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Why Musings?
- The Musings Page will be a place to consider thought-provoking, evocative, sometimes polemical but not overtly political, writings, quotes, ideas, and poetry on the Christian life in all its facets: spiritual, religious, ethical, and practical.
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Third Sunday in Advent – December 11, 2011
posted on December 11, 2011 by Musings
Third Sunday in Advent – Joy!
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God for God has clothed me with garments of salvation, God 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.”
Isaiah 61: 10-11
These days it is hard not to rejoice. As my husband and I recently welcomed our first child into the world, we have new eyes by which to see this Advent season. In the nine months of preparation, we know in a unique way what it means to wait expectantly. In the days and weeks after her birth, we have experienced new heights of joy.
The candle of joy is what we light on this third Sunday of Advent, and so it is joy that we hear in the final verses of our lectionary passage from the prophet this morning. The early verses (61:1-3) are more familiar, in fact these are the same ones we hear Jesus use in his first (and last) sermon in Nazareth in the Gospel of Luke before he is run out of town. Yet in these latter verses, we hear the response of the people to God’s anointing and call to bind up the brokenhearted, to God’s promise of an everlasting covenant. It is a response of pure joy in which there is no part of them that is unaware, no part that remains untouched by the garments that God places on them, no person or nation who is left out in the cold.
Thanksgiving and joy is the response of the people to God who has brought them out of exile, back to their home, and is now renewing the call to faithfulness. Faithfulness that means caring for those who mourn, setting free the captives, and proclaiming good news to the oppressed. The very clothes that the prophet describes as given by God, are work clothes for the people. God puts on them the garments of salvation, the robes of righteousness so that they may be a light for all of the nations, a witness to the justice and grace of God, so that all may hear and rejoice.
Indeed, there is much for all of us to rejoice in this Advent season, even in the deepest and darkest places in our lives. For God is coming to make all things new. It is this same God who has already prepared the way, who has clothed us with the garments of salvation, and who assures us that no one will be left outside of this abundant and all encompassing grace.
Today’s reflection was written by Sarah Cooper Searight, Associate Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport
