The LORD has done great things for us, * and we are glad indeed.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD, * like the watercourses of the Negev.
Those who sowed with tears * will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, * will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
With the kids jingle belling
And everyone telling you “Be of good cheer”
A St. Louis County grand jury has brought no criminal charges against Darren Wilson, a white police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager, more than three months ago in nearby Ferguson.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
It’s the hap-happiest season of all
A Staten Island grand jury ended the criminal case against Daniel Pantaleo a white New York police officer whose chokehold on Eric Garner, an unarmed black man led to Mr. Garner’s death, a decision that drew condemnation from elected officials and touched off a wave of protests.
With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings
When friends come to call
The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday issued a sweeping indictment of the Central Intelligence Agency’s program to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks, drawing on millions of internal C.I.A. documents to illuminate practices that it said were more brutal — and far less effective — than the agency acknowledged.
It’s the hap- happiest season of all [1]
Today marks the 2nd anniversary of the mass shootings of children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut, Two years after the school shootings, a majority of Americans say it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns than for the government to limit access to firearms, a Pew Research Center survey conducted[2] this month found.
Advent is a special time of the year. It is a time of preparing our homes, shopping for gifts that will delight our loved ones, and singing along with music that proclaims joy. We seek to prepare our hearts to welcome the One who is coming into the world. But life continues to starkly intrude on our preparations. While we would love to focus on wrapping presents, writing notes, and sharing parties with friends, we are faced with news and events that break our hearts.
Isaiah speaks into a community in trouble. The people of Judea have faced generations of exile in Babylon and now return to Jerusalem to reestablish their homeland. They dreamed of a triumphant return to a city whose worship and communal life was centered on the temple. But they find a place very different from their expectations. The temple has been only modestly restored. Much of the city remains in ruins. And they do not return to an empty place. The people who have inhabited Jerusalem during the period of exile have formed their own communities and ways of worship. They have their own ideas about how the Jewish homeland is to be “refounded.” God will restore a new Jerusalem. God will establish his covenant with the people. God will declare his promise of justice. But there will rise a period of deep conflict as the people struggle for whose vision of the future of Judaism will prevail. There will be a contest over inclusiveness and the needs of the neighbor. This beloved city will be filled with great hope but also harsh struggle as they build up, restore and restructure their home. Into this reality, God promises to help them become a people in whom all the nations will see that they are blessed.
In a time of anguish, Isaiah proclaims God’s good news for those who are oppressed, God’s binding love for those who are brokenhearted, God’s offer of liberty to those who are imprisoned by proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor—the jubilee year described in Leviticus and Deuteronomy in which debts are wiped away, slaves are freed, fields are allowed to rest, and land is returned to its original owner. (Leviticus 25:1-23; Deuteronomy 15:1-15) God will transform a time of despair into a radical restoration where those who mourn will wear a garland rather than ashes and a mantle of praise to replace a faint spirit. And in God this community will grow into “oaks of righteousness” capable of rebuilding, restoring, and repairing the ruins of their beloved Jerusalem.
God who is completely committed to justice, “hates robbery and wrongdoing” that has caused the suffering of God’s people for too long. So God lifts them up. God restores the people through God’s unbreakable relationship with them.
Their time in exile and their time of testing in Jerusalem have not ended God’s fidelity with Israel. God in faithfulness instead repairs and redeems the people, establishing with them “an everlasting covenant.” In this way they will know of God’s eternal commitment. They will testify that God’s faithfulness is not conditional. God’s love and mercy extends through all times and all circumstances. God is always restoring, renewing and redeeming God’s creation, seeing them through every trial. Through the promises of God, the people will be “clothed with the garments of salvation” and “covered with the robe of righteousness.”
We hear these words of God spoken through the writer of Isaiah in our own time. God enters into our suffering and struggles, into our brokenness and sin, into our loneliness and anguish, into our injustice, and even into our indifference and complacency.
God does not come to us from the grandeur of a temple or a cathedral, but from a rough stable. God enters into the ragged edges of our lives and offers good news, freedom, and comfort. God enters into the real world of our lives. God walks with those who are oppressed, those who are brokenhearted, those who are enslaved in body, mind, and spirit. The words of the Psalm and the prophets lead us to recognize our suffering and the suffering of our brothers and sisters and calls us to lament and to turn and embrace the One who has come into the world and continues to come into our lives.
God, who can restore ancient ruins, redeems broken lives, healing the great divisions that separate brother from brother and sister from sister. God who establishes an everlasting covenant with God’s people walks with us as we mourn our sins and seek paths of reconciliation. For where there was brokenness and ruin, God sees the beginning of a garden where new growth is already emerging. Whatever has gone before, God causes a garden of righteousness and praise to spring up. God takes the words of hate, the prison of fear, the pain of violence and turns it into a place where God makes good fruit.
God knows us well. God has watched us stumble and fall and try again. But God has also watched us try to walk in faith, offer our selves to the world, and seek a way to live creatively with each other. God knows that we are “wonderfully made.” In faithfulness, God helps us look for ways to begin again. God does not stop us from hurting each other, but God will not let this be the final word.
In this time of Advent, we look to God who is always doing good things in and for us. Like John, we recognize that Jesus has come into the world to restore us into a people who have the potential to be a light to the nations—a people who shows forth the glory of God and the power of God’s love. John knows that his role is not to be the Messiah. John speaks little in our Gospel this morning, but what he says is that he is “the voice” who cries out to “make straight the way of the Lord.” He is a man sent from God to point to the One who is the light. Through John’s witness, he brings others to recognize this light who has come into the world.
It is important for us as followers of this One Jesus Christ to see in John’s example the work that we are called to do. We are to point to—to be witnesses to God’s work in the world. We are to prepare for God’s presence by opening our selves to loving God with all our heart, mind and spirit. We are to trust God. We are to respond to God’s blessings and accept the mission that God gives us. God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up.
We can become disheartened by the cycle of violence in our world that seems to continue despite all those who speak out against it. But from Isaiah with the spirit of God upon us we are called to bring good news to those who are oppressed, to care for those who are brokenhearted, to cry for freedom for those who are captive, and to provide for those who mourn. When we do this we begin removing layers of violence and begin the transforming of our world into the world of Shalom. We open our hearts and our minds to those who are hurting and say, “I cannot know all your pain, but I am here for you. I will help you bear it.” We offer our bodies and our voices to the work of undoing the injustice that has held people captive for much too long.
Our brothers and sisters at Multicultural BRIDGE are carrying a heavy burden in this time of racial fear and misunderstanding. They minister and care for people who are struggling with injustice— where everyday the world seems to tell them that black lives do not matter. They are supporting immigrants in the Berkshires who struggle to live as valued citizens in our community. Our Vestry approved a grant proposed by our Wisdom Committee to support their work so that young children and adolescents can see themselves as valued—so they can learn the skills necessary to be effective students and members of their community—so they can see a face and hear a voice that affirms their intrinsic beauty. This, I believe is God’s work and I rejoice in the role that Grace Church is playing.
A restored Israel, living as a jubilee community will stand as a sign of God’s blessings to the nations around it. We too are called to live as people of good news, liberation, justice, and comfort in such a way that the world may notice and be drawn to the ways of God.
As we enter into this these final weeks of Advent we stand alongside John and point to the presence of God. God enters into our world, walking with us, rejoicing with us, mourning with us. The cry of the oppressed, the lament of the brokenhearted, the longing of the captive, this is our song in Advent. The tragedies we grieve don’t intrude on Christmas: it is Christmas that intrudes on the ways of the world.[3] Advent is when we lift up our hearts to the One who is faithful, whose mercy endures forever, and who has and continues to do great things for us.
O come O come Emmanuel.
[1] Edward Pola and George Wyle. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. 1963.
[2] http://www.pewresearch.org/data-trend/domestic-issues/gun-control/
[3] Steve Garnaas-Holmes Unfolding Light www.unfoldinglight.net