Sunday, December 14
Third Sunday in Advent

 Focus Theme
Shouts of Joy

 Weekly Prayer
Merciful God of peace, your word, spoken by the prophets, restores your people's life and hope. Fill our hearts with the joy of your saving grace, that we may hold fast to your great goodness and in our lives proclaim your justice in all the world. Amen.

 All Readings For This Sunday
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 with Psalm 126 or Luke 1:47-55 and
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 and
John 1:6-8, 19-28

 Focus Reading
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 
see also Psalm 126

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;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
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.
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.

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.
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.
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.
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.

 Reflection and Focus Questions
by Kate Huey

Focus Questions 1. In what ways do we see ourselves in this ancient anointed one, in what ways do we identify with his call, in our lives today? 2. As we prepare for the coming of Jesus, who identified his own call with this passage, what is the deep hope within us for the world? 3. Who is speaking for the poor and the marginalized as we dream of rebuilding our own cities, or for the poor in nations pressed down with debt? 4. What does the concept of a "permanent underclass" say about a society? 5. What are the sources of our joy, even in the face of trying circumstances? On what promises do we rely, and in what do we rejoice? Text for Meditation God has clothed me with the garments of salvation, / God has covered me with the robe of righteousness. For ideas on how to meditate with the Bible, read our article on Praying With the Bible

In the book of the prophet Isaiah, we probably hear the voice of at least three different prophets, each in a different time period, and therefore a different situation, in the life of ancient Israel. While First Isaiah warned of God's impending judgment on Israel, and Second Isaiah spoke words to comfort God's people during their captivity in Babylon, Third Isaiah addresses the hard situation of the exiles after they've returned to their devastated homeland. The glorious homecoming in last week's reading from Isaiah 40 was beautiful and inspiring, but then "reality" set in. The task of rebuilding their lives in the wake of such destruction was both overwhelming and complicated. Not everyone had been carried off into exile; perhaps only the flower of their leadership in religion, learning, and the arts were taken, but what better way to break an entire people than to leave them leaderless? And what happens when the exiled leaders inevitably find a very different situation upon their return home?

The "shouts of joy" that provide this week's theme come from the Psalm 126 reading that is actually a lament, a cry for help in the midst of terrible circumstances. The psalmist recalls what God has done for Israel in the past, and what it felt like: on the ancient foundation of the promises to Abraham and Sarah (many descendants and a land of their own) and the memory of the exodus from slavery in Egypt, there was, more recently, homecoming, return from exile in Babylon, freedom at last. The psalmist remembers how they shouted with joy and laughter on their way home. We can imagine them perhaps even dancing on their way. Years later, however, they are struggling. Return, after all, is not the same as restoration, as anyone knows who has tried to heal a relationship, or to rebuild a community after a natural disaster. The people on the coast of Texas, for example, grapple with the broken remnants left by Ike long after the storm itself is over. Just returning to their homes, or the pieces of their homes, is not the same thing as having their lives restored. That will require a much deeper transformation, both an individual and a communal effort.

Perhaps the exiles were in a similar situation. Beth Richardson describes a tension that we may never have considered, "a deep problem within the postexilic community. There is a struggle between the persons returning and those who had stayed behind. The returning exiles are depicted as controlling those who had not been deported." Would that, ironically, have made the people who had been left behind now the oppressed, broken-hearted captives, and the returnees a problem? Perhaps, but in any case, the infrastructure of their society, spiritually as well as physically, had collapsed, and everyone felt crushed. A formidable task of rebuilding lay before them. Walter Brueggemann suggests that the "they" who would rebuild the city were those who had been oppressed: "the speaker," he writes, "knows where to find the workers, the expertise, the energy and passion for the rebuilding of the city." That would address the physical rebuilding, but what about the spiritual rebuilding? That's one good reason that God sends prophets. Third Isaiah's task, Brueggeman says, was "to 'gospel' these defeated folk back to power and constructive action."

Good news in hard times

Preachers in churches around the world will step into pulpits on this Third Sunday in Advent with much the same task as Third Isaiah's. True, the people of Israel had suffered much longer than many of us, although there are countless others whose deep suffering has gone on much too long. There are systems and practices and attitudes that keep people down if not captive, trapped in poverty, hunger, disease, and war. This Advent, the pain spreads as one nation after another faces cascading economic problems, not the least of them unemployment or the threat of unemployment.

In the time of Isaiah, debt, more than hard crime, was the common reason for imprisonment. No wonder folks needed to hear that someone had come to "proclaim release to the captives"! In our society, many folks feel trapped by debt, by "upside-down" mortgages and huge credit card balances, and they would love to be set free. Perhaps some of that debt is from our own spending on things we didn't really need. Nevertheless, there are plenty of us who have burdensome debt from our schooling, from health expenses, from the costs of raising children, from our need for food and housing. Many of us, then, hear talk of jubilee, or a reversal of fortune, as good news, the cancellation of debt, freedom from worry. But the good news from a still-speaking God for our individual lives also extends to the shared life of the world. Ancient Jerusalem after the exile, damaged and in ruins, in need of being rebuilt, is a powerful symbol of our cities today, and of the world beyond our borders, where nations are held captive by enormous debt that keeps them from making progress toward a better life for their people.

Looking at the poverty and deterioration of our cities, we are perhaps reminded of the destruction of Jerusalem and the challenge before those who sought to rebuild it. For them and for us, "Thus the energy and resources to rebuild the shattered city have as a prerequisite the rearrangement of economic power. This tradition would entertain no 'permanent underclass.'" What are signs that our society has come to accept the idea of a permanent underclass, here and abroad?

If anything, the global economy has brought home just how much we are connected to, and dependent on, one another. Our physical infrastructure shows signs of wear and tear: the health system that takes care of our bodies is strained, and the very roads and bridges we travel on are cracking under the load of the cars we can't afford to drive. There's work to be done, needs to be met, and one piece of the good news is that there are workers to do the work. The ruins of our cities could be restored, if we truly experienced ourselves as a community and not as individuals looking out for ourselves and our own. Wouldn't that be good news, and a source of joy, something to shout about? Wouldn't it be something to remember, something to tell our grandchildren's grandchildren about?

Awareness of our shared crisis looms as we read this text, but so does a sensitivity to the poignant personal sorrow of many in our midst. While we observe Advent, the world around us tells us to be joyful as we shop and clean and fill up our calendars. But all around us are also those who carry heavy burdens of grief, depression, loss, illness, financial worries. The holidays make these problems even more pressing. Homecomings, whether they are to church or family households, can be filled with expectation and met with disappointment. Cynthia Jarvis touches on these painful places in the human heart, "conditions ... made acute by the culture's merriment: the relationships severed, the addictions hidden, the violence barely domesticated, the depression denied, the affair raging, the self-loathing cut deep into the flesh, the greed, the hatred, the fear." As part of our Advent observance and Christmas celebration, we might do well to hold a Blue Christmas service for those who are pressed down with grief and worry.

Where's the joy?

By now, one may be wondering, Where's the joy? After all, the psalm promises, "Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy" (v.6). Talitha Arnold reflects on the mystery of suffering turned to joy: "The natural power of God to turn seeds into grain would be miracle enough. But Psalm 126 makes an even greater statement. The seeds are not ordinary, but seeds of sorrow. The fruit they bear is not grain or wheat, but shouts of joy." We seek joy in this season, but perhaps we look in the wrong places and in the wrong ways: "This is no jingle-bells joy brought with a swipe of a credit card," Arnold writes. "The seeds of this joy have been planted in sadness and watered with tears. This is the honest joy that often comes only after weeping has tarried the night." Dennis Olson roots this joy in the confidence that God will keep God's promises: "Such joy is in contrast to the frantic pushing and shoving of a department store cash register line or the fatigue and boredom on the faces of those strolling down the shopping mall corridor. The true joy of this text is marked by song and dance, by concrete actions energized to 'build up the ancient ruins' and 'repair the ruined cities.'"

God is at work in every human endeavor that strives for peace and wholeness, even if that peace is partial and that wholeness only glimpsed. We are leaning toward that day when all things will be whole, not just restored but made new. And this promise isn't for just one nation but for all of God's children; Dennis Olson reminds us that in Genesis 12:1-3, God made promises to Abraham and Sarah about being a blessing to "all the families of the earth." The healing and compassion, then, will encompass all those who suffer, and the rebuilding will make our social systems as just as our bridges will be made sturdy. When Jesus, the One whose birth we await this Advent season, began his ministry, he went to the synagogue and took out this very scroll from the prophet Isaiah, and read these elegant and hope-filled words of promise. That is why we read Isaiah's "gospel" during this season of hope, and on this Sunday of joy. Olson writes that "Jesus' ministry of healing and freeing and preaching became the definitive sign of God's coming into the world in a new and definitive way in the form of Jesus, Isaiah's Spirit-filled and anointed servant of the Lord. In Jesus, the messianic age had dawned." And Donald Booz adds a word of challenge within the comfort, and the joy, that draws us toward the rebuilding and the hope, not just for ourselves, but for the world God loves: "Is the spirit of the Lord God upon us," he asks, "or simply upon Isaiah and Jesus?"

 For Further Reflection
Helen Keller, 20th century

Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.

Weekly Seeds is a source for meditation and prayer based on the readings of the "Lectionary," a plan for weekly Bible readings used in Protestant, Anglican and Roman Catholic churches throughout the world. When we pray and study the Bible using the Lectionary, we are praying and studying with millions of others. We invite you to continue the conversation on our "Opening the Bible" forum at http://i.ucc.org.

Weekly Seeds is a service of the Congregational Vitality Initiative, Local Church Ministries, United Church of Christ. Bible texts are from the New Revised Standard Version, © 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The Revised Common Lectionary is © 1992 Consultation on Common Texts. Used by permission. The Ancient Christian Devotional is © 2007 by Thomas C. Oden and ICCS, and is published by InterVarsity Press. Used by permission.