Joy: Promises Promises

Text

The New Revised Standard Version The Good News of Deliverance

61 The 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;

2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor,

and the day of vengeance of our God;

to comfort all who mourn;

3 to 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.

4 They shall build up the ancient ruins,

they shall raise up the former devastations;

they shall repair the ruined cities,

the devastations of many generations.

The New Revised Standard Version The Good News of Deliverance

8 For 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.

9 Their 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.

10 I 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.

11 For 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.

Introduction

Last week’s sermon had both a peanuts reference, and an Aaron Sorkin reference.

This week, let’s do both at once!

In one particular scene on the West Wing, my favorite television show of all time, the Chief of Staff is trying to convince the President to fund a missile defense system that has a remarkably small success rate.

The President tells his friend that he is Charlie Brown, and the Pentagon is Lucy.

Not understanding the reference, the President explains to his COS that Lucy is always trying to get Charlie Brown to kick a football, but every time at the last second Lucy pulls the ball away and Charlie Brown falls on his butt.

No matter how many times Lucy promises, every time he tries to kick the ball Lucy pulls it away, and Charlie Brown falls on his butt.

The COS responds “There are a couple of three star generals in there. Call them Lucy, and you’re on your own.”

Not to be out done, but a little while later the missile defense system fails, missing it’s target by 137 miles.

The President quietly turns to his friend as says “The words you’re looking for are ‘Oh, good grief.”

The truth is, some of us have been Charlie Brown’ed so many times, we’re starting to take less and less stock in promises, aren’t we?

We’ve been promised that if you just work hard, do the right thing, and participate in the world then you’ll be able to live the American dream. Sadly, some of us here know that’s not always true.

How many politicians run great guns in the campaign season, promising left and right, only to fail to deliver once in office?

And even on the day to day level, we are bombarded with advertisements with products that promise to enrich our lives, and yet fall flat almost every time.

No wonder then that some of us have trust issues when it comes to promises.

The question for us today is, if we’re having trust issues with God’s promises.

The Promise of Advent

I think this passage in Isaiah contains the promise of Advent.

This is the message that God wants to send his people:

Good news to the oppressed

Remember that this message is being written to a people in exile.

They are far away from home.

They are separated from their sacred spaces and rituals.

They are forced to obey the customs, laws, and religions of Babylon, where they have been taken away.

The danger in contemplating this is assuming that we are oppressed when we are not.

I for one have very few places in my daily life where I am oppressed.

I have very few places where I cannot do exactly what I choose, when I choose to, and how I choose to.

Wearing a mask is not oppression. Paying taxes is not oppression. Carrying a desire to respect the needs of others around me is not oppression.

There is real oppression in our world today to be sure.

I have met folks in Vietnam who are unable to worship as they see fit, and face inprisonment and beatings and even death for being Christian. That’s oppression.

There are countries around the world who do not allow their citizens a vote, a voice of discent, or a free and fair press to air their grievances with those who govern them. That’s oppression.

There are folks who have been oppressed for generations in this country for their race, who have been at various times counted as 3/5 a person, enslaved, beaten, lynched, and discriminated against. That’s oppression.

I wonder what good news to those folks sounds like?

Liberty and release

Before we can have liberty and release, we might want to ask a more basic question:

What are we captive to?

Debt

Americans carry on average $6,000 in credit card debt.

Add on to that car payments, student loans, and mortgages, the average American owes $90,000.

Some of that is good debt, but a vast majority of it for some folks is buying now what we can’t afford to pay for.

That debt is a captor.

Drugs/Alcohol

We’ve discussed this in the past, but addiction is a very serious problem in our nation.

14.1 million Americans are addicted to Alcohol.

2.1 million Americans have an addiction to opioids.

Ask anyone who has carried an addiction to these or other vices, and they’ll tell you its a kind of captivity, or prison.

I wonder what release looks like?

Consumerism

The World Health Organization estimates that it would cost $11.3 billion to give clean drinking water to everyone on earth.

That sounds like a lot of money!

Americans spent $20 billion this past year…on ice cream...

In fact it’s estimated that this year, 2020, between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Americans spent $149 Billion.

And this isn’t to shame anyone here who bought a few Christmas gifts.

It is however to point out the cyclical captivity of consumerism.

We buy something.

It wears out.

We feel like we’re incomplete without it.

We buy the new one.

