Amy and Justice and Joy
Advent Reflections on Justice: Justice and Joy
The Old Testament reading assigned for the Third Sunday in Advent - the Sunday that tradition has we celebrate and mark Joy - is from the Prophet Isaiah: Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me...he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (Isaiah 61: 1-2)
A few verses later: For I the Lord love justice...
As followers of Jesus we might recall that it is this very chapter in Isaiah that Jesus preaches in his first public sermon, according to the Gospel of Luke (Luke 4: 18-19). Jesus reads these first verses, and then says to all those present - and to us who follow him and God's ways today - this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
It's extraordinary, really. That of all that Jesus might say to the first gathering of people about God, about who God in him is, about God's covenant with God's beloved and what it means to be faithful to God's covenant: Jesus preaches these verses from Isaiah. Justice. Freedom. Liberation. Healing. Wholeness.
How do you hear these verses today? What do these verses and Jesus' use of them in liturgy suggest to you about what our work at St. Francis Episcopal Parish/Epiphany Community Center is now? How can this Scripture - these verses of promise from Isaiah - be fulfilled in your hearing today, in all people's hearing of these words today?
