December 3, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 4.2-3)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD during the First Week of Advent 2024:

Dare we think of the word “submission” as an Advent character? Traditionally in the practice of following Advent (some will use the lighting of candles on an advent wreath to help symbolize the movement through the season), the words used to represent the journey are faith, peace, joy and love. Characters might be used to fully add to the symbolic imagery such as prophets, shepherds, doves and lambs. As I look through those two lists, I cannot help but see and feel the word “submission” in each of them. The world loves the word “submission” and its command for others to be servant to it as long as it is “submit to me.” What a conflict has persisted when the battle of master and servant takes first place in our lives! Extraordinary that, if we press far enough, this becomes the reason and rationale for denying the existence of an ever-present and all-powerful God. The very existence of such a powerful entity commands not only authority but an accountability. It demands “submission,” the placing of one’s will under the will of another. It is all well and good when “you submit to me” but the opposite is unconscionable when “you expect me to submit to you.” There is just this general dislike and misunderstanding of submission which seems to be growing exponentially in its desire to influence and control the world. What would happen if all the sheep identified as rams and exerted dominance to be “leader of the flock”? Forget the gender issue and transition which would have to happen to make that identification a reality. Consider the interpersonal dynamic which would occur. The fighting for dominance will lead to the ostracizing of others who will not submit. There will be flocks of one. In the end, there will be no flocks, if that one identity is followed out to its conclusion. No one will submit to anyone else. Without a positive and balanced relationship there will be no nurture or care. Further, there will be only one generation and then nothing but a cemetery memory with no one left to visit…or even care. In order for their to be a survival of the species, submission must be embraced as a critical element. Further, for the sake of survival, submission must be embraced by everyone.

I bring this up in the reflection on what we hear in Isaiah, chapters 3 and 4, because the dynamic (as I mentioned yesterday) can too easily be assigned by literal gender: women and men. What I hoped to communicate yesterday was the confusion of interpersonal relationships which satisfied the “law” for the women and their desire to remain in control to satisfy their own assumed identity of self-sufficiency. The next step, as we have seen in the modern world, is the lack of need for such “satisfying of the Law” and simply exist to satisfy one’s own self-sufficiency. Bottomline, of course, is that somebody will have to submit to somebody or something. It is inevitable. Now the battle is waged as to who and to whom. Of course, the genders themselves are used metaphorically as well in prophecy. We see it in the dynamic of the Church as Paul writes of the reality of submission of wives to husbands as husbands are to Christ, equally children to their parents. What is presented is the changing identity and the truth of “the two becoming as one.” Follow with me for a moment. We see, for better or worse, the call of wives to be submissive to their husbands. However, such submission is truly contingent upon two things: a shared relationship with Christ as husband and wife and a right relationship with Christ as individuals before Christ. Thus, the wife can submit to her husband because the husband is submissive to Christ who is the head of the body (the marriage, the family, the Church, the community of faith.) Carry out the imagery and we may well see (if we must assign a gender) that in the relationship of the man to Christ it is from the position of being “female” just for the means of description. Obviously, this is the theology aspect as the Church is presented as the Bride of Christ just as Israel was seen as the Bride of God. It does not mean males morph into females, physically or theologically. It does propel us in the direction of spiritually speaking we are in “submission” as wives to husbands, soldiers to commanders, etc. Thus we can read in Isaiah 4 that it is not merely women as a gender who bind themselves “legally” to a man for the dismissal of their disgrace (they have no husband), it is the community of survivors who bind themselves to one leader. Of course, it would be a weak leader just as it would be a husband for the women who could not provide anything more than a name (a boy or a very old man.) We know this to be true in the history of that time in Israel and Jerusalem. Those who were taken, or projected to be taken, into exile were the vital and viral males as well as the women of means. It still created a weak or virtually non-existent flock of sheep who were without a shepherd (or a shepherd who could not fulfill the duties of the office.)

Ah, and hear as the prophecy in Isaiah takes form. Who else but David, the boy shepherd, could fit the bill and deny the odds. It is because of his faith in God that propels him to the forefront. God turns over Israel to the hardness of the Hebrews’ mind as they cry out for a king such as the nations around them have. What are those credentials? Brawn? Money? Political clout? Military backing? And in line with whatever credentials those nations had, Saul son of Kish fit the bill. He was found hiding in the luggage of a caravan. He consorted with witches for advice. His father was in the donkey business. He was a head taller than all other Israelites, so he was a giant among men? Far cry from who God called to be king at the right time and place. David was a boy, the youngest brother, diminutive in stature and a shepherd who played a flute and a lyre. David stood in defense of God and remained in submission to the will of God (with a few exceptions such as Bathsheba.) His desire was to honor God and praise Him all the days of his life. In that we find the similarity with Mary the mother of Jesus. A young maiden, an only child, perhaps abandoned into the service of the temple until she was of age to marry (12 to 14!) But she loved God and served as He directed. She remained faithful and of good reputation. She submitted herself to God and to the man who would be her husband. She was the “poster child” of modern Israel as it was intended to be. And then there is Jesus, of course. Born as the son of man and the Son of God. He became a carpenter and perhaps a stonemason as his father. He was a student of His Father’s word in the flesh and in the spirit. He took on the name of His Father, Immanuel and Yeshua. But in all things He was submissive: faithful, loyal, filled with hope and commanded by love to fulfill the expectations of the testament which preceded Him in life. So submissive was He that He committed His life to persecution, rejection and crucifixion so that the “sheep of His Father’s flock” would be redeemed. He gave His life for the salvation of people whether they would believe in Him or not. His works uplifted the poor, the outcast, the infirmed and the rejected. It did not matter to Him if they were rich or poor, male or female, young or old or ultimately of any ethnicity or culture.

This “submission” would seem to be the very essence of what our Christmas celebration should be all about. In this season of Advent, let us prepare for the day when “every knee shall bow and tongue confess” that Jesus is Lord. Let us keep our thoughts, words and actions in line with the testament of His life and purpose. We are out of balance with the truth He gave His life for as He declared to John the Baptizer, “Let us do this thing to fulfill all righteousness.” You see, in His baptism we confirmed the journey of submission: doing the will of God for the sake of humanity. What are we doing?

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.