Isaiah 11:1
A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots. (NRSV)
A green Shoot will sprout from Jesse’s stump,
from his roots a budding Branch. (The Message)
To state the obvious, this is not the growing season in Iowa. It has been warmer these last few days, and there is still some leftover green here and there…but there’s no doubt that this is winter. (Well, technically, it’s not winter until December 21. But you know what I mean.)
It would be shocking, to say the least, to walk out my front door tomorrow morning and find a tomato plant reaching toward the sky, the smallest green tomatoes just beginning to form.
It’s not the season for tomatoes.
It’s not the season for green.
It’s not the season for growing.
Or is it?
A green shoot will sprout from Jesse’s stump, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
In her reflection on this text from Isaiah, Barbara Lundblad writes, Who could imagine anything growing as they sat on the stump of utter despair? I’ve sat there myself, perhaps you have, too. You may be there now — at that place where hope is cut off, where loss and despair have deadened your heart.1
In seasons of grief and sorrow, we might imagine nothing could ever grow again. Surprisingly–miraculously–God brings vibrant, green growth out of the most devastating of situations. In the breaking, our hearts open and enlarge, growing in compassion and solidarity with suffering ones. God brings life–green, growing, resurrection life–out of situations we deemed hopeless and relationships we deemed over.
From the stump of Jesse–cut down by sin and faithlessness, fear and idolatry–comes a green shoot that grows into a towering tree. Matthew traces that family tree through 29 generations from Jesse…to Jesus (Matthew 1:6-16).
From the most despairing of situations, a babe is born in Bethlehem. God’s Word of life takes on flesh. Jesus is vibrant, growing love emerging from the heartache of God’s people.
A green shoot from Jesse’s stump…life from death…this is the promise of a God who makes all things new, a God for whom every season is growing season.
This is resurrection life.
This is our life, given to us through the love of God in Jesus.
When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain, your touch can call us back to life again, fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been; love is come again like wheat arising green. –John MacLeod Campbell Crum, 1872-1958, copyright Oxford University Press.
Come, Lord Jesus, come. Let this be a season of green, growing love in our lives. Amen.
1 http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1940