2nd Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 11:1-8
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of God shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of God. His delight shall be in the reverence of God. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 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.
Snuggles the Snake
Today is the second day of Advent, Peace Sunday, and this text from Isaiah is about Isaiah’s hope for peace. At the time of this writing, the kingdom was under threat of war, and the populace was unsatisfied with their king. Rulers were supposed to provide stability and safety, but their lives were filled with uncertainty. In the chapter right before today’s text, Isaiah 10, he writes, “God will cut the branches with terrifying power; the tallest trees will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low. God will hack down the thickets of the forest with an ax, and Lebanon with its majestic trees will fall.” This text is about their enemies in Assyria, the reason why they’re not a peace. With this writing, Isaiah is looking towards the future, prophesying about a time when Assyria will no longer be a threat to them.
Our text for today continues the tree metaphor: “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of God shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and reverence for God.” Here, Isaiah is prophesying about the coming of a new king and the peace he will bring, a king who loves God, and will rule with wisdom and understanding.
Isaiah is speaking for the people, he is their mouthpiece, speaking their concern about what’s happening around them, speaking their hope for a future where they can live in peace. When they no longer have to worry about war. When they can be happy. In this new world that Isaiah describes, “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.”
That last part about the child putting its hand over the adder’s den reminded me of a very interesting encounter that I had myself with a snake. I was out for a walk near my parents’ house in Southern California, when I came across a snake that had gotten tangled up in some netting that was caught on the bottom of a fence. She wasn’t moving at first, and I was worried that she might have died, but when I got closer, her head jerked towards me, jaws snapping, so I knew she still had a chance. The first thing I did was pull out my phone to find out what kind of snake this was. I wanted to rescue it, but if it was poisonous, I would have to think very carefully about how I was going to proceed. Luckily, I figured out that she was a California kingsnake, and not poisonous. They’re called kingsnakes because they often prey on other snakes, including rattlesnakes. I couldn’t figure out how to tell the difference between a male and a female, but I just I kind of got the sense that she was female, so that’s how I’m going to refer to her until someone tells me otherwise. I decided to call her Snuggles.
It looked like the netting was starting to cut into her, and it was clear that she wouldn’t be able to get free on her own. I knew I would need tools to get the netting off of her, but I was at least a mile from my parents’ house. I was worried that if I left her there, then a dog might find her and finish her off, and I didn’t want to get too close to her, because even if she wasn’t poisonous, she still had a mouthful of very sharp teeth. So, I found a stick, and was able to get the netting off the fence. I poked the stick through some of the netting, and began to walk, holding the snake out about three feet in front of me. Snuggles was pretty weak at this point, but still sassy enough to snap at me once in a while. I’m sure she was pretty scared.
I found a place to stash her in a canal that went under the street, because I didn’t want to walk all the way back carrying a snake on the end of a stick. As I walked the rest of the way back to my parents’ house, I tried to formulate a plan. I got some supplies and got back to Snuggles with some clothes pins, binder clips, a nail clipper, scissors, leather gloves, tongs, and a sock. I put the gloves on and used the tongs to get the sock over Snuggles’ head, which I then held in place with clothes pins and binder clips. She was pretty squirmy, so I had to hold on to her while cutting away at the netting. It didn’t take too long, just five minutes or so, and Snuggles was freed from it. All I had to do was slip off the sock, and Snuggles was free. She was extremely tired from the whole ordeal, who knows how long she had been trapped in the netting, but she very slowly slithered away, and disappeared into the bushes. I’d done what I could, the rest was up to God.
And, I think that’s what this text is trying to tell us. The perfect harmony depicted in Isaiah 11, the leopard lying down with the kid, and the child putting its hand in the adder’s den, can only be fulfilled through the grace of God. Human beings can’t do it alone. I was doing my best to help this snake, but she didn’t understand that. All she knew was that she was restrained, she was hurt, and she was exhausted. And, along comes this giant that’s fifty times larger than her that’s probably going to eat her. She had to try to defend herself and any child’s hand reaching towards her would have been quickly bitten.
But, it didn’t matter that she didn’t appreciate what I was doing. As the vehicles through which God’s grace reaches out into the world, it’s our job, as the church, to right the wrongs of the world, especially the wrongs that we create. This poor animal would’ve never gotten stuck like this if we hadn’t left our plastic netting out where an animal could find it. How many times a day is this scene being played out all over the world, to all kinds of animals, with plastic soda rings, straws, more discarded netting, and fishing line? There are countless tragic pictures and videos of what happens when animals encounter our trash. We need to do a better job of bringing peace and harmony to the world.
I will never forget my encounter with Snuggles, and I feel extremely blessed that I was able to have such a close encounter with a wild animal like this. I’m glad that I found her when I did and that I wasn’t too late to help her. Of course, it would have been better if it hadn’t happened at all, but if it was going to happen, I’m glad that God put me in the right place at the right time.
God sends blessings to us every day in all different shapes and sizes and numbers of teeth. It’s especially important in this season of blessings that we keep alert for them, so that we can appreciate how God is working in our lives. We can’t bring Isaiah’s prophecy of harmony and peace into its fullness, only God can do that. But, we can certainly get the ball rolling. We have to remember that sometimes, we are the miracle that God is sending. So, be the peacemakers and the instruments of God’s blessing. You are the hope for the world, and you carry the gift of God’s peace with you wherever you go. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
