Thoughts for the Day

* Tree of Jesse, in the Louvre Museum.

A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

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.

(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

As a young woman I can remember my mother had, in her garden, a small bed for new plants. These were always rather pathetic looking, but eventually flourished into all kinds of shrubs and flowers. Over the years I have copied her example and snipped off various small branches and stuck them in the ground. The latest to grow is a lovely variegated dogwood - a cornus alba - that has beautiful red stems in winter and green and cream leaves in the summer. Its parent gets cut down each year almost to its roots, but I thought it was about time I tried to grow some new ones, so I snipped a tiny bit off and stuck it in the ground. Lo and behold it has grown into a new plant, true to its parent.

Today's 'O Antiphon' says that the Messiah will be the called the 'Root of Jesse'. He will come from the line of King David, who's father was Jesse. There was originally a hope that the Messiah would be another warrior King, like King David, but He was of course to totally pass these expectations. As the Son of God Jesus was to be true to His parent.

One translation of the Antiphon is:

'O Root of Jesse, who stands as an ensign of the people,
before Whom kings shall keep silence,
and unto Whom the Gentiles shall make their supplication:
come to deliver us, and tarry not.

For the first time we get 'tarry not', or as we might say "come quickly".

O Wisdom,
O Adonai,
O Root of Jesse,
come again to Your people,
and tarry not!
Amen.