Cloister Thoughts
Cloister thoughts…
“…and a shoot shall grow out of the stump of Jesse” Isaiah 11:1
I thought that the crepe myrtle was dead, so I cut it down. The frigid winter that year had not been kind to North Carolina. For several days, on several occasions, the mercury hovered in the single digits. When spring arrived, it became obvious that several of the plants in our landscape were damaged, but nothing brought me more sadness than injury to the crepe myrtle in the corner of the lot. When the church bought the parsonage, the crepe had been tall and elegant. For two summers, it bloomed profusely. But then, the extended freeze came and the crepe myrtle was gone.
When spring arrived, leaves began to appear on the other plants in the yard, but the branches of the crepe myrtle were bare. I scratched off a bit of bark, on small twigs at first, then on the trunks. No green. No sign of life. So I cut it down to the ground.
We are all too familiar with the ending of things. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die…” We know the truth of it, that’s just the way life is. Nothing lasts forever. A car, once shiny and smelling like a new car smell, gets scratched, dented, and the next thing you know, it is “that old car.” A relationship, once solid and sound and a source of joy, cools as little hurts accumulate.
“To everything there is a season….” Sooner or later, we face the loss of the significant people in our life.
Some things, of course, should come to an end. Barriers that divide cities, east from west, north from south, rich from poor, should come down! Oppressive regimes that abuse the many for the good of the few should be overthrown! Attitudes that demean and behavior that degrades should be challenged and changed! The end of some things is not only inevitable, it is desirable. When something that is evil or corrupt comes to an end, we rejoice.
There once was a man who shared our perspective. He lived in the waning years of the eighth century BCE, a time of turmoil in what we now call the Middle East. The mighty Assyrian Empire, located in what is now Iraq, influenced the entire region. In neighboring states, revolts against Assyria flared, were crushed, and flared again. King Ahaz of Judah, heir to David’s throne, leader of the people of God, found himself pressured to join a revolt engineered by Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel. When he refused to sign on, his would be allies sought to dethrone him, and so he turned to Assyria for help. Assyria crushed the revolt, but the price was Judah’s freedom. Ahaz and his kingdom became a vassal to mighty Assyria.
Ahaz’s successor, Hezekiah, joined another alliance which sought to end Assyria’s control of the region, but the coup failed, and the Assyrian army, bent on teaching the rebellious a lesson, marched westward, crushing city after city, until finally it stood at the gates of Jerusalem. Only by paying heavy tribute did Hezekiah purchase the safety of his kingdom.
On both occasions, this man named Isaiah, a man called by God to speak God’s word to the people and the king, said that all of this should come to an end! But Isaiah did not challenge the oppression of Assyria. At every turn, he denounced the king’s policy of foreign alliances. He told Ahaz not to turn to the Assyrians for help against Syria and the Northern Kingdom. And he told Hezekiah not to join forces with Egypt against Babylon and Assyria. For Isaiah, it was not a question of foreign policy; it was a question of faith!
There is always a consequence for lack of faith. The result of this royal faithlessness, Isaiah said, would be nothing less than destruction of the royal house. God would remove any king who trusted only in his own cleverness and strength. Like a woodcutter, clearing a great forest, the Lord would bring the king to an end! Some things, Isaiah said, should come to an end. God will put an end to things that should end. But who, then, will lead the people of God?
When all that remains is a stump, it seems that the end has come. With God, judgment is never the final word, never an end in itself. Nothing more clearly reveals the character of the God we worship than the witness that the righteous God refuses “to answer sin vindictively…(but rather) recalls the past, not with an eye to recrimination but to promise.” God brings things to an end in order to create the possibility of a new beginning. And so the trees will fall, the forest will be cleared, the king who cannot trust the Lord will no longer sit on the throne of David, and a people who cannot hold fast to the promises of God will be scattered like dry leaves in the wind. But that is not the end. “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” There will be new life, new hope, new possibility; a new leader for the people of God. A leader on whom the “spirit of the Lord would rest, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” Just when it seems that the future is closed, that things have come to an end for the people of God, a shoot comes forth from the stump of Jesse, and what seemed to be an end is transformed and what appears is new life.
I went out into the back yard, shovel in hand, to dig out the roots and create a space for a new crepe myrtle. But just as I laid the spade to the soil, I noticed some tiny green sprigs pushing up in the midst of the dead wood. They grew taller than the previous one and soared as a reminder that they are very much alive. Judgment that ends in hope - death that ends in life - it is the way of God.
Journey to new life – at the cradle, Rick
