QUARANTINE BLOG # 615

December 5, 2021

Today’s Second Sunday of Advent meditation, “Salvation for All,” (from Isaiah 11:1-10 and Romans 15:4-13) is adapted from The Word in the Wind, by Bruce L. Taylor.

A news story a while ago focused on the increasing fragmentation of public opinion in California, and how it was becoming virtually impossible for the state legislature to govern when there was no political consensus on any major issue. We need to hear diverse opinions. We need to test different approaches. But today we have crossed over into the dangerous territory where there is no consensus about the way we debate. Individuals and factions have shown their willingness to wreck society at large and even our churches over any single issue.

Paul wrote his great letter to the Romans at the height of his career. A Jew, Paul had long since adopted as his particular ministry a mission to the Gentiles – to non-Jews, people who did not live according to the law of Moses. Most Jews, on the other hand, could scarcely conceive of their God being interested in people from any other nation. 

Some Christian leaders had thought it an absolute scandal that Paul should mount a mission to the Gentiles, and Paul frequently ran afoul of Jews living in the cities of Europe and Asia Minor in which he tried to establish churches. For their part, the new Christians at Rome tended to disregard the authority of the Old Testament altogether, as something that did not concern them. What had they to do with Israel’s holy book, and what did it have to do with them? 

So Paul wrote that the scriptures – what we know as the Old Testament – were written of old for instruction today, to provide hope for both Jew and Gentile, so that together we all might recognize Jesus Christ as Lord, who confirmed and fulfilled the promises given to the Jewish patriarchs, and who showed God’s mercy even upon those who were not descended from Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:5-6), wrote Paul. “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:7).

The laying aside of divisions, the putting to rest of hostility, the coming of peace and unity to all creation, was an ancient dream. Based on their understanding of God, the prophets could imagine a world in which the enemies that they observed in their time would be at peace; not only would they not be fighting with each other, but they would respect one another, and look out for one another’s welfare, and enjoy fellowship with one another. “The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain” (Isaiah 11:6-9).

Imagine! Can we even do that, imagine? But for us, the grandness of the vision or the folly of the imagination remain the same, and whether we regard it as grand or foolish depends upon whether we are hopeful or cynical, people of faith in the promises of God or people who put our trust in worldly wisdom.

Peace and harmony are major themes of Advent. In the days leading up to Christmas, everyone is encouraged toward good will and optimism by Christmas cards and street decorations and all the rest. But for the Christian, hope for peace and harmony goes beyond wishful thinking to the promises of God and the fulfillment of those promises in Jesus Christ who lived and lives again, who came and will come again. For the Christian, peace and harmony are a practiced certainty because they are the will of God, integral to the divine purpose restoring the community of love and fellowship that is God’s very purpose for creation.

The church at Rome had failed to learn the obvious lesson from its very existence – that if Gentiles were now on even footing with Jews in the eyes of God because of Jesus Christ, then surely the members of their own church must be on even footing with each other in the eyes of God. Something was causing disharmony in the Roman congregation and preventing the full unity and community that ought to characterize Christians. “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another,” Paul prayed earnestly in his letter, “in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice” – not in discordant squabbling but in a genuine unity of praise “glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:5-7). 

Paul was saying believe that the Christ in whom we have new and abundant life is the Messiah who was promised to the Jews and through whom the Gentiles have mercy, and whose mission is the salvation of all. Imagine! A lamb safe in the company of a wolf! A kid resting confidently alongside a leopard! An infant uninjured as it plays with snakes! A ridiculous dream? Or the promised root of Jesse come to fulfillment in the reign of Jesus Christ the Messiah in whom you and I and every Christian have said that we put our faith?

Fanciful folly? The day is coming. Its dawn in the cessation of hostilities is not yet the full noonday of harmony and community and love and self-giving, but the day is coming. Have faith, people of God, and think and speak and act hopefully and trustfully in the day of salvation that approaches ever nearer – the day of salvation for all of God’s creation.

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