Wednesday, December 16, 2020

December 13, 2020 - Third Sunday in Advent - Voices

Pastor Janell preached this morning that this Gospel invites us to listen and that God is often heard in the silence and in other people's stories. She tied this into the call process that Creator is involved in right now. The voices we need to hear in each other and in our community together with the silcnce to ponder what is God's will for what we will do in the future.  

Three years ago Pastor Ray preached from these lectionary readings about leadership and showed the children gathered around him a flashlight during Children's Time. Just as John the Baptizer testified to Jesus as the "light of the world" drawing attention away from himself so Jesus, as he first stood up, reading scripture and preaching, testified that the spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus. Jesus drew attention away from himself while simultaneously acknowledging the spirit of the Lord within him.

Pastor Ray shone the light of the flashlight on himself and asked "Can you see where you are going when the light is on my face?" and followed that up with  "A leader cannot light the way for anyone when he is shining the light on himself". This was all about servant-leadership for both John and Jesus.

hen scripture readings awaken both head and heart there are often entwining echoes like there were for me in the Isaiah reading this morning. We sang this in today's Gospel Acclamation, "You have the words of eternal life. Alleluia".

Another voice speaking to this is in the First Reading. In Luke 4:21-30 Jesus reads the first four verses of this Isaiah passage in the synagogue. I posted once that it passed  the "shiver* test at a particular moment - there was a prickle at the back of the neck. I also wrote about this passage in this year's Advent Devotional.

Reading Isaiah 61:1-4 without referencing Jesus and in the context of today's Gospel makes you wonder about the identity of the person speaking. Who is this prophet? I doubt most people's impulse is to identify with the speaker. My first reaction is to shy away. I cannot proclaim God's good news. I don't see liberty of the captives or the release of those in prison in real life unless I perform some mental gymnastics,  Why, and is this good?

Yet something extraordinary happens in this First Reading. The persona adopts the Lord's identity in verse 8 of the reading "For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing". Reading this today I feel like the spirit of the Lord moves with these first person God references. This First Reading from Isaiah is an invitation to understand God in a new light with a different understanding of identity. I deepen that understanding whenever this passage is read. This is an important part of the transformation described in these Isaiah verses.

Having the spirit of the Lord upon us is a tremendous joy and can feel like an awesome responsibility.

No comments:

Post a Comment

November 22, 2023 - Thanksgiving Eve Worship - Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address - 40th Anniversary of Restoration of Tribal Recognition

Yesterday we primarily read the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) address during our worship service. We also acknowledged the Confederated Tribes of...