"The Spirit of the LORD GOD is upon me,"
Other prophets are given the Word of the LORD. 2nd Isaiah and 3rd Isaiah are given the Spirit. Kings and Priests are noted for receiving the Spirit; Elijah and Elisha as well. I wonder if this was an acknowledgment of the kingship and priesthood being uncertain following the exile while the temple still lay in ruins. Still, Attending the Spirit is the proclamation of the Year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vindication (RSV vengeance) v. 2.
Vv. 1-3 is the envisioned promise of restoration, while vv. 4-9 develops the theme of deliverance for the poor ('anawim, the victims of the wicked who wait for Yahweh). In vv. 10-11 the community is led in a song of praise and thanksgiving for the fait accompli.
A time when God rights wrongs (vindication) is in store (I promise). Yet, in the meanwhile, we are beaten and spat upon (their shame was double, and dishonor was proclaimed as their lot). But the future will bring the nations to you like the faithful to the temple, and you will be as the LORD's own priests in the midst of the earth (Jerusalem), receiving a double portion, with everlasting joy.
Christ quotes this in part (vv. 1-3) in Luke 4:18-19. He follows up by berating his home town folk (all of whom at the time were speaking well of him). The result is that they try to run him out of town on a rail (or throw him off a cliff) - but he passes on through).
One of the difficulties in the movement from Isaiah to Luke is that the "poor" / 'anawim in Isaiah are oppressed as a result of the nations. One could too quickly conclude decide that the poor / 'anawim are oppressed because of their religious leaders in Luke. Yet, we need to be reminded that Israel was an occupied territory (Rome) managed by a governor (Pilate) who shared some token powers with regional Kings (the Herods). On High Holy Days, the Chief Priest was forced to visit Pilate and "sign out" the garments of his office for the day.
If the preacher is going to focus on Isaiah, the good news is that the poor will be lifted up by the hand of God, by the Spirit of God, in accordance with the Word of God - that there will come a day of vindication for all of those who have waited patiently for God's Word to come to pass. They will receive double for all their shame and dishonor, and the nations will come to them as servants / tithers / -- One could make the point that this passage isn't so much about "getting even" / retribution / vengeance as it is about "making right" / setting things in order / establishing justice.
John's assessment of himself in this extended prologue to the Gospel is that he is NOT. I think it's Mark Taylor who authored the book, "NOT" in one form of postmodern deconstructionist thinking that never gets "un-notted." In other words, the deconstruction is the end and purpose.
John (the Baptist) is a deconstructionist. He's looking to take Israel back to the beginning, the first thing, the moment of creation, the crossing of Jordan. He stands in the wilderness (outside Israel) and invites Israel to vacate what they have constructed. He says, come out of the darkness in which you content yourselves, and enter the wilderness of waiting in hope. Behold, a light is coming that you do not know. One is present even now that you cannot recognize. Come out and surrender all that you have in order to find all that you desire.
John is the caliber of deconstructionist that I value. He takes everything down to the bones. He calls the institutions and those who are comfortable within the status quo of religious exercise a Tower of Babel that needs to be thrown down. Behold, a voice crying in the wilderness. Come out! Yet, John doesn't stop there. He dunks them in the river Jordan, spins them around, and says "now go home, but live a life that suggests you are truly repentant of the life you've had and wait for the life that God has sent."
Hence, after stripping life down to the nub, John isn't content with being NOT. He's waiting for AM. He's waiting for the One who is, and always was, and will ever be. What is it that we're waiting for this advent season? Have are lives been blown about by the signs of the time? Are we running about trying to pick up the pieces of the lives we've built for ourselves, whether in investments, in health, in relationships, all subject to the NOTtifying effects of "interesting times" (the fabled Chinese curse)? Yet, what if we could look about, discover a dim glimmer of what is truly most important, and reconstruct our lives anew focused on the light of God? Or, to put it another way, what if we could wait for God to reconstruct the life of God, the light of Christ, and the image of God's own children in the lives that we have seen crumpled into lumps of clay. Trust! Hope! Faith (a verb)! Surrender to the hands of the potter who will bring to pass in our lives the life of God. Wait! Stop! Listen to the lonely voice crying in the wilderness, the strange, eccentric notion that what we treasure isn't treasure at all - that what we desire is not what we have thought, or known, or seen. If Christ were to appear this advent season, would he still be a stranger?
(Comments to Michael at mphillip@epix.net.)
First Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Berwick, Pennsylvania (Susquehanna North Branch)