Third Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 61:1-4 - The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

61:8-11 - “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.” I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

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I want us to pay attention to how rich of a picture we’re given here.

The prophet has been empowered by the Spirit to preach good news, to preach gospel.

He has a message of salvation for the people.

But it’s not “good news you get to go to heaven when you die”

It’s “good news, God is coming to set the world right and you will be part of it”

This is not an escapist gospel. It is a gospel that touches down in the streets, in the homes, in the real lives of real people in the real world.

It’s an embodied hope.

That’s something we can find courage in this morning.

There is a school of thought that says when the people of God are focused on justice issues in this world they are distracted from the REAL gospel, which is about saving souls.

This, and other texts would say otherwise.

Of course, in the name of justice we can forget the name of Jesus and start putting our hope in political systems.

But that true of everything.

In the name of understanding we can put our hope in our intellect.

We can turn anything into an idol.

But look who this good news is for.

The poor, the persecuted, the mourning.

And why does God care?

Because he loves justice (verse 8).

The concepts of righteousness and justice are connected semantically in the scriptures.

Righteousness and justice go together.

And God hates injustice, like theft we’re told here.

What is God going to do?

He’s going to RESTORE people, not just people but communities, cities.

They will rebuild what has been devastated by war and oppression.

For what purpose?

To bring joy and praise back to the people.

He will make a covenant with them as his people.

And in their joy and praise they will be a light to the nations that God is good.

There’s a decidedly material aspect to this promise but before we use it as a proof text for the prosperity gospel remember that the people of Israel are the oppressed in this situation.

They are the poor. They were conquered and taken captive.

They’ve lost generations, AND their homes, AND their culture, AND their place of worship

So this promise of blessing is not God saying he’s handing out private jets to anyone who has enough faith

This is God saying he is healing the effects of inequality and injustice

Verse 2 says that the prophet’s called to “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” which is allusion to something called the Year of Jubilee that you can read about in Leviticus 25 and Deuteronomy 15 if you like.

It was a command of God that every 49 years debts would be wiped away, slaves would be freed, property would be returned, and it would function like a Sabbath year where the ground was left unworked so it could rest and replenish.

The Year of Jubilee, in practice, could greatly reduce things like economic inequality, lifelong slavery, overworking the ground, etc.

These are the things in view here as the prophet delivers this good news.

For the people of Israel this wasn’t some vague spiritual promise for life after death. But it was certainly much more than a stimulus check. This was a promise that God was going to bring justice and blessing in real ways in their lives.

Prophecy is an interesting thing though.

We should be aware how it was to be received by the original audience.

But we find that so much prophecy has, no so much a second meaning, but a fuller one.

And New Testament writers will take well known prophecies given to the people of Israel and show how they we both revealing something in the immediate foreground AND pointing to something in the distant background.

And we find that the fullest expression of God bringing justice and healing is not found in Israel enjoying a generation of prosperity.

It’s found in God himself entering in to set things right once and for all.

Last week we talked about John the Baptist pulling from Isaiah to explain what was happening.

He claims to be “the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.”

Alluding to Isaiah’s prophecy of a light coming to the people walking in darkness, he says he is not the light himself, but that he came to give testimony to the true light that was coming.

Similarly in Luke 4:14-21 we see Jesus pulling from Isaiah to explain HIS mission. In fact he references this very passage.

“Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The scripture is fulfilled? Was everything in the world set right in that synagogue?

No, but God had entered in to do the very thing he said he would.

It was happening in their midst.

In keeping in the theme of the Isaiah passage, what Jesus is saying he came to do is usher in a Jubilee celebration that would have no end.

Consider that, on any random day and I were to say, “there’s this passage in the Bible that talks about hope for the poor, and the broken, and the mourning, and the persecuted” what comes to mind first?

You might think of the Beatitudes, the start of the Sermon on the Mount, right?

It is strikingly similar in language to Isaiah.

And in Luke 7 John the Baptist himself sends messengers to Jesus to ask if he really truly is the one and Jesus replies

“Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”

Yes, I’m giving you a picture of where all this is headed.

The Jubilee celebration Jesus is ushering in, this setting right of all that is wrong in the world, is all encompassing.

Humankind is reconciled with God and the effects of sin are healed.

Or, as they say in the Lord of the Rings, everything sad is coming untrue.

Disease and death are banished.

Injustice and violence no more.

We are washed clean and reborn.

A Jubilee celebration that will have no end.

Again, think of what a rich, robust hope this is.

It is not escapist, vaguely spiritual, or just, you know, encouraging platitudes.

It’s flesh and bones, blood and tears, real life hope.

Which is what makes the incarnation, the birth of Jesus, so profound.

God with us, born in into history, a fragile infant, coming into the violence of our world, to set it right.

That’s tangible hope in our midst.

We look at Jesus’s first Advent, or arrival, being a fulfillment of that hope, as he opened up this new reality.

We look TO his second Advent, when he will return, as a completion of it.

The work of the Christian life is to stay centered on this hope despite all the forces that pull on us and all the hardships and doubts that inevitably come.

We might here messages like this and say

“OK that sounds great but like … can’t it all be fixed now? And how long do we have to wait? And … if I’m honest it’s hard to keep focused on that hope … to keep trusting.”

So I want to leave us with one of the other Lectionary readings for this morning, from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24.

The believing community throughout the world and throughout history is one well versed in active, hopeful waiting. Hence the encouragement we find here.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–24 - Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

Maybe sit with that text a bit this week. Let it guide your prayers.

As we learn to cherish the prophecies, hold on to the good, and trust that he is faithful do what he’s promised.