Promise and Proclamation
December 4, 2011 | Anita Retzlaff | Isaiah 61: 1-4, 10-11

This is the season during which we are most inclined to expect the Spirit of the Lord to come calling. Somehow advent opens us to expect close encounters of all kinds. And so when we hear the words from Isaiah that announce the arrival of the Spirit of the LORD God we are somehow not surprised. This Spirit comes upon the people of Israel at a terrible time; they are exiled from home and country, captive and in want. God’s messenger comes to the prophet empowering him to proclaim to the refugees that there is hope, that this travail will not last forever, that in the meantime God is with them.

Today as we read these words of comfort and hope we know that God is with us also. The spirit of the Lord is upon us just as in ancient days. However, today, the proclamation of release to the captives, of good news for the oppressed, comfort to those who mourn are not only good news for us but also become our responsibility. Not only are we recipients of freedom and release we also are anointed to proclaim this announcement, this message of hope, to others.

As a congregation that is preparing to celebrate the feast of Christ’s birth and welcome in the new year 2012 we come to the manger with broken hearts, things that bind and oppress us, grief over many losses and need for forgiveness. We experience these things on a spiritual level for we are not literally bound and captive or oppressed by a deathly government regime. As our spirits and relationships experience brokenness and want we call upon the Spirit of God to liberate us from whatever holds us captive. Yet we are not the main attraction, even in the midst of our need.

As proclaimers of the promise we cite God as the main attraction. Our task is to plant and water the garden of promise so that God’s message of hope becomes apparent through our ministrations, our ministries. God is the one who absorbs our prayers and concerns. God is the one who sends us and empowers us to do the work of healing and comforting and mopping up in the wake of personal and physical disaster.

The Spirit of the Lord visits us today. We proclaim the promise of God’s grace because we recognize love and compassion as God’s work. “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.” In other words it is up to us to continue the work that God has started. As we are healed from all that binds us, restricting us from living to the max, we feel the Spirit of the LORD upon us and are compelled to turn outward toward the world. We are messengers of hope on God’s behalf. Thanks be to God this advent day!