A Christmas Wishlist from Jesus

Sermon at St John The Baptist Felixstowe – Third Sunday of Advent – 17th December 2023

Text:  ‘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 broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion – to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. (Isaiah 61.1-4)

God give you peace my sisters and brothers.

This Sunday in the Revised Common Lectionary – the Third Sunday of Advent in Year B – the set Bible readings are beloved of South African Christians and those with South African connections.  

Why?  Well not only does the Gospel reading mention the fact that if you want to be like Jesus you should wear sandals…  <cough>

But it’s not only about sandals.  Today’s Scripture shows clearly that the Prophet Isaiah is South African and South Africans are God’s chosen people!  After all why else would Isaiah refer to his listeners as ‘Okes’^[1] of Righteousness…  Doesn’t everyone knows that an ‘okie’ is a regular kind of ‘bra’ whom you can depend upon like your ‘boetie’ even if you are not related to the ‘china’ in any way shape or form.  

(If your confused please feel free to have a ‘Lekker skinner’ with Brian, Lesley-Anne, Clare or myself after the service)

Taking Isaiah a little more seriously his proclamation, later owned by Jesus at the synagogue in Nazareth, does lay out the conditions to become someone who is ‘the planting of the Lord’ and so display the Glory of God.

Here Isaiah gives us Jesus’ manifesto.  To use the language of the Season this set of rhyming couplets is Jesus’ Christmas Wish List.  If the Holy Family had a tree near to the manger at Bethlehem the baby would not want the three gifts of Gold, Frankincense or Myrrh but these four:

To be honest it’s a bit of an ask isn’t it?  Where could anyone find the money to buy such gifts?   Or perhaps that is the point.  These gifts can’t be bought with banknotes but only with lives lived in the service of others. Let’s look at them in turn and find out if we dare pay the ‘price’ for these gifts.

Good News for the Oppressed

Does this mean we are to be preachers of ‘The Good News’, evangelists of the Word of God.  Yes it does, inasmuch we are always called to live lives that proclaim, ‘the old old story of Jesus and His love’, but it is not only that.  In the time of Isaiah, and when Jesus lived in Nazareth, oppression by occupying forces was a very real thing.  This ‘gift’ is about more than Holy Words, vital as they are, but about adding deeds to words.  So it is that as, day by day, friends in need in our community enter this church to collect bread from the tables of the Parish Pantry they can also collect the Bread of Life – the Word of God from our literature tables and both of them without charge.

Release to the Prisoners

Nearly 40 years ago this day I visited a priest friend in Cinderella Prison, Boksburg, South Africa.  He had been sentenced to six years in detention for the then heinous crime of allowing a Trades Union to meet in his Church Hall.  Before ordination I needed to find three priests who would sign ‘Letters Testimonial’ as character witnesses.  With the help of prison warders, my letter was signed, after which my friend and I sat facing each other hands touching hands either side of a plate glass window and prayed for each other.  At that moment both of us were set free from the prison of Apartheid.  Physical release for both of us, (as a consequence of my visit I was tracked by the Security Police for a time), came later but moments such as this sounded the death knell of a system built on hate.

People, however, are not only held captive behind bars.  To make this gift one fit for the Babe of Bethlehem we must also work with and for all those held prisoner by the presumptions and prejudices of a society that does not make space for all God’s children to flourish.  If in our Parish we are to be true to our motto of ‘Open to God, Open to All’ then we must be people who make it their business to break down the barriers that separate us from our fellow sisters and brothers.  

God’s Purposes Fulfilled

Isaiah uses the phrase ‘proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God;’ which may sound a tad harsh but must remember that Isaiah is using a parallelism, the two halves of the sentence mirror each other.  ‘The day of vengeance’ is not about some sort of fire breathing God who is out to get us. In this passage God’s ‘vengeance’ is  God’s plan to rescue God’s people and ‘proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour’.  God triumphs when the Children of God are set free from oppression and released from captivity and then become the embodiment of God’s Good News for all.

Comfort for those who Mourn

The final gift on Jesus’ Wish List, His manifesto for all nations, is to comfort those that mourn.  

It is a moot point as to whether Jesus was born ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ some authorities would suggest that the actual date was during the Autumn harvest. But the Church choosing down the centuries to mark the coming of the Light into the world in the dark depths of winter is a wonderful metaphor of our task to provide ‘Comfort for those who mourn’.  When we are assailed by death, be it physical, or a relationship change, or a loss of employment or ability, we can feel as if we are shrouded by darkness.  Christians, you and I, are called to point towards the Light when darkness surrounds those near to us.  And not only that we are called to do the same for those who are not as close to us as we hoped they might be!  In this way we too, find comfort and healing.

For some time now I have stopped talking about people dying and instead refer to them as stepping in to the life after life.  Grief is hard and brutal and will not go away quietly.  We who worship the One who gave His life that we might live must make it our care to bring the hope that was born at Bethlehem to all those who sit in a ‘land of deep darkness’.  Come to our Carol Service later today to hear the whole of that story…

Writing Our Own List

Some of you may listen to Suffolk Sounds radio and know that I broadcast a ‘Pause for Thought’ followed by a pop song just after 7.30am each weekday.  This week all the songs are Christmas songs and tomorrow the song is ‘Grown-up Christmas List’ by Natalie Cole.  

Listen to the song and ask God to let you know which part of the song is going to be your gift to God and to others this year.

No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end,
This is my grown-up Christmas list

This blog ‘A Christmas List from Jesus’ is copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2023. 

 It may be reproduced free of charge on condition that the source is acknowledged.

Isaiah 61.1-4,8-11:  The Good News of Deliverance

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 broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion – to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.

They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.  Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.  I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he 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 praiseto spring up before all the nations.

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^[1] Oke – South Africa’s most common word for a man or guy and is similar in meaning to ‘china’, ‘bru’ or ‘boet’.