The Spiritual Seal

Isaiah 11:1-10
¹A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
   and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
² 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.
³ 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;
⁴ 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.
⁵ Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
   and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

⁶ 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.
⁷ The cow and the bear shall graze,
   their young shall lie down together;
   and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
   and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
⁹ They will not hurt or destroy
   on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
   as the waters cover the sea.
¹⁰ On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Reflection:

It is impossible to miss the connection that the Gospel writers make with Jesus of Nazareth and Isaiah 11. The Prophet Isaiah for his part is telling the people of Judah that a King descended from Jesse the father of David, will arise in the Southern Kingdom and usher in a rule in which justice and equity, which were too often being neglected, once again become the standard and not the exception. Isaiah hope that justice, will prevail to the end that the poor and the meek will at last see the end of their oppression, as unjust rulers, the wealthy, and the powerful in and around Jerusalem pay head to the Prophet’s words. The picture which Isaiah’s is painting is one in which equity with justice becomes the hallmark of a coming age.

Being compelled to seek such justice was what led Pope Paul VI in the 1960’s to declare "If you want peace, work for justice." Peace brought about by justice as the Prophet Isaiah envisions it is a “peaceable kingdom” in which former enemies are at last reconciled. The animal kingdom becomes a way of casting this “peaceable kingdom” into dramatic contrast. The hunted in this “peaceable kingdom” are no longer fearful of their former predators. In this vision the law of the “survival of the fittest is turned on its head. The carnivorous lion becomes a herbivore and eats alongside its former prey. A Child no longer fears the snake.

The whole thrust of this passage is that Judah will become the true light to the nations. By the way Judah treats her poor and less fortunate, the pagan Gentiles will come to appreciate and believe in the justice of Judah’s God, who has established such a nation. The justice leading to such and “peaceable kingdom” in the end reveals the true nature of God’s ongoing mission. God in this hoped for dream of Isaiah is revealed as a God of Justice and Peace, who has called a people to be a living sign of his work in and for the world.

But there is also another important implication of this text. As I said, one cannot read this text I suspect without imagining the messianic message here. In short, it is impossible to read this text or hear it read and not recall the God’s mission carried out in his only Son, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is revealed by the Gospel writers as the one who exemplifies the gifts described in the first part of this passage. The sevenfold gifts of the spirit: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and the delight in the fear of the Lord.

In the fourth century Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan baptized Augustine and Augustine’s son Adeodatus (Latin for gift from God) Augustine, Adeodatus and one of Augustine’s friends were all baptized together at the Great Vigil of Easter (the Saturday night before Easter dawn) in the year 387 in Milan, in what is today Northern Italy. Ambrose used a prayer at the baptism of which we still use in a form today at baptism. The prayer is based on Isaiah 11:

(Laying both hands on the head of each of the newly baptized, the minister prays for each): Sustain name with the gift of your Holy Spirit: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in your presence, both now and forever. Amen.

-          ELW p. 231

In my own writing and work I have often called this prayer found in the Evangelical Lutheran Worship and many Services of Baptism down through the centuries by the name the “Ambrosian Prayer.” This “Ambrosian Prayer” accompanied what Ambrose in his writing called the “spiritual seal.” The “spiritual seal.” was an image which Ambrose barrowed from Song of Songs 8.6:

Set me as a seal upon your heart,
   as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
   passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
   a raging flame.

There is some debate today as to whether Ambrose meant that this “spiritual seal” was received in baptism by the washing, or handlaying, or anointing with oil, or the possible sign of the cross marked on the forehead of the one washed in the waters of life. I have suggested in much of my work that the “spiritual seal” was in fact all of these, and that through the washing, anointing, handlaying, and sign of the cross, along with the offering of prayers by the presider and community, we receive the “spiritual seal.” The promise in this “spiritual seal” which we receive in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism is the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are the attributes of Christ. But in Baptism, as we are joined to Christ, clothed in him, washed, anointed and receive the laying on of hands and the anointing reserved for kings in the linage of Jesse and David. We receive these seven gifts, namely: “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in God’s presence, both now and forever.”

This means as Christ’s disciples joined to him in Baptism, and enlightened by the Holy Spirit sent from the Father, we are mad agents of change. "If you want peace, work for justice." The dream Isaiah saw, and the vision of the Kingdom of God which this passage imagines is the Kingdom to which we as disciples who have received the “spiritual seal” are compelled to point and therefore hold before the eyes of the world.

In our Advent journey we are called to remember our Baptism along with the gifts with which we have been so richly blessed through the “spiritual seal.”