Loving God, even in the midst of the ruins, your Spirit continues to be at work.  Make us aware of your presence and power as we worship you this day, and continue to bring us your healing, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

           In today’s reading from Isaiah, we have moved forward in time once again to the years when the Israelites were returning to Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside from their years of exile in Babylon.  Most of the people who returned were grandchildren of the original exiles and had never seen Jerusalem for themselves.  However, they had heard for years about how wonderful the city was and how utterly amazing the Temple was that had been built by Solomon.

         However, when they finally reached Jerusalem, they were greeted by a pile of rubble.  The really old people who remembered the Temple just wailed and lamented when they saw it, and the younger people were just thoroughly disappointed.  They were back from their exile, but there was definitely going to be a lot of work ahead of them.

         This is the original context for the message that we heard from Isaiah today – the message that proclaims good news to the oppressed, and liberty to the captives, and comfort for those who mourn, and healing for the brokenhearted.  It is a message that started with the returning exiles and that continues to resonate throughout the centuries.

         After all, how many people are there today who continue to mourn and who have suffered broken hearts?  How many people are there who feel like captives in their own homes, or who feel like prisoners in personal care homes?  How many people are there who are victims of human trafficking, or who have been unjustly imprisoned in so many countries around the world?  How many are there who could use “the year of the Lord’s favor” (Is. 61:2) – the year of Jubilee – when all debts are canceled, and people are allowed to return home, and the slaves are set free?  We may live in totally different circumstances, but the need for the Spirit of the Lord and good news for the oppressed has never disappeared.

         You may have noticed that there is also some vengeance and retribution in Isaiah’s message – a part of the message that is, notably, left out by Jesus so many years later.  The vision of at least some of God’s people was that they would essentially trade places with their enemies.  The Gentiles – the Persians – the Greeks – would now become their slaves who would till the land for them and look after their flocks.  They saw this as appropriate recompense for their years as slaves in Babylon.

         Jesus, however, stops in the middle of verse 2 when he reads from the Isaiah scroll in Nazareth.  He ends with “the year of the Lord’s favor,” and leaves out “the day of vengeance of our God.”  Rather than vengeance and retribution, Jesus invites people to imagine new kinds of relationships that don’t involve winners and losers (Spill the Beans, Issue 21).  For, Jesus came for all people – male and female, slave and free, Jew and Gentile (Gal. 3:28).

         Today’s reading from Isaiah could lead us to think about our own exile during the pandemic, as well as what rebuilding after Covid-19 might look like.  However, unfortunately, that post-Covid time is further away than some might think, in the midst of all of the talk about vaccines.  What is more immediate for many people is the need for comfort in the midst of their mourning, and release from the things that hold them captive.  Others would love to have healing for their broken hearts, or release from their debts and financial worries.  And still others would love to see justice done, and people actually doing what is right.

         The question is always how the good news proclaimed by Isaiah and Jesus and others becomes more than words.  How is it that people actually experience what Isaiah promises? One possible answer is purely spiritual in nature.  We experience the Spirit of the Lord upon us and within us and gain our comfort and our release from bondage directly from God.  However, for some people this is simply not enough.

         If we think about when Jesus spoke about the fulfillment of these words from Isaiah, people actually experienced the good news in their interactions with Jesus.  He himself comforted those who mourn, and healed the sick, and welcomed the outcast, and set free those who had been bound, and lifted up those who had been oppressed.  In addition to any spiritual comfort that people received from God, they also experienced physical and emotional comfort from Jesus.

         Today, then, with Jesus no longer physically present, we have become the body of Christ, and the Spirit of the Lord is now upon us, and in us, and among us.  And sometimes, God actually dares to work through us in order to comfort those who mourn, or to release those who have been captive, or to bind up the brokenhearted.  And sometimes, God works through others to minister to us when we are the ones who are in need.

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; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Is. 61:1-2a).

Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Advent 3 (NL 3)                                Isaiah 61:1-11

December 13, 2020                        Luke 4:16-21

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2020 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved