Wider Than We Imagined--December 9, 2022

Wider Than We Imagined--December 9, 2022

"On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious." [Isaiah 11:10]

The One for whom we are waiting is never just "my" or "our" private possession. He comes for the whole world, and his Reign isn't complete until it includes and enfolds the whole world.

That's what made the difference for Isaiah when he dreamed of a coming ruler who would renew the family line of Jesse and old king David.  He wasn't just looking wistfully backward for more kings like they'd had before, rulers of their own little nation whose care and provision stopped at the borders of the country. He was looking forward to God doing something new that would draw in and include all peoples, all nations, and all sorts of languages, cultures, and faces.  If all Isaiah had to say was, "One day we'll have another king like we've had all along, just more of the same," that would hardly have been news, much less something to hope for.  But the notion of God's Reign including everyone, and drawing everyone into God's good way of life, of abundant life for all, justice for all, and mercy for all... well, that was something startlingly good.

On the days when I am tempted to treat Jesus as my personal good luck charm, or my own sacred version of Santa whose job is just to fulfill my wish list, I need that reminder from Isaiah.  The good news of God's Reign isn't really good if it's just for me alone, or for me-and-my-little-group.  It's genuinely good when it reaches to include all of humanity, because my own life and well-being is inseparable from all of humanity.  We're in this together.

At its best moments, the people of ancient Israel knew and understood that their calling as "the chosen people" was never meant to put a rigid boundary on who was "in" and who was "out," but rather that they were supposed to be a light to the nations that drew everybody closer to want to be a part of God's ways of faithfulness and neighborliness.  When it forgot that calling and started thinking that God's goodness or care stopped at their national borders or their ancestral lineage, God had to remind them through the voices of prophets like Isaiah that God's love and care were always wider than any one people, tribe, language, or nation.

That's an important reminder for our time and place, too.  It is really easy and dangerously tempting to equate Me-and-My-Group with the Kingdom of God--to say that my country, my denomination, my political party, or my ethnic group are the only ones who really matter, and that everybody else is outside the scope of God's care.  It's easy to want to equate "my country" with the status of "chosen," and to assume that My Group is the only one favored by God [while simultaneously deducing that God must also hate all the same people I hate--isn't that convenient?].  But Isaiah reminds us here that the ruler we're waiting for isn't here to lead "My Group" to conquer and defeat everybody else, but rather at long last to gather all peoples together, and to include those who have been left out before.  

Our hope, in fact, as Christians hangs entirely on the beautiful promise that God has chosen to include us--people who don't trace our DNA and ethnic lineage from ancient Israel--in God's Reign.  From its very beginnings, the Christian church has been meant to be inclusive of peoples from every land, nation, tongue, race, culture, and background.  When our life together as church reflects that diversity, we become a witness to the watching world of how Christ will gather all peoples into his reign at the last.  When we become narrowly homogenous and filter out folks who are different from "my kind of people," we become an obstacle to others a getting a glimpse of that new creation.

Part of learning to watch and wait for Christ's coming in glory, then, is to learn how to love people who are different or "other" than my group or my little enclave.  When we see that God cares for neighbors near and far, and when we can spend our energy, time, and love for their well-being, too, we are in step with what Isaiah has been trying to get through to us.  We discover that the reach of God's goodness is wider than we imagined.  And when that happens, we come to hope for the fullness of Christ's Reign, where God's love enfolds the whole world, rather than just being the figurehead or mascot of my group over against somebody else's.

Today, let us dare to hope such a wide hope.  Let the prophet's vision stretch our love as we wait.

Lord Jesus, keep our vision as wide and expansive as yours, to share your love with all.