Sermon Dec 11 2011

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 p 803
61The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;2to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;3to provide for those who mourn in Zion— to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.
4They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.8For I the LORD love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.9Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the LORD has blessed.
10I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.11For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
This is the word of the Lord….thanks be to God

Psalm 126 p499
1When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.
2Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”
3The LORD has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.
4Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like the watercourses in the Negeb.
5May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.
6Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.
This is the word of the Lord….Thanks be to God


Today is the Third Sunday in Advent. It is the JOY Sunday, the day we light the pink candle. Originally observed only in the city of Rome, it comes from the Latin word "Gaudate"—the day we "Rejoice." And indeed, today’s Scripture lessons call for us to rejoice. We need to take care to understand what it means, though. We are not simply to be happier on Advent's third Sunday. To rejoice is to engage in a radical act and to adopt a certain stance toward God and humanity. It is, in many ways, to defy what the world tells us and shows us, and live out a radical truth—that God is in control, despite what things look like.


Psalm 126 is a Song of Ascents, one of the songs the pilgrims of Israel sang as they went up to Jerusalem. And the Songs of Ascents were joyous, for to be able to go to Jerusalem, the Holy City, was both a requirement for faithful Jews, and a blessing.
But if we look carefully at the psalm, it is not all happy happy joy, joy. It is, in fact, a psalm of lament—of crying out to God. It begins with remembering the great things God has done: “When God restored…the fortunes of Zion”. It begins, not with present praise and celebration, but in looking to the past. The psalmist remembers: The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. But the great things are no more, apparently, because the psalmist’s next words are: “Restore our fortunes, O God”. Literally, “turn, O God”. And then: a prayer, “May those who sow in tears reap with joy”.
The psalmist can pray this, the people of God can sing this, because they have an already established relationship with God. They have experienced the goodness of God—even if they do not see it today, in this moment. Even if there is no joy right now—they can remember, and trust, and look to the future.
The psalmist insists that God will see to it that we who are lost will find our way home, and we who sow in tears will reap with joy.
The prophet Isaiah is speaking, in this morning’s portion, to the people who have returned from exile. And while this is what the people of God longed for, prayed for, cried out to God for, the reality is different from their dreams. Even returned to Jerusalem, there are still problems. The world is still broken. There are still disparities in income, there are still political divisions, there are problems between the people who were brought back from exile, and the remnant who stayed in Jerusalem. The city and the Temple are not restored to their former glory, and Jerusalem does not look like the restored and healed community. The gritty reality of life does not seem to match the promises of the prophets.
But Isaiah says this to the people: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me”, he says, “to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”—the Jubilee year, the time when debts would be forgiven, when land would be returned to the rightful owners, when slaves would be set free. A time when the world would be restored, when economic injustice would end, when theer would be no more mourning, or shame, a time when the world would be healed, not broken.
Jesus spoke those same words, reading from the scroll in his home town synagogue. Those words of good news, of freedom and release. His first sermon, really. And the people were so astonished—and offended that they tried to throw him off a cliff and kill him.
I once heard a woman read these same words as the text during her service of ordination to the office of teaching elder, or minister of word and sacrament. And I was astonished—and offended. Surely, I thought, it is one thing for Jesus to read those words. It is quite another thing for her! But I now think, that the church must claim these words for itself—to speak as the “me” in that text “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the oppressed…to bind up the broken hearted…to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Maybe we should read it as “the spirit of the Lord is upon us…”
Because that is what the church is called to do: to proclaim good news, to bring comfort to those who mourn, to proclaim and enact liberty to captives….to feed the hungry, to clothe the cold and naked, to talk about what God is doing—we, who know God’s actions, we who have a prior relationship with God, we who see that the world needs restoring again.
The promises of God are faithful and true. God, who has restored in the past, will restore again. The word “Promise,” turns out not to be empty, but a word closely related to “mission.” It derives from a Latin word, “pro-missio” meaning, “to send, hence put, in front, hence to engage to (do something).” A promise, then, is a call to take action, to move, to perform a required service. The promises of God become our mission statement.
We do well to look at John the Baptist, out in the wilderness, who when questioned by the authorities, was very clear about who he was not: Not the Messiah, not Elijah, not even a minor prophet. Just a voice, and a witness, pointing to the light, rejoicing as he goes. The church acts as a witness, a voice of testimony, a pointer—and lives out what it is talking about—justice, redemption, restoration, love.
This is work. And it will not always be easy, or popular, or received well. But it is the work we are called to do—Isaiah even mentions work clothes: garments of salvation and robes of righteousness. And we do this work, this rejoicing, this pointing, this witnessing, because of the very nature of God: “ 1 Thessalonians says “the One who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.”
The prophet Isaiah uses the language of rejoicing instead of mourning. This talk is rooted in the character of God the faithful. It is as natural as the earth bringing forth its shoots. Restoration and healing happen, because God is acting. It is the nature of the Creator. And so we rejoice. This is the work of the Spirit of the Lord that Isaiah talks about. And we join in that work with joy.
Amen.