I once owned a house that had had a large Black Locust tree in the front yard.  Some previous owner had cut it down years ago.  The stump was level with the ground.  And while the stump appeared quite dead, it nevertheless constantly put out green shoots, many of them, all the time.  We referred to Black Locust trees as “weed trees” for their weed-like ability to send up shoots everywhere.  It is a really invasive plant species, much like blackberry bushes.  It seems there is nothing you can do to get rid of them: I religiously clipped off every shoot that came from that stump but to no avail.  Even if I managed to dig the stump out, more would come.

    In the midst of the warning of Israel’s impending doom from the Babylonian invasion in 589 BCE, Isaiah prophesying against them nonetheless refers to a “stump” that will continue to be a “holy seed” for the Jewish people despite their past iniquity.  Even amidst oncoming tragedy, this "holy seed" of hope is already being planted.  Much, much later, Paul will go on to talk about his sordid past with the church he once persecuted; how he tried his best to eradicate it, to kill it, to flush it out of existence, all to no avail. And as for his present role as key evangelist, supreme church planter, God does not hold his past against him any more than he did Isaiah’s people but uses him, transformed in the present, to do mighty things for Jesus Christ—the “holy seed of Jesse,” the stump of Israel.  Paul himself will become the stump from which all of us future shoots will grow.  God forgives and forgets our past through this stump and uses our present circumstances to get the job done.  As to our past, he knows it not.  It is only our present and our future for which he is concerned.

 

And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’

Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.

The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’

And he said, ‘Go and say to this people:
“Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.”

Make the mind of this people dull,
   and stop their ears,
   and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes,
   and listen with their ears,
and comprehend with their minds,
   and turn and be healed.’

Then I said, ‘How long, O Lord?’ And he said:
‘Until cities lie waste
   without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
   and the land is utterly desolate;

until the Lord sends everyone far away,
   and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.

Even if a tenth part remains in it,
   it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak
   whose stump remains standing
   when it is felled.’
The holy seed is its stump.

 

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God,

he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.

He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’

Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’

When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.

So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’

For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken;

and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’

When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

 

Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand,

through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,

and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures,

and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me.

For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.