In The 'Meantime'--Rejoice!

The Reverend Tommy Thompson
Third Sunday in Advent
11 December 2011

In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again! This is the mystery of our faith--past, present, & future tense. Christ has died, Christ is risen ... presently and eternally...but there is one event in the life of God we still await --his re-appearance...the ultimate coming of God in God’s world. The mystery of our faith tells us where we are on the journey...and it is a place we are used to being--a place of tension.

We experience tension every day...in the political atmosphere...sociologically, economically, religious tension and so forth. We are pulled this way and then pulled back that way...it’s tough to make an absolute decision about this political party or that one...this candidate or that one...whether or not to donate to this charity or that one...whether to post this Facebook status or not...to go to that party or this one...whether to take the red pill or the blue pill...we live in tension. And some tension is healthy...it is the working out of our lives.

This tension we constantly find ourselves living in...that was the place the first century church found itself living. Paul wrote his letter to the Thessalonians before any of his other letters...not too awfully long after the first two events of the mystery of our faith occurred: Christ died and Christ arose. But as closely linked as these two events were, so too, the church expected, the third would follow very shortly after. They believed that “Christ will come again” could not be much longer...as a matter of fact, most believed the coming of Jesus in ultimate and everlasting glory would occur in their lifetime.

Imagine the tension such belief caused for the church. He has died and has risen...the battle has been won. Salvation is accomplished...now it’s time for the victorious kingdom to restore peace, prosperity and security once and for all. The old regime has fallen...the people God await the newness God’s victorious kingdom promises.

But the sun comes up, and the sun goes down...and the world still wears a frown. The church in Thessalonica had trouble with this reality. Why are our loved ones dying? Why is aunt Louise so sick? How come the rich get richer and poor get poorer? Jesus rose from the dead...

Many Christians were sitting on their hands, as Paul put it...idle, refusing to work but being so spiritually good they were of no earthy count. They simply didn’t know what to do with the “already - but - not - yet” of God’s kingdom. The battle is won, so on with the consequences of that victory already!

The Thessalonians represent the earliest Church that we know of...the church that was trying to make sense of what it means to be the church in that “in-between” time betwixt climax and resolution...between already and not yet. What do we do in the meantime?

But before we look to Paul’s direct response to this dilemma in the church of thessalonica, I believe the prophet Isaiah and our Master, Jesus himself, has some light to shed on the situation.

In the aftermath of exile, the people of God awaited restoration. All they had ever hoped for had been stripped from them. They lost all that was comfortable and familiar. They were ruled over by foreigners...they were beginning to see the consequences of their rebellion and stubbornness in refusing to join in the mission they agreed to join their God, YHWH in, so long ago when he made covenant to be their God and they His people.

In the tension of already (exile) and not yet (restoration), which wasn’t so much different from the tension the first Christians lived in, Isaiah had a word to proclaim. “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 favor, 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.

Ah...how well do you know your bible? Did you catch exactly what God is promising through Isaiah here? The people of God in exile wouldn’t have missed it. Straight from Leviticus 25. It is the ultimate time of restoration for the people of God. Isaiah has brought back to the memory of Israel the promise of the year of Jubilee. It means return. It means deliverance. It means restoration. It means relief. It is the fiftieth year...when the trumpet sounds and liberty is announced to all who live in the land. It is time to remember who really owns the land...time to let the land rest from its work...time to restore land to the families who once owned it but fell into trouble and had to sell...time for those who had to sell themselves as hired hands to wealthier land owners to be set free and returned to their own family and returned to their ancestral properties. Jubilee was time for restoration...time to let mercy and grace flow like a mighty river. Time to remind God’s people that no matter how hard they’ve worked, ultimately all they possessed and enjoyed belonged to God and God could give it to any as He pleases...just as he brought Israel out from Egypt and made them his people to prosper! Jubilee was an announcement -- don’t think too highly of yourselves! “For I brought you out from the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.” Don’t forget where you came from and don’t forget whose you are!

But as much as anything, the time of jubilee was an opportunity for the people of God to demonstrate a form of living to the nations of the world that was unique and holy. Jubilee, as Isaiah proclaimed, gave Israel the opportunity to display YHWH’s glory for the nations to see.

That’s it. Don’t get settled Israel...don’t get too comfortable with the present arrangement of things...you don’t exist for yourselves...you are a people of mission. You exist to point others to the Glory of the God who has redeemed you and made you his precious people. You are to be a light to the nations.

I wonder if Israel heard this goal through the prophets speech? I wonder if she only heard the lingo of restoration of land, prosperity, material possessions? If so, she missed the point altogether! The point is: God is renewing his people SO THAT they might get another chance to do what they have been called and formed to do -- display the unique, holy life of God to a world that God wants to redeem--just as he redeemed Israel so long ago. He wants Israel to be his hands and his feet...to announce to the world the salvation that is coming in and through their God, YHWH.

I like the way Isaiah puts it in verses 61:8-9: “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.”

There it is again...the goal and purpose of God’s coming restoration after exile. The form of life lived by the people of God that is a displaying of God’s glory will make them known to the nations of the world...the nations will acknowledge YHWH’s blessing of his people...YHWH will be made known through the faithfulness of His servant Israel.

This is really the hope of the people of God in exile. I wonder though...did they get it? Did they only hear about what was being restored and not the purpose of the coming jubilee?

According to the New Testament, not quite. The people of God never quite understood the point of restoration...they forgot who and whose they were...they lost their mission and purpose in life.

But thanks be to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit did not forget. No, God remembered. And at the right time, Jesus arrived on scene -- the representative of God’s people Israel. God was so serious about this mission for the sake of the whole world, that when his people failed and rebelled, he was faithful. He took on their jewish flesh and appeared among his own people and announced that that which the prophet Isaiah spoke so long ago is now standing right in front of you---you are staring fulfillment in the face. Listen to what Jesus says about himself as he unrolls the scroll of Isaiah and reads from the very passage we just reflected upon:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight of the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor...today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”

Oh, let the church in Thessalonica hear and understand...let the church in all places and at all times hear and understand. The time of Jubilee, set forth in Leviticus and promised through the prophet Isaiah to a people in exile has come to fruition in Jesus Christ. But as you hear, understand the POINT of Isaiah’s proclamation of hope -- not for you to simply be set free...to be released...but to be set free for a purpose...to be released from oppression to live for a new kingdom -- a new lord...with a new mission!
If Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah 61, then those who are his liberated followers participate in the rest of the story...there was always supposed to be an ‘in-between’ time...a time for God’s people to be be God’s image in the world...the image restored. To join John, the forerunner, in pointing the nations of the world away from ourselves and to the God who has delivered us!

Jesus responds to the church that lives in the tension of ‘already-but-not-yet’ and says, “This was my intention all along...ever since we announced the promise so long ago...that my people would be a holy nation, a royal priesthood, and share in my mission announced in Luke chapter 4...and display my glory to the nations!”

So Paul responds to the church in Thessalonica, “Don’t sit on your hands...don’t live life in a spiritual bubble...don’t keep it all to yourselves...do the work of the Lord, and do it with the joy of a people who have experienced jubilee!”

Hear what Paul says to the church in the midst of the tension she found herself in: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Rejoice! That is the response to God’s faithful work in Christ Jesus for us and for our salvation isn’t it! Jubilee people who display God’s glory for the sake of God’s world are people who are characterized as people who always rejoice, always pray, and always make eucharist (the same word that means thanksgiving in the general sense and thanksgiving in the particular sense -- the kind we make when offer bread and wine to God through Christ at His holy table).

And it is exactly what the response of Israel was to Isaiah’s proclamation too--”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!”

On this third Sunday in Advent, the church has lit the rose colored candle...that candle is the candle of rejoicing! As we await the coming of our Master in final glory, we are called to continue Jesus mission with utter joy and thanksgiving. It is not a burden for us to go out and take good news to the oppressed...not a burden for us to go our and proclaim the Gospel of comfort to those who mourn. No, we are people who rejoice with every captive who is liberated, who give God thanks as the brokenhearted are bound up in God’s loving care and who exult in God’s salvation as the oppressed are set free! We are people who do our mission out of a response of joy and thanksgiving to our God who has set us free and made us the people we are. People who the world knows as “blessed by God.”

In the midst of the tension of already-not-yet, we are called today to rejoice in our mission in God’s world; for that is the next step towards the final redemption of the world. And as Scott Bader Saye says so well, “Being missional, in light of [Isa 61] means profoundly challenging all forms of cultural Christianity that would make ‘church’ and end in itself, a community of the saved devoted to maintaining a building, a set of programs, and a fellowship of the like-minded...Mission happens when Christians turn their attention to those who are named as the recipients of the good news: the oppressed, the brokenhearted, the captives, the prisoners, the mournful, the faint of spirit...So, mission is not primarily something that goes out from God's people--by sending money or sending missionaries--but something that defines God's people, as existing for the sake of the oppressed, brokenhearted, imprisoned, and mournful.” And this existing for the sake of the oppressed, brokenhearted, imprisoned, and mournful is not a burden but the utter joy and thanksgiving that characterizes our time of jubilee.

Scott continues, “So long as Christians live as divided people, known to the world as those who judge, fight, and exclude, the church will fail to be missional, no matter how much money it gives and how many missionaries it sends."

There’s something about living in all circumstances with utter joyful thanksgiving in communion with God that displays God’s glory to the world. It is through this response of holistic joy and thanksgiving that the church continues in Jesus’ mission as little John the Baptizers in our own time. Pointing away from ourselves, with John, saying, “I am not he, but let me show you the one that clothed me in righteousness in the waters of baptism...i am not He but let me introduce you to the One who has brought forth jubilee in our lives! Let us introduce you to the source of our joy -- the reason for our perpetual eucharist! It is He--Jesus, who has died, who is risen, who is coming again!
Amen.