Justice

(For City Mission)

Justice is splitting the cookie in half, but letting the other guy decide which piece he gets.

Can we look at the captivity of debt, or alcoholism, or homelessness, or racial injustices, or consumerism, and say that things are just?

Yet this is the promise of Advent.

God loves justice.

God loves it so much that he uses the word “hate” to describe unjust things like robbery and doing wrong.

God promises a world where people are no longer held captive by their debts.

God promises a world where addictions to drugs and alcohol and gabbling are long gone.

God promises a world where we are no longer bound to the newest gadget, newest consumerist toy, newest whatever, but where we are free to enjoy what we have without restraint.

Praise and Rejoicing

Not surprisingly, God suggests such promises will bring us to rejoicing.

Joy is not the same as happiness.

Money, it turns out can buy happiness. It just can’t buy joy.

Whereas happiness is fleeting, joy is eternal.

Isaiah imagines enough wrongs righted, enough oppressions ceased, enough captives released, that the land is full of the joy of the Lord.

So, a bit like Charlie Brown and Lucy, I’ve got to wonder if that’s what God has promised, why isn’t it here yet?

The Promise Fulfilled

What Advent Promises, Jesus fulfills:

When he was preaching in his hometown congregation, his real first public speech, Jesus opens to this text we read earlier.

His sermon is a short one.

After reading this story about the oppressed getting good news, the captives being freed, justice coming to the land, and a sense of joy for all, Jesus says essentially

I’m your guy.

And then maybe most remarkably, Jesus goes and lives it.

A Friend to the Oppressed and Outcast

It is almost hilarious how little Jesus wants to do with the people who have it all together.

He’d much rather hang with the oppressed and outcast.

He’s spending time with lepers.

He’s hanging out with prostitutes.

He’s the doctor far more interested in the sick than in the well.

Liberty and release from our sin

Whatever sin held people captive, Jesus came with a message of grace, forgiveness, and new life.

To the tax collector, he spoke forgiveness and invited them into a new life of generosity.

To the woman caught in adultery he said “I don’t condemn you, go and sin no more.”

To God’s people who could not liberate ourselves from sin, Christ became sin and bore our punishment for us.

Replacing our tit-for-tat justice with God’s amazing grace

If our notion of justice is making sure that everyone gets what they deserve, Jesus was about making sure that we got more than we deserve.

Justice for us should be repayment for our sins. Jesus instead meets us with grace.

Justice for us should be condemnation for living outside the way of God. Jesus instead meets us with love and acceptance.

Justice for us should be heartbreaking devastation. Jesus meets us to bind up the brokenhearted.

Grace isn’t amazing because we deserve it. It’s amazing because we don’t.

Praise and Rejoicing in the Son

In John 17, Jesus prays for his disciples and for all the disciples that are going to come later in life (that would be us).

How’s this for a prayer:

The New Revised Standard Version Jesus Prays for His Disciples

13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.

Jesus carries joy.

Jesus gives us joy.

Jesus wants that joy made complete.

That’s his prayer for us today.

I actually think it’s impossible to be a cranky Christian.

If you are unable to carry joy, I don’t know that you’ve been around Jesus enough.

To be around Jesus is to be around God’s sense of Joy.

The joy of Advent is that we are welcoming the embodiment of God’s promises in to the world in Jesus Christ.

And yet, the world still isn’t where we’d want it.

Our Part of the Promise

Every night we have a similar story in our house.

Our living room is over run with toys and stuffed animals and snacks and just…a day well lived in the house of twins.

Every night at 7:50, we tell the boys it’s time to clean up.

If Sarah and I were to step in, we could easily have the living room cleaned up in maybe 3 minutes.

But we have to ask the dudes to be the ones to clean up.

They need to have ownership in the process, or they may never appreciate it.

At the end of the story, Jesus has an interesting parting word for his disciples:

The New Revised Standard Version The Commissioning of the Disciples

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus has the authority, and the ability, to do what needs to be done in the world.

But he’s sending us to live in to the promise that God has made.

We’re called to own the promise.

We’re called to own the promise to proclaim good news to anyone being held captive by anything.

We’re called to own the promise of preaching release to the captives of debt and addiction and consumerism and actual prisons.

We’re called to own the promise of justice, but not just ours, the justice of a forgiving and grace giving God.

We’re called to own our promise as a people of joy.

So my brothers and sisters. Own the promise of Jesus Christ today.