Which Isaiah?

Isaiah is the “fifth gospel,” often quoted in the New Testament, loved for passages of keen insight about the future far distant from him and of soaring beauty, passages like:

For a child has been born for us,
     a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
     and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
     Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6 (NRSV)

The problem is that, like many geniuses secular and religious of all ages, he wasn’t received well in his time.

When King Ahaz of Judah ignored his advice during the Syro-Ephraimite War (735-732 BCE), he went silent.

Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples.  I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

Isaiah 8:16-17 (NRSV)

Oracles of uncertain date predict the dire consequences of the haves ignoring the suffering of the have nots:

Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees,
     who write oppressive statutes, 
 to turn aside the needy from justice
     and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be your spoil,
     and that you may make the orphans your prey!
What will you do on the day of punishment,
     in the calamity that will come from far away?

Isaiah 10:1-3a (NRSV)

In the body of work called Isaiah are condemnations of several nations as well as an apocalypse worthy of John of Patmos:

Now the LORD is about to lay waste the earth and make it desolate

Isaiah 24:1 (NRSV)

So which Isaiah do we teach and preach during Advent and Christmas?

Were there three (or more) Isaiahs or just one? God alone knows. To me the scholarly argument over authorship is fruitless. Everybody agrees about who the prophet’s audiences were: the people of Jerusalem (8th century BCE), the exiles of Babylon (6th century), the returnees from Babylon (6th-5th centuries). Why not emphasize what we agree on?

That’s not what I mean when I ask which Isaiah?

What I mean is, do we stick to the passages you find on a Christmas card, soaring, beautiful, safe?

Or do we risk telling the whole truth, reflecting also on other passages that are searing, holy, and true?