundation of our faith in a God of possibilities. Biblical hope is deep and powerful and includes an expectation of the future where God’s love reigns supreme. This powerful hope also gives us the ability to trust God and to wait patiently for God’s plan to evolve. Biblical hope is present from beginning to end – showing us that God is always present to God’s people and fulfills God’s promises. This gives believers in every generation the confidence that the God who fulfilled promises to our spiritual ancestors will do the same for us.
The hope of Jesus was built on the foundation of God’s continued relationship with and love for God’s chosen people. It was also built on the hope of the Patriarchs and Prophets – people with whom God interacted and who spoke of a future where God made all things new and right. It was built on the conviction that he was the Messiah who had been promised by God. The One who would set God’s people free, who would heal disease, return people to community, and inaugurate the kingdom of God on earth. The hope of Jesus embodied the reality that the “kingdom of God has come near” – and that all people had to do to access it was to repent and to believe in the good news.
We heard again the stories of the promise of the Messiah and the hope that we have that Jesus is the fulfillment of these promises. Isaiah prophesied that God’s promise to David that “the stump of Jesse” will produce a king who will reign through the knowledge of and reverence for the LORD. A king who will judge with wisdom and understanding and act as a rallying banner for all people, while bringing all of creation together to live in God’s shalom.
Paul is finishing his letter to the believers in Rome with a word about biblical hope. In the verse right before our reading Paul writes, “…For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope….” Paul writes that the hope in God is not just for the Jews but has extended to the Gentiles as well as a fulfillment of Isaiah’s vision. Paul winds up this section of the letter with the following statement, “…May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit….”
Our reading from the Gospel according to Matthew gives us a glimpse into the ministry of John the Baptist who came to prophesy about the immanent coming of the Messiah. The Baptizer spoke to the failed leaders of the Temple about being cut down and their dead wood thrown into the cleansing fire of God. John gathered the people and baptized those who repented of their sins in the waters of the Jordan River. He spoke of the Anointed One who was coming who would baptize them with the Holy Spirit and empower their fruitfulness for God.
Let us now return to Pastor Barlow and her story of the felled sycamore, “…the following spring, the Northumberland National Park Authority placed an astonishing sign where the tree once stood: ‘This tree stump is still alive.’ Park foresters fenced off the stump and marked it with hopeful words. ‘If we leave it alone it might sprout new growth,’ the sign continued. ‘Please respect the barrier.’
They were right. Over the next few months, eight tiny clusters of shoots emerged around the base of the stump. An English sycamore is in fact a species of maple, and it usually grows from a winged seed. But when this tree is cut down, it sometimes reproduces asexually, sprouting a genetic clone of the original tree from its roots. Where the Sycamore Gap tree had once risen nearly 50 feet high, the new shoots were just a couple small leaves, a few centimeters tall. But they were unquestionably alive….”
Living roots produce new growth – this is an important truth to remember. The people of Israel had seen the house of Jesse cut down and left for dead. Following Kings David and Solomon, the rest of the kings of Israel were a sorry lot indeed. Little good fruit was produced over many hundreds of years, and the people of the Northern Kingdom had been destroyed and dispersed by the Assyrian army. A century and a half later, the southern kingdom of Judah was likewise laid to waste by the Babylonians and the leaders sent off into exile for 70 years.
Much of Christendom has been laid to waste as well over the last 50 years. Church attendance is down for all religions – it appears to many that the root of Jesse that produced Jesus is dying, and yet…I look around and see signs of life. Those signs are just small shoots right now and a shoot takes time to grow. They require nurturing, patience, care, love and most of all hope that the spiritual root that sustains them is alive and strong. As long as there are people who gather together, rooted and sustained in the name of Jesus, there is a powerful hope that God will renew us through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
The hope of Jesus tells us that this Advent, it’s our turn to look for new growth in relationships, neighborhoods, churches, and nations that appear to be dead and beyond hope. Like Paul, we proclaim our belief that what the world tries to chop down and leave for dead is alive. We proclaim the resilient hope that Emmanuel came and stays with us, renewing our hearts, minds and lives with his Almighty love. May you find and be rooted in the hope of Jesus and let it fill you with joy, peace and trust that God continues to bring resurrection into our world. Amen!