12-29-19 Readings & Sermon

A reading from Isaiah.

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exalt 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, as a bride adorns herself with jewels.

For 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.

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent.

And for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch.

The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory.

You shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.

You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

The word of the Lord.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.

And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, so you are no longer a slave, but a child.

And if a child, then also an heir through God, the word of the Lord.

The holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to John.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.

What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.

He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him.

He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

And the word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.

John testified to him and cried out, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks ahead of me, because he was before me.

From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

The law indeed was given through Moses.

Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one have has ever seen God.

It is God, the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

The gospel of the Lord.

My whole being shall exult in my God.

The year is 515 BC.

I am considered by many to be a prophet, following the way of Isaiah.

A lot has changed in the last two hundred years since Isaiah had spoken.

Judea went into the exile as Isaiah had warned.

But just as Isaiah had predicted, do you know what else had happened?

We are now leaving that place of exile.

Things are changing, and we're moving back home.

We are starting again in our old city of Jerusalem.

We've come back to find our homes in ruins and our gardens gone fallow.

We could be distraught, whine like our ancestors had done in the wilderness, saying as they had said, have you freed us just to let us die here?

But for some strange reason, we're reminded to rejoice and see hope in which this is all about to come.

There is a lot of rebuilding that needs to be done.

Not only literal rebuilding of our homes and businesses, but also rebuilding our community, our society, and our religious commitment to the God who has seen us through it all.

So we pick up our tools and rebuild our homes and prepare our gardens for a new season of plenty.

We make plans for the future, arrange marriages and other joyous events.

Something has changed.

Something is changing.

We are changing.

We've lived through this great ordeal and have seen our role in it.

We take responsibility for our poor choices and repent from our old ways.

We can no longer live the way we once had.

Now we are the new agents of change inspired by God's love and mercy.

And things are being made new.

We will do them rightly as God desires.

And then we will be the sign for all the nations to see, an example for all of them to live by.

There is a long way to go until God's righteousness is fully established, but I can feel it happening already.

I rejoice because God is doing something new.

I rejoice because God is doing something new.

I am Mary, a young woman who has just given birth to my first child.

I can't begin to express how excited I am.

Sure, I'm excited to be a mum and to raise a child, but I'm more excited because I know God is doing something new here.

My first clue was when an angel came to give me the news of my pregnancy.

And then there was my cousin Elizabeth and her reaction to it all, and those shepherd boys with their angelic knowledge, and the words of those two temple devotees, Simeon and Anna.

All of it is just too much.

God is surely up to something, and God has chosen me to be the mother of this child.

I don't yet know what it all means.

I'm not sure how any of this is going to play out, but I can feel it deep down at the core of my being.

God is doing something that God has never done before.

I rejoice because God is doing something new.

I rejoice because God is doing something new.

I, Paul, am writing to the community in Galatia with great excitement.

The more I become part of this Jesus community, the more I'm becoming aware of all that God is doing in and through us.

Something new is rising up.

Can you feel it?

I can.

This is no longer something only for the Jewish community.

This is bigger, so much bigger.

This is for the whole world.

Those old traditions like that of circumcision are no longer necessary.

For we are now set apart by our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

All people are now free to receive adoption into God's family, to be part of the inheritance.

While an earthly inheritance is only for Jewish men, all of humanity can receive this inheritance.

If I close my eyes and listen, it's as if I can hear the whole world calling out to God as their own holy parent.

Those divisions between humans, like those of the circumcised and uncircumcised, male or female, Jew or Gentile, none of those separate us any longer.

We are all now adopted into one family with one parent.

This changes everything.

This changes how we view one another, how we relate to one another, and how we relate to God.

It'll take a while to overcome our old behaviors and mindsets, but something new is afoot, and I get to be a part of this change.

I rejoice because God is doing something new.

I rejoice because God is doing something new.

My name is Becky, and I've been suffering from chronic depression on and off for most of my life.

There have been days so dark I couldn't see my way forward.

I struggled to get out of bed, let alone to take care of my children properly.

I believed I was failing as a parent.

Two of my closest friends were going through serious marriage crises, and I wanted to be there to support them.

But I could barely think straight, let alone have the strength to pick up the phone to check in on them.

I believed I was failing as a friend.

I had missed two important deadlines at work.

I believed I was failing as an employee.

I believed I was failing at just about everything.

But then from within the most dark moment, I could hear a voice calling out to me, reminding me that I was God's own.

Reminding me that I was loved and I was not a failure.

I was doing everything I could, and God is doing the rest.

That voice was what I needed to admit that I was struggling, to reach out for help both from my family and from medical professionals.

I'm experiencing less dark days now.

I know I'm not cured and I may never be, but I know that even in my darkest days, Christ is beside me, and that together we will find a way out.

I am finding the strength to be a different mother, to be a different friend, to be a different employee.

I rejoice because God is doing something new.

God entered the world two thousand years ago to continue the process of making things new.

God brings new life to individuals, communities, and even nations.

The new things that God initiates are bent towards righteousness.

God was making things new for that post-exilic exilic Judea, and God is making things new for us today.

Look around.

Where do you see hope of new life sprouting up out of the ground?

Where do you see robes of righteousness laid out for you, ready for you to wear, so that you can not only become righteous, but so that you can help to make things right in the world.

Something new is happening.

Can you see it?

Can you feel it?

Rejoice, because God is doing something new.

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.

My whole being shall exalt in my God.