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Sunday, December 14, 2008

Third Sunday in Advent 12-14-08 Text: Isaiah 61:1-4; 8-11

Third Sunday in Advent
12-14-08
Text: Isaiah 61:1-4; 8-11
On this the third Sunday of Advent; the Sunday of Joy, it is appropriate to take a close look at our Old Testament reading for Today; Isaiah 61:1-4 and 8-11. These words of God as they are given to us by the prophet Isaiah are wonderful words of joy for the people of Israel. They are in captivity, knowing that their bad behavior, their sin, their missing of the mark before God got them where they were. There was no joy for the people of God, for they were in captivity.
Isaiah speaks of things to come. Some of what he spoke of happened when God did bring his people back under the reign of Cyrus a pagan king. But as New Testament people we see that God is talking through Isaiah on a different level. For in this text Isaiah is not speaking of the actual restoration of Israel, but the spiritual restoration of Israel; that is the people of God who call Jesus their Savior.
In the United States, businesses use millions of wood pallets each year to haul products. After a pallet has borne heavy, sometimes crushing weights and taken abuse from truck travel and forklifts, eventually it can no longer be used. Now cracked and smashed, or loose and floppy, pallets are something businesses must pay other companies up to five dollars per pallet to dispose of. Disposal companies burn the pallets, chew them into wood chips, or dump them in landfills.
One nonprofit company in New York had a better idea, writes Andrew Revkin in the New York Times. Big City Forest in South Bronx takes other companies’ junk and turns it into treasure. Unknown to those who only saw beat up broken pallets, the raw material of pallets, especially those coming from South America is valuable hardwoods like rosewood, cherry, oak, mahogany, and maple. Big City Forest workers dismantle the pallets, salvage the usable wood, and recycle it into furniture and flooring. Recycled wood chips are worth only $30 a ton. But when used as flooring the value of the recycled wood is $1,200 a ton, and as furniture $6,000 a ton.
If that is what can be done with lifeless wood that for all intent and purpose was only fit to be ground up and burned, how much more can people be restored to lives of value. Like Big City Forest, God is in the business of restoration. He takes people that seem worthless, people broken by the weight of sin, and transforms them into works of beauty and usefulness.
That is what our Old Testament reading for today is about and the lesson that we are to take away from it, is that God still restores people today. He is working in our lives restoring us every day, as we get beat up by the sin.
Let’s take a look at our text. We see in the first verse the Triune God. The spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, of the Lord GOD, that is the Father, is upon me, that is the Son Jesus Christ. We know this is true because Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4, verses 16-24 quotes this passage as prove of whom he is. He tells those gathered around him that “Today the Scriptures have been fulfilled.”
And what is he to do? He is to bring good news to the poor, bind, that is heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and open the prisons of those imprisoned. Actually in the Hebrew it reads to open the eyes of the blind. Does any of this sound familiar? It should for it is the Beatitudes that Jesus speaks of when he is addressing the people who are following him. He does all those things today through us, as we proclaim the Gospel to those who are spiritually poor, that is do not know the truth of Jesus love and in doing so we heal those in despair, proclaim freedom to those captive to sin, and let his words open their spiritual eyes, so that they can see the Word of God in all its glory; their salvation.
Jesus is going to in the end, when he comes back in all his glory, judge the world. We have no fear of that judgment, but those who have rejected him have, for it will be a day of vengeance for our God. We who believe, trust in him and live our lives according to what he commands have no fear for he will on that last day, just like he did for the Israelites when he brought them back to Jerusalem, comfort us, clothing us in his robes of righteousness and we will stand firm and true in his righteousness.
Jesus our God will, just as he did for the Israelites restore us to the life that he wanted for his human creation; that is a life of trust with him. The Lord wants that for all of his human creation, but unfortunately not all will follow him into the new heaven and earth after this one is refined.
In the Lord’s Prayer we pray each time we pray it, “Thy kingdom come.” It will come when God so chooses. As we read in verse 8 God loves justice. He is a just God and because he loves justice he rejects those who do not show justice to others thus not giving him honor. God will faithfully reward those who love him and in the end all people will know who they are.
This is not something we have to wait for, for God when he came to us as the baby Jesus made a covenant with those who trust in him, a covenant that was shown to us on that last Passover meal where he instituted what we call the Lord’s Supper. He sealed that covenant with us on that bloody cross and because of his resurrection we know it to be true. We are his people, a royal priesthood; the people of God.
The imagery of verses 10 and 11 are wonderful, for in those verses we see that God will clothe us with his garment of salvation. It is his garment, not ours, as we saw in the parable of the wedding feast where a man thought his own righteousness was good enough and got thrown out for thinking so.
God will do what he promises, as surely “as the earth brings forth its sprouts and the garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up.” God created all things. He set up the rules of nature. He sustains them and that is a good thing, otherwise science would be a waste of energy. He is the creator and sustainer and because he is we can take his words to heart. We can stake our life on them. And we need to, for to do anything else is foolishness. I saw a video Thursday that was about a man from England who had some terrible disease that went to Sweden to commit legally assisted suicide. His comment struck me when he said, “There is nothing more after this life.” I thought how terrible that this man is either ignorant of Jesus or has rejected him. He is doomed and there is no going back.
Just as our Lord God has made and sustains this earth, our Lord God will, as the last half of verse 11 tells us, “cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all nations.” God will do this, for he has already started to do so. He started to do so when Adam and Even sinned when he promised them that a Savior was coming out of their lineage. He continued to do so when he told Abraham and Jacob that out of their lineage a Savior would come. He continued to do so when Moses led the people of God out of Egypt. He continued to do so when Isaiah wrote down the words of our text today. He continued to do so through Mary the blessed mother of Jesus our Lord and he continues to do so through the Word and Sacraments today.
So what should our response be to these wonderful words of God? We should rejoice as verse 10 of our Old Testament reading says, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation.”
We rejoice in the Lord, for it is good for us, as it makes us realize our blessings. And as that realization takes a firmer and firmer grip on us it helps us to better handle our trials and hindrances of life that beset each one of us; those problems of life that without the rejoicing in our God’s love and forgiveness would have a negative impact on our life.
Rejoicing also is good for others. It attracts people to Christianity, for they want whatever it is you have. This rejoicing in the Lord stirs up some type of deep longing in their souls which leads to wanting to learn more about God and his saving work.
Last but not least rejoicing in the Lord for what he has done gives glory to God. God tells us that we are to praise and rejoice in him. He does not tell us to rejoice and praise him because he needs it. He tells us to rejoice, for in our rejoicing his power and goodness comes forth in us. It is a proclamation to all that “the Lord is good, and that his mercy endures forever.” (Ps. 136:1).
Our praises are a sweet offering to our Savior Christ the Lord, the Savior who brings us joy. Let us rejoice. Come quickly Lord Jesus come quickly. Amen.