Hope and Light

A Reflection on the First Reading for December 13th, 2020:
Third Sunday of Advent

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Isaiah
61.1-2a, 10-11

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;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
my soul 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 praise
to spring up before all the nations.
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Pause. Pray.

And then read more...

In the four weeks before Christmas, the Church observes the season of Advent.


A season of darkness.
A season of waiting.
A season of absence.
A season of expectation and anticipation.  


Every year I appreciate the pause and the permission Advent gives us; the opportunity to reflect on just how desperately the world we find ourselves in needs a Saviour. There is plenty to reflect on every year, but this has been a year unlike any other in my lifetime. Over the course of the last year, the darkness and the absence have, at times, seemed all-consuming.


Now, in Advent, we are invited to sit in the darkness and the absence remembering that we are, in fact, waiting for something. It is a time of honest acknowledgement, but also hopeful anticipation. The darkness and the absence will not go on forever. As Christians we believe that God came down to earth as a little baby and that He is the Light of the world. And so we transform our experience in Advent into a period of waiting and a period of expectation. We believe, in the end, light does in fact conquer the darkness.


In this passage Isaiah is speaking about the Messiah, Jesus, and the hope He brings. I find it endlessly comforting to know that God “binds up the brokenhearted” (Isaiah 61:1). He sees our pain. He understands our grief. He promises that we are not alone, that we are known and we are loved and we are held. And He promises the pain, sadness, and darkness will end. Because God’s response to the brokenness and brokenheartedness of the world was to enter the world, as Jesus, and break Himself for it. 


It came to my attention last year that there is something symbolic about the celebration of Christmas on December 25th. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is shortly after the winter solstice, the shortest and darkest day of the year. We spend Advent going deeper into the darkness and then at Christmas we get the first glimmers of light returning. In this life, a glimmer is often all we get. But it is a promise that God was born as a baby bringing good news of great joy to all people — good news for the people at the time, and good news for us today. God is at work in the world — He has been, is now, and will continue to shine light in the darkness, bind up the brokenhearted, set captives free, comfort those who mourn, and make all things new.


Praise God. Thanks be to God.



​
Morgan M.
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