SERMON CONNECTION
The transcript and a recording of the past
week’s sermon are available at
bethlehem-church.org.
What in the sermon piqued your interest or
attention?
What questions did it raise for you? What
insights did it bring?
REFLECTION CONVERSATION
When/How has God intruded into your life in a similar or different way as God did in the lives of Isaiah and Israel
here?
When you read/hear of God’s garden in Isaiah 61:11 what other gardens come to mind?
November 27, 2016
Advent
week 1
INTRODUCTION
Things were going fine. They weren’t great by any stretch of the
imagination, but they were fine. Predictable. Familiar. Then God
shows up. Technically speaking it was angels first, Gabriel solo and
then a whole host of them. Then God decided to intrude into the
ordinary. God chose to become one of us. We didn’t ask for this. We
didn’t know we needed it, until he came and now we join with God’s
people of every time and place and pray that God would intrude
again. Come Lord Jesus!
OPENING PRAYER
How will this Word intrude and impact the way you live? The way you face adversity? The way you “see” life?
CLOSING PRAYER
Champion of the lowly. Helper of the
mournful. Healer of the brokenhearted,
come and pour out your spirit of hope
and healing, fortune and freedom,
comfort and joy. Grant your saving help
wherever the afflicted cry out. Inspire
and use us to usher in and implement
your kingdom of justice and joy for all.
In your name we pray. Amen.
MAKE IT REAL
Provide opportunity during discussion for the group to
“make it real”:
Come Lord Jesus, come this day
and every day with good news for
all who need it most. Intrude in the
brokenness of the oppressed, the
prisoner, the mournful and the
terrorized with hope and healing.
Establish in our lives the justice
and righteousness you love and
call us to live. Bring salvation to all.
In your name we pray. Amen.
Look up the words to “Rejoice, Rejoice, Believers”
(ELW #244) and sing or read together.
Watch for God’s intrusion into your life with an
opportunity to proclaim good news and help bind up a
person or family in a brokenhearted situation.
Afterward, before next Sunday, share your experience
with someone of letting this Word and the Spirit of the
Lord intrude in your life and inspire you to contribute
to a reversal of misfortune.
“[God] has sent me to bring good news to the
oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted…”
Isaiah 61:1
Isaiah 61:1-11
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 brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
2
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
3
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.
4
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.
5
Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks,
foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines;
6
but you shall be called priests of the Lord,
you shall be named ministers of our God;
you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations,
and in their riches you shall glory.
7
Because their shame was double,
and dishonor was proclaimed as their lot,
therefore they shall possess a double portion;
everlasting joy shall be theirs.
8
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.
9
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.
11
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.
REFLECTION
By: Pastor Bob Rusert
10
BIBLE CONVERSATION
What does this text reveal to you about God? What
do you think it means for God to “intrude” here?
What do you envision is the condition of Jerusalem
when you read verse 4?
What do you make of the change of
covering/wardrobe described in verses 3 and 10? What
does that look like?
The historical events identifiable in the book of Isaiah cover more than a couple centuries making it clear that more
than one author has penned and compiled this book. Yet Isaiah is eloquent and profound throughout its 66 chapters
with words of judgement and doom followed by words of promise and hope. Isaiah is “more quoted in the New
Testament than all the other prophets combined”* and filled with cherished “song lyrics” like those from Handel’s
Messiah: “Arise, shine; for your light has come” (60:1) and “Comfort, O comfort (ye) my people” (40:1) and “For unto
us a child is born… Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God” (9:6). And then there is Jesus’ quote and claim of identity and
mission from Luke 4:18-19 taken directly from Isaiah 61:1-2. Just like God intruded by the Spirit blowing into Isaiah’s and
Israel’s life with good news in the midst of Israel’s post-exilic struggle, the Spirit of God intrudes again with finality in
Jesus as the Good News of God for all creation.
In 587 BCE the Babylonians had smashed Zion/Jerusalem (as prophesied in judgment) like a bully on the beach stomps
through your lovingly, painstakingly, and proudly constructed sandcastle… including the treasured pearl of your
glorious Temple of the LORD. After years of suffering exile in Babylon with only post-traumatic stress memories, the
Persians defeat the beastly Babylonians and King Cyrus liberates God’s people (539 BCE) to return to Jerusalem and
rebuild the city and Temple. The problem is after being back in Zion for some time, as verse 4 suggests the children of
God are still standing in rubble, with only sorry ruins and devastations as all they can see. How depressing! How
despairing? How God-forsaken? This is the bleak situation into which God intrudes with Isaiah’s proclaiming the
hope-filled message of our text. What is the desperate need of an overwhelmingly enslaving, mournful, and hopeless
situation? Such a plight requires a seemingly ridiculous word assuming and claiming liberty and hope. Israel is invited
by God to look into the face of disaster, despair, and darkness and see God’s light and HOPE!
In Isaiah 61, God’s limitless reaching arms gather every broken and weary victim one can imagine and embraces them
with life-giving comfort and joyful hope. The oppressed, brokenhearted, captive, prisoner, mournful, and faint… all
these are gathered into hope. A vivid picture of a complete reversal of (mis)fortune takes place. Double shame reaps
double joy everlasting! The weak will become strong as oaks, the ruined will be rebuilt, the poor and shamed and all
will be filled with everlasting joy. WOW! After God in verses 8-9 takes up the good news megaphone proclaiming
God’s determination that the cursed people will be acknowledged as “blessed” Isaiah crescendos into a glorious
“song” of praise and thanksgiving in verses 10-11. In the end… God’s intrusion will mean “all the nations” will reside in
God’s blessed garden. Can you see it?