The Prophetic Word for Today: Wait Expectantly
Reflections on Isaiah 61.1-4, 8-11
RCL Advent 3B
17 December 2017
Saint Faith’s Anglican Church
Isaiah 61.1-4, 8-11
61.1 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 broken-hearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2 to proclaim
the year of the Lord’s favour, 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.
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.
An observation
from Christmas past
Forty-six years ago this December I
began working at J. C. Penney’s in Colorado Springs. My mother knew the personnel manager and I
knew that I needed a little extra money to cover expenses at university. My association with Penney’s would last until
the end of the summer of 1976 when I began my first semester of graduate
studies.
In those days there were few people
who had credit cards. If someone wanted
to purchase an item that was beyond their ready cash, they had two
options: put a little money away on a
regular basis or put the item on lay-away.
If you decided to save up to buy
something, there was always the risk that the item would not be available when
you finally had the cash to buy it.
Lay-away, on the other hand, meant that the store would put the item aside
for you. True, you had to pay a small
service charge and keep up your payments, but you knew that, if you persevered,
the item you wanted would be yours at the end of the agreed-upon period of
time.
During that first Christmas at
Penney’s I was asked to work the lay-away desk for a couple of days. I can still remember the excitement on the
faces of children as their parents picked up items that had been set aside
months before and the satisfaction on the faces of adults as they looked upon
the items that were now theirs, free and clear.
In our time when credit cards are a
necessary part of our everyday lives and on-line shopping replaces the
face-to-face contact with service staff, we risk losing one of the most
important aspects of living a life of faith.
We are becoming less and less accustomed to waiting expectantly
for our hopes and expectations to be realized.
Whether it is the search for faster
internet speed or our impatience with how long we have to wait in line-ups at
the store or Christmas music beginning Thanksgiving weekend, North Americans
want what we want now. This
pervasive attitude hampers our ability to proclaim the good news of the reign
of God, a promise that Christians believe is still in the process of being
fully realized in human time and space.
Waiting
expectantly means proclaiming our hope, our understanding of God’s future for
us and for all of creation.
Last week I spoke about the prophet
biblical scholars call ‘second’ Isaiah.
His ministry was among the disheartened exiles from the land of Judah
who were hoping that they would soon return to the land that God had promised
to their ancestors. To these people the
prophet spoke a word of comfort, a word of reassurance, that God would return
them to Judah.
This week we hear a word spoken by
another prophet, one whom scholars call ‘third’ Isaiah. His word is directed to the people of Judah
who have recently returned to the land of promise. Their initial joy has been tempered by the
reality of re-establishing Judah as a place where God’s covenant is
honoured. The Jerusalem of memory is not
the Jerusalem of present experience.
The prophet’s audience feels
oppressed, their hearts are broken, they feel imprisoned by the present and they
mourn the glories that are no longer theirs.
But the prophet brings good news:
God is with them in the here and now, empowering them to build up the
ancient ruins, to raise up the former devastations and to repair the ruined
cities. Once again the people of Judah
will be a sign to the nations of the righteousness and justice of God. This is their hope. It is a hope we share, the hope of a renewed
creation, God’s peaceable kingdom.
Waiting
expectantly means looking for the signs of that future in the present and to
point them out to others.
As we contemplate the world around
us, it is impossible for any observant person to ignore the suffering of
millions of our sisters and brothers.
Civil wars send millions into exile from their homes as well as wounding
and killing thousands. Racism rears its
ugly head even in democratic societies such as ours and poverty still robs
children of their future. I could go on
with the ills of our times, but this would not be faithful to the good news
that you and I are anointed by God’s Spirit to proclaim.
I remember hearing an international
aid worker talking about the state of the world. To be sure, he said, there are still major
challenges that face human beings, socially, politically and economically. But, he added quickly, let’s not lose sight
of some important glimpses of hope: more
women are gaining access to education, more children are gaining access to
life-giving health care, more indigenous communities are gaining control of the
resources of their traditional lands.
Complacency is a constant threat, he affirmed, but hope, glimpses of
hope, empower us to chip away at the places where human dignity is still held
captive by injustice and inequality.
On a local scale I see signs of hope
within our own community. Through the
ministry of the Pastoral Resource Centre we respect the dignity of every human
being who comes seeking assistance and lives are changed. Through the ministry of Saint Hildegard’s
Sanctuary we proclaim the good news of God in Christ to people who, for one
reason or another, have found themselves estranged from the community of
faith. Through the ministry each one of
us offers in our daily lives we seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving
our neighbours as ourselves. Through our
maintenance of this physical space children are nurtured, the gift of music
shared and community groups break through the various isolations experienced
within our city.
Waiting
expectantly means working or that future with the gift of ourselves, our souls
and bodies.
Will Campbell, a Baptist minister
and early stalwart of the civil rights movement in the southern United States,
wrote about his early life in a wonderful memoire entitled Brother to a Dragonfly. He
describes one of his early spiritual mentors, a Baptist minister who smoked
cigars, who enjoyed a good glass of scotch and who was known from time to time
to use language that would make a sailor blush.
One day, after a particularly
colourful explosion of invective, Will asked him why he, a fellow who smoked,
drank and cussed, became a Baptist minister.
‘Because I was called, goddammit,’ he replied.
Friends, the Spirit of the Lord is
upon all of us. We bring ourselves to
this altar Sunday after Sunday where God gathers us, transforms us and then
sends us out to the work God has given us to do. Long after any sermon I preach has faded
away, our actions of love towards our neighbours, our words of comfort and
compassion, our witness to a future where all God’s children shall be free will
be remembered. No one can know the
impact of the life of one faithful Christian can have upon the lives of
others. But it does have an impact.
So let us wait expectantly for the
coming of God’s promises in their fullness.
Let us share our hope far and wide.
Let us point to the signs of fulfilment that flash as brightly as the
holiday lights that illumine our homes and streets. And, with all our heart, with all our soul,
with all our mind and with all our strength, let us work with God to make the
promises come soon.
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