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Sermon December 13, 2020
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers,
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Third Sunday of Advent, Year B
http://lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Advent/BAdv3_RCL.html
Audio: /documents/Advent_3_Service_Dec_13__2020
Video: https://youtu.be/0-fvLoAL200
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 brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
Isaiah 61:1-2
A couple of years ago I heard the warden of the Perry County jail speak. Our jail is only for men. I was surprised to learn that most of the men are there because of problems with drugs. A few others are there awaiting trial on federal charges. We are close enough to Harrisburg where the trials would take place.
This year has been one where many people are looking at what we call crimes and how we treat people convicted of crimes. Especially with Covid, being in a jail or prison at this time is pretty dangerous, not only for the inmates, but also for the workers. As a society we are questioning whether people should be in jail for things like drug abuse or what we would call minor crimes. There is a “prison abolition” movement that has been around for many years.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also heads up a bail reform movement. Some people are in jails because they cannot afford the bail to get them out. Sometimes they plead guilty just so they can be released from jail. In other words, people are in jail based upon whether they have the money to pay bail. It is a wealth-based system.
Then there are the protests, that in reality have gone on for decades about the reform of our public safety system. We may recoil when we hear the phrase, “Defund the police.” Yet, it’s hard to deny that a review and radical thinking about our public safety system needs to happen. And it needs to be something radical, because we have spent decades trying to tweak the system we currently have.
Then today, in the middle of our Advent preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ, we hear these words from Isaiah, about 2,500 years ago:
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 brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
These words are special to us, because we are told in the 4th Chapter of the Gospel of Luke, that Jesus proclaimed these very words in the synagogue in Nazareth. Jesus had come out of the temptation in the desert and returned to Galilee. Word had started to spread about him. He went back to the town of his childhood, Nazareth. While in the synagogue “as was his custom’ we are told, someone brought him the scroll of Isaiah and he specifically found these words in Chapter 61.
Then this happened:
…he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” ’ And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. Luke 4:20-30
So, these words written so long ago and proclaimed by Jesus Christ are “fighting words” aren’t they? They are not to be taken lightly. They incite anger in people who hear them. They are not easy to hear.
We need to remember that bringing good news to the oppressed, binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives, releasing the prisoners, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor…the Jubilee year, are not popular at all. Those actions weren’t popular during the time of Isaiah, nor during the time that Jesus walked on this earth, nor now, frankly.
The words force us to consider our lives and the lives of our neighbors. They force us to take a look at the society we have created, in which we live, and which surrounds us. How does it look to bring good news to the oppressed? Who is oppressed? Are we oppressed or are we participating in oppression?
What does it look like to bind up the brokenhearted? What tangible things can we do to do so?
What does it mean to not only proclaim liberty to the captives, but to set the prisoners free? How does that look?
And then to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor?? Well, that is known as the year of Jubilee as written about in Leviticus 25:8-13. Listen to this portion of verses 10-13:
And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces. In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property.
Yes, at least every 50 years, it appears that the captives are set free and the land is returned to its previous owners! There is a “land back” movement of indigenous peoples of what is currently known as the United States that focuses on what such a jubilee might mean; whether it’s literally land returned to the indigenous peoples, stewardship of the land, or some kind of reparations for land taken.
The point of Isaiah and Jesus and this passage today, I suggest, is that as followers of Jesus Christ, we are anointed and chosen to do this very work. It is hard and feels complicated and even overwhelming. Sometimes we cannot even vision how we need to change things. Yet, what we are being told is to struggle with it. And why? Because the end result is life…abundant, generous, amazing life for ourselves, for our neighbors, and for the world. It is the beautiful, amazing, and joyful life to which we are called.
Amen
Prison Abolition Movement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_abolition_movement
Bail Reform Movement: https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice/bail-reform
Land Back Movement: http://4rsyouth.ca/land-back-what-do-we-mean/
