12/9/01
And The Wolf also shall Dwell with the Lamb -
Isaiah 11:1-10
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Paradox. A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true. A tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion or opposed to common sense; that which in appearance or terms is absurd, but yet may be true in fact. |Absurd, yet true.| The word paradox comes from Greek and Latin origins meaning beyond or contrary to thought or supposing. A paradox literally means something that is beyond imagination. And yet, though contradictory, though beyond the reach of thought and supposition, a paradox is true.
As I read the passage from Isaiah this week, I could not help but return again and again to the idea of paradox. The passage seems to overflow with paradoxical images. A shoot of fresh and living tree grows out of a stump, a tree that has been cut off at the base. A branch grows out of the roots of a tree, not from the trunk as expected, but from the roots. Can you picture a tree with new leaves springing from a short and decaying stump, bypassing the need of a trunk altogether? New life springs from seeming death in these vivid images. Life from death. What a paradox!
Isaiah continues to fill our minds with images. A wolf dwells with a lamb. A leopard lies with a kid. A calf and a lion lie together. A cow and a bear graze together. A lion eats straw like an ox. A baby plays over a snake's hole. These images are startling and unexpected. We know that these opposite objects don't go together. How could a dangerous wolf be present in the midst of sheep? Who would ever let a baby play near a snake den? Isaiah presents images that don't fit in with what we understand to be the natural order. The pictures that Isaiah paints of the fierce beasts with the innocent animals can't take place in our world. It is too dangerous. In our world, wolves kill sheep, hunting them in their flocks. In our world, bears attack. In our world, snakes bite with deadly venom.
Yet, Isaiah is insistent. He has a vision of a different world. A little child shall lead them, he says. We envision leadership in a wise person, who has lived a full life and can draw on years of rich experience in order to lead effectively. We envision leaders who are eloquent and educated. Isaiah envisions a little child leading us, making peace in all creation. A child leader. What a paradox!
Isaiah's vision is full of paradoxes. He brings forth couplings of images that clash in our minds. Snakes and babies, wolves and lambs, shoots from stumps. Why does Isaiah insist on these practically ridiculous visions? To us, this vision of the peaceful kingdom seems beyond our imagination. In fact, it seems absurd. But the crux of paradox is not the coupling of absurd contradictions. It is that the contradictions are true. Absurd, ridiculous, hard to imagine, but true. Isaiah wants us to expect the unexpected, because he knows that the mystery of God is revealed in unending paradox. We never know in what new, unexpected, and contradictory way God will choose to work. God's imagination and creativity are deeper and wider than we can dream. With God, we must expect the unexpected.
A quick flip through the Bible reveals that God is always working in mysterious, unanticipated ways. Think of the irony of the young boy David slaying the gigantic Goliath with a rock from a sling shot, when two armies full of men could not come to terms. Who would expect the boy to slay the man? Think of Joseph, being sold into slavery by his own brothers, ending up as Pharaoh's main assistant, and then needing to provide relief for the very same brothers, now starving and dependent on Joseph. Who could have seen this unexpected twist of fate? Think of the apostle Paul, once the leading persecutor of Christians, becoming the most articulate proclaimer of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What irony! Think of an infant, born to parents in suspicious circumstances, in a tiny town no one cared about - think about this baby being the savior for all people. Think about this baby being appointed to be a new kind of ruler, greater even than the powerful King Herod. A child ruler. What a paradox! And yet we know that God works in these unexpected and powerful ways.
Isaiah knows to expect the unexpected from God. He knows that out of the most unlikely situations, God can create the most spectacular miracles. Far from being supernatural events that need break the laws of nature, miracles happen when instead of the same old response to a situation, an unexpected answer comes forth, bringing new life to a seemingly hopeless situation.
The events of September 11th seem much like the stump Isaiah describes, a tree cut off short. The rubble of the twin towers are the bits and pieces left from a place where much life once was. If we adopt a vision like Isaiah's, we can expect the unexpected. We can expect, that even in this most hopeless situation, this most unlikely place, God can draw forth new life. Already we know of hundreds of stories of people sacrificing their lives for the safety of others, for firefighters and police officers truly living out their calling, for nations around the world stretching out a hand of support and comfort when a superpower finds itself in the greatest need. The most terrible tragedy results in the greatest appreciation of life. What a paradox!
We hope in God because God can draw forth trees out of stumps, make leaders out of tiny babies, and make sense out of the rubble we find all around us. God brings life out of death, and creates a new world for us.
A favorite poem of mine includes this stanza: I love you for the part of me that you bring out; I love you for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart and passing over all the foolish, weak things that you can't help dimly seeing there, and for drawing out into the light all the beautiful belongings that no one else had looked quite far enough to find. I love you because you are helping me to make of the lumber of my life not a tavern but a temple. We can envision that our own hearts, full of pains and sorrows, marred with shortcomings and weaknesses, resemble the stump that Isaiah talks about. And we can hope, like the poet hopes, for the love that God promises us that ensures that God can make temples out of the lumber of our lives. Isaiah describes a vision of what God can do when we let God put a hand in our darkest corners. When we open ourselves to God's work in our world and in our hearts, miracles happen, and the unexpected takes place. God lures from the darkest situations and the darkest corners of our hearts the most wonderful and unexpected things. God draws out from the root of Jesse a child, the Christ, one who is both the one unexpected and the one for whom we wait with longing. God brings hope out of tragedy and life out of death. What a paradox. What a blessing. Amen.