Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Dec.8, 2013.
The Peaceable Kingdom
These verses inspired the 19th century American artist Edward Hick to make more than 100 versions of his famous work, “The Peaceable Kingdom,” a memorable portrait of wild and domestic animals living in peace. surrounded by children in white. This is a beautiful image, and it portrays a peaceful life that surely appeals to us all. Isaiah prophesies this happy state as the glorious home of King David’s royal descendant on Zion’s holy mountain. It’s surely easy for Christians to read it as foreshadowing the reign of Christ, who the Gospels also declare a shoot from Jesse’s stock, a descendant of David the king.
Psalm: Psalm 72
Subtitled “Prayer for Guidance and Support for the King” in our New Revised Standard Edition Bible translation, this Psalm – perhaps originally intended to be sung at a royal coronation – offers support and counterpoint to the Isaiah reading. It hammers home the Old Testament’s consistent call for justice and righteousness for all the people, including the poor, the needy and the oppressed. Rabbi Jesus surely knew these verses, too, and proclaimed them in his commands to love our neighbors, shun riches, and bring good news to the poor.
Second Reading: Romans 15:4-13
At the time of Paul’s beautiful letter to the Romans, the city’s Jews – including Jewish Christians – had been banished to exile for years. Now the Roman Jews are coming back home, but there was tension between the Jewish and Gentile Christian communities. Paul turns to Isaiah and holds up the Root of Jesse, understanding the verses as Isaiah’s explicit prophecy of Christ as king over all humanity. His ultimate advice is universal: Live in harmony with Jesus and each other and glorify God.
Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12
We met John, Jesus’s cousin, as an infant in a recent reading in which his father, the temple priest Zechariah, foretold that the boy would become a great prophet. Now we meet John again as a loud, wild prophet, urging people to repent and baptizing them in the Jordan river. Matthew tells us that John is the fulfillment of another verse, Isaiah 40, promising that a prophet would come to make way for the Messiah. That figure is coming, says John, speaking of Jesus; and he will baptize not with mere water but with the Holy Spirit.