Isaiah
61:1-11; Psalm 126; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22
Third
Sunday of Advent: December 11, 2011
God
speaks through the prophet Isaiah: “Everlasting
joy shall be theirs.” Whose? Everlasting joy will be whose? When we talk about joy in advent what kind of
joy are we talking about – and for who?
Is this the joy we feel when we see a long lost friend? The joy our kids feel on Christmas morning
when they see the big gift from Santa?
The joy people feel when they’re on a great vacation? I don’t think so. All of that joy is great – it’s all important
and to be relished.
But
that’s not the advent joy. That’s not the joy Isaiah is writing about when he
says on God’s behalf, “everlasting joy will be theirs.” That’s not the joy Paul is asking the
Thessalonians to have when he writes, “rejoice always.” That’s not the joy the Psalmist means when he
says, “those who go out weeping shall come home in joy.” Advent joy is a fairly particular thing – and
it is certainly far more than happiness, and far more than our own personal
highs.
“Everlasting
joy will be theirs,” is the start of a longer sentence. It goes on, “For I, Yahweh, love justice.” The joy of which Isaiah writes is the joy
people who suffer injustice feel when God’s justice is realized in our
midst. This is joy for the ones to whom
the prophet has come to preach: the
oppressed, the brokenhearted, the imprisoned, the captives. “The spirit of God is upon me,” Isaiah
writes. “God has sent me to bring good
news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives, and release to prisoners.”
Everlasting joy will be theirs. Biblical joy is tied to God’s justice. And the joy of Advent – the joy of Christmas
is no different.
These
words of Isaiah should ring very familiar to all of us. The Prince of Peace, the bringer of all joy,
the one who we celebrate at Christmas, announced his ministry in the same
way…in fact, according to the gospel of Luke, chapter 4, he uses Isaiah’s words
and makes them his own: “The spirit of
Yahweh is upon me,” Jesus proclaims. “God
has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, deliver
the captives…” There is no doubt that
joy is a core part of the Christian faith – but it is a very particular kind of
joy, and when we’re honest with ourselves, we realize it’s joy for very
particular kinds of people: the poor,
the brokenhearted, the captives, the oppressed.
This
joy is not the same as happiness – the same as a temporary moment on a good day. This is not joy that comes with a $20 gas
voucher and a food box from Mica. This
joy comes from a world turned completely around. This joy comes when wrongs are set right and
imbalances are balanced. Both Isaiah and
Jesus, in announcing their ministries, go on to say they have come to proclaim
the “year of Yahweh’s favor.” This is
language that would have struck a chord with the people at the time, but might
escape us if we haven’t read our Leviticus lately. “The year of Yahweh’s favor,” is not the
equivalent of “A particularly good year in history.” It means the year of Jubilee.
The
year of Jubilee was to be built into the cycles and rhythms of the lives of the
Hebrew community. In the year of
Jubilee, all debts were forgiven. During
the Jubilee property and people held as payment for debt were returned to the
families to which they originally belonged. The use of the Leviticus language
in Isaiah 61 is an indication that the joy proclaimed will be felt when there
is a permanent, new social and economic system within the community.
Jubilee
was to set things right again. To undo
all the disparities that inevitably arise in human society. Jubilee frees people – both those responsible
for their own situation and those not.
There are no qualifications. The
year of Yahweh’s favor is the great new beginning! And for the losers in the world, that
beginning could not be better news.
The
hard truth in that is that for the
“winners” in the world – the ones who are owed
money, the ones who own the land, the
ones who profit from the labor of others, the ones whose bottom line grows as
the lives of others become more desperate – well, this whole jubilee thing may
not have been such great news. It may
not have caused them joy. In fact, there
is no evidence to support that it ever actually happened. Which is probably because the ones who were
charged with declaring that year of jubilee, for enforcing the ethic, were the
pretty much the winners.
Isaiah’s
words, “Everlasting joy will be theirs,” were spoken to the winners and losers
alike: and I’m sure reactions were as varied then as they would be today,
because it meant very different things to different people depending on their
station in life. Once again, as we read
from the book of Isaiah, we need to remind ourselves of the backdrop for our
passage. The book of Isaiah is split
into three parts: The first part takes
place immediately before the Babylonians come to Jerusalem, devastate the
temple, conquer the land and the people, and force all of the Jewish leaders
into exile. The second part was written
during the long years of exile when the people were separated from their
homeland and most felt separated from the God they knew and trusted. And the third part – which is where our
passage is situated – was written after the Jews were returned to
Jerusalem.
This
was supposed to be an amazing time! The
people thought they should be rejoicing because all their problems had been
solved. God had heard their cries,
brought them out of oppression, and back to the promised land. But joy was elusive, and the prophet gives
them a hint as to why that is. There are
still oppressed people, he says. There
are people with broken hearts, there are people captive in all sorts of
ways. The community was back in the
promised land, but they were far from the nation God called them to be. The sadness the prophet is addressing rises
out of frustration and humiliation over the failure to rebuild the city and the
temple to match its former glory, and the
failure to reconcile the economic disparities within the city.
But
the prophet assures the people that this sadness is not a permanent state. Joy will
be theirs. But how does this joy come?
Well, Isaiah said he came to bring it.
Jesus said he came to bring it.
But neither stopped there. Not
even remotely. “You shall be called priests,” Isaiah says. You shall be called ministers of God.” Isaiah is speaking to people who have been
brought back from Babylon to Jerusalem by the God of justice, and they are
being reminded that they are brought there for a reason. And as soon as Jesus announces his ministry, we know he goes out and
calls the first disciples, then walks them around Israel showing them the
places in need of ministering. Everything
is in ruins, and God is calling on them to build up the very city of God – the
city of justice and righteousness like has never been seen before.
For
those who were to be the ministers and disciples, such a call would require of
them a lot. This required a time of
jubilee – a reversal. This required a
departure from the old way of life, and it would require sacrifice, creativity,
compassion, and work. And I’m sure that
was hard for some to hear. As much as
the losers would have welcomed such a message and ministry, some undoubtedly
found it challenging. We know from
Jesus’ life, some even found it threatening and they resisted it to the point
of putting Jesus to death.
Maybe
we find it daunting too.
But
in advent, we ask God to come again. In
advent, when we read Isaiah, we ritually cry out for God to send a prophet to
proclaim the year of God’s favor so that everlasting joy will be theirs. As we do, we must heed Paul’s words to the
Thessalonians to not despise the words of the prophets; to not allow the words
of the prophets to go in one ear and out the other…even when we find them
daunting and challenging.
And
we must heed the words of Isaiah. We are the ministers of God. We must build up the city of God out of the
ruins of injustice. We have been
anointed to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives. And
perhaps scariest of all – perhaps most provocatively – we are called to
proclaim…to usher in…the year of God’s favor – the jubilee – and all the
radical economic policy and upheaval that implies….both for our own lives, and
for the systems of the world.
When
we do…when we heed the prophet’s words, when we sign up as Jesus’ disciples,
when we usher in the year of jubilee…everlasting joy will be theirs; those who go out weeping will come home in joy. In
fact…when such a time of jubilee comes, we can all rejoice together. Amen.
