A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord – and He will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes, or decide by what He hears with His ears; but with righteousness He will judge the needy, with justice He will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth; with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be His belt and faithfulness the sash around His waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to Him, and His place of rest will be glorious. (Isaiah 11:1-10)

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      The second Sunday of Advent is traditionally set aside for us to consider peace, not in the sense of the absence of war but rather peace as a spiritual quality; inner peace as a gift from God. In Galatians 5:22, Paul identifies this type of peace as one of the fruits we bear by virtue of living as faithful Christians. Peace should be a characteristic of our lives. Today, as we think about this peace God wants us to have, we do well I think to reflect on the famous prayer of Francis of Assisi: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” To be an instrument of God's peace, though, requires that we understand it, and that can be a challenge. After all, in Philippians 4:7, Paul also writes that this peace is “the peace that passes all understanding.” Apparently, it's beyond our ability to fully understand the peace that God offers to us, and so we tend as Christians to settle for a watered down type of peace. As Christmas fast approaches we become awash in reflections about peace that don't really get to the gist of what it is that God offered to us when He sent His Son into the world to become for us the “Prince of Peace.” We see this misguided vision of peace reflected on many of the secular Christmas cards that are so popular at this time of year. They tend to feature scenes of untrampled snowy forests, quiet rural villages and brightly burning candles. Even the overtly Christian Christmas cards give a misleading sense of God's peace, I would argue, suggesting that the peace of God is little more than a baby sleeping quietly in His mother's arms. These are wonderful scenes, no doubt – that's why they're so popular. These are scenes that do in fact offer a soothing sense of tranquility, but in fact none of these scenes have anything really to do with God's peace that has come to earth in the person and life of Jesus Christ. The peace that God offers is indeed an inner peace – a peace reflected not to us but a peace directed through us, and this peace – if it's lived and shared abundantly, can by extension lead to peace in our homes and peace in our churches and peace in our communities and peace among nations and indeed to “peace and earth and good will to all men.” If we really want to understand the “peace that passes all understanding” (as strange as that may sound) then we probably have to reach all the way back to the peace that was depicted in the creation story of the Book of Genesis – to that peace pictures as existing in Eden before the introduction of sin; to a time when human beings daily walked with God and talked with God and enjoyed perfect communion with God, with one another and with all creation. That is quite a picture of peace – and with our world as it is today it is a hard peace to understand, but at the same time it's a peace that awaits restoration. If we really want to be serious when we promote Jesus as the Prince of Peace, Whose birth foretold the establishment of peace on earth then we need to understand peace not merely as the absence of conflict but as an active spiritual force that touches individual lives. The presence of the Spirit of God is essential to the establishment of that kind of peace. Without God's Spirit there can be no peace – within us or beyond us. When Isaiah writes that “a shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit,” Christians have always seen in that a portrait of the Christ. And what does Isaiah say of this figure: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” At Jesus' baptism, this prophecy was publicly fulfilled for all to see as the Spirit of God descended upon Him in the form of a dove. Of Jesus, John the Baptist said that He would baptize us with the Holy Spirit, but how do we know if that's happened? How do we know? Many people have different and complicated ideas revolving around the presence of dramatic spiritual gifts. But Isaiah seems to have had a different understanding of the working of God's Spirit. Isaiah describes God's Spirit as “the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” These three sets of qualities define for us the attributes of the Messiah; the attributes of Christ, and they explain when looked at together why He has the ability to give peace to those who claim Him as their own.

     “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding ...” These are what might be called the royal qualities of Jesus. Jesus is called the “King of kings” for a reason. A king is one who rules; one who governs. In the Old Testament kings were called upon to do a great deal more than kings are called to do today. They were the ones who mediated disputes and who judged between their people. There was perhaps no Old Testament king who displayed these qualities in greater abundance than David's son Solomon. Jesus – yet another son of David – displays these qualities in even greater abundance.“Wisdom” means the ability to have a right judgment in all things and “understanding” refers to the ability to see to the heart of an issue. Put together, they refer to the ability to know right from wrong and to provide justice fairly and equitably. If Jesus is “our judge and our hope,” then we should be grateful for these qualities He possesses.

     “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him – ... the Spirit of counsel and of power ...” These are what might be called the practical abilities of Jesus. In Hebrews, Jesus is referred to as the One Who “is able to help those who are being tempted,” and also as the One Who is “able to save completely those who come to God through Him.” These are practical abilities of the sort that we would want the Messiah to have! In the context of our passage today, “counsel” refers to the ability to devise a right course of action and “understanding” means having the ability to see that course of action through. Jesus, faced with the impending horror of the cross, could have chosen a course that would have allowed Him to avoid it altogether. And yet, He said to His disciples, “Let us go to Jerusalem.” Here we see Jesus demonstrating His ability to know the course He must take.

     “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him – ... the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” These are what might be called the spiritual power of Jesus. In John's Gospel Jesus affirms that “I and the Father are one.” That's the “Spirit of knowledge” at work. To Isaiah, this type of “knowledge” referred to the intimate and personal relationship that always characterized the relationship between Jesus and His Father, and “the fear of the Lord” refers to being so awestruck by God that one's life and conduct reflect that relationship in every way, and so Paul is able to write in Philippians that Jesus, though”being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross.” In Jesus unity with God and obedience to God we see the spiritual power that guided Him and that changes us.

     Such qualities belong to the Messiah, but these qualities also belong to us, in ever-increasing abundance because the Spirit of God is upon us as well, and where we allow the Spirit of God to lead, we have an increasing sense of peace – peace with God, peace in our lives, peace in our relationships and, if enough allow themselves to be led by the Spirit of the Lord, peace in the world.