“And His Name Shall Be Called:
The Root and Branch of Jesse”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Today we begin a new cycle of the Church Year, with the season of Advent.
Advent is a time of looking forward, and looking back; a time of
anticipation, and commemoration. For, during Advent we look forward, in
anticipation of our Lord’s second coming into our world, at the last day and the
final judgment; and we also look back, in commemoration of our Lord’s first
coming into our world as the Babe of Bethlehem, which we celebrate at Christmas. About ten years ago Terry and I visited the magnificent Hoover Dam, on the
border between Arizona and Nevada. I noticed that the
memorial inscription in the plaza where Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the dam
gives the year of its dedication, 1935, in Roman numerals, and then instead of
just the abbreviation “A.D.” it spells out in Latin, Incarnationis Anno
Domini, meaning the nineteen hundred thirty-fifth year since the
Incarnation of our Lord. That’s what the abbreviation “A.D.”
is shorthand for, Incarnationis Anno Domini, the year since our Lord’s
incarnation, his birth into the world. Scripture gives hundreds of different names and titles to the One whose birth
is so significant to our world that we literally number our years by it.
For our sermons during the Advent and Christmas seasons this year we are
going to focus on the real “reason for the season” by meditating on the meanings
of some of these names and titles given to him in Scripture: “And his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, the
Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”
“This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord
Our Righteousness.” “The Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, the
Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” “You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save
his people from their sins.” “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a
Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. . . And the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us.” We begin with today’s Old Testament reading from Isaiah: “A shoot will come
up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. . . .
In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the
nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.” “And His Name Shall Be Called: The Root and Branch of Jesse” To the people of Israel in Isaiah’s time, it seemed that they were in an
impossible situation. The Lord had promised that the Messiah,
the Savior of the world, would come from the people of Israel, specifically out
of the family of David, son of Jesse. But now, because of
their wickedness and rebellion against the Lord, the nation of Israel would be
destroyed, conquered by the Babylonians, carried off into exile.
Instead of a glorious family tree for the Messiah, the nation of Israel
was like a Christmas tree in January, cut down and cast away.
All that remained of the promised Messiah’s family tree was a dead stump.
But, as the angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary in today’s Gospel
Reading, “nothing is impossible with God.” For the Lord,
there is no such thing as an impossible situation. And so Isaiah prophesies: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from
his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” The stump may be dead,
but still the Branch shall come forth! Seven centuries later,
Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled: “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of
the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called
Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David.”
Out of the people of Israel, from the line of David, son of Jesse, the Messiah
was born, just as the Lord promised, just as Isaiah prophesied. By the Spirit’s power the Messiah was miraculously conceived and born of the
Virgin Mary: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and
of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge
and of the fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.”
As the angel said to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come
upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to
be born will be called the Son of God.” The mission of the Messiah? To save us from our sins, to save us from our
sins by reckoning them all forgiven on account of his own sacrifice: “He will
not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his
ears.” The judgment we deserve is the wages of sin, death and
damnation; but instead we receive the gift of God, eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. The Messiah will be personally concerned with all our problems and needs:
“But with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will
give decisions for the poor of the earth.” “Come to Me,”
Jesus says, “all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” The Messiah will protect and defend those who trust in him: “He will strike
the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay
the wicked.” As St. Paul says in 2nd Thessalonians, “The Lord
is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.” The righteous Messiah will be ever faithful to us, he will never leave us or
forsake us: “Righteousness will be his belt, and faithfulness the sash around
his waist.” “Lo,” Jesus says, “I am with you always.” Through the preaching of the forgiveness of sins, the Messiah will bring
about an era of spiritual peace, and he will take all those who trust in him to
the peaceful paradise of heaven, which will be like the Garden of Eden, with all
things restored to perfect harmony: “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. The cow will
feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat
straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the
cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth
will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
As Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today, you will be with me in
paradise.” And as the book of Revelation says of heaven,
“[God] will wipe away ever tear from their eyes. There will
be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has
passed away.” Finally, the Messiah, and this heavenly rest he promises, will be like the
banners or ensigns or flags used in warfare in ancient times, a rallying point,
a source of hope and confidence: “In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a
banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest
will be glorious.” To the people of Israel in Isaiah’s time, it seemed that they were in an
impossible situation. With their nation destroyed and exiled,
how could the Messiah come out of David’s family tree? But,
“nothing is impossible with God.” For the Lord, there is no
such thing as an impossible situation. In the fullness of
time the Messianic Branch sprouted from the dead stump of David’s family tree,
just as the Lord promised, just as Isaiah prophesied. Are you, too, facing what seems to be an impossible situation?
An impossible situation at home, with your work or school, in your
family? The fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy is a sign for
you: Even in a dead stump of a situation, there is hope. The
same God who made his Messianic Branch sprout from a dead stump can and will
help you with what seems to be your impossible situation. St.
Paul puts it so beautifully in today’s Epistle Reading: “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.” “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will
bear fruit. . . In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the
peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.” “And His Name Shall Be Called: The Root and Branch of Jesse” Amen. Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office
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