THE YEAR OF THE LORD’S FAVOUR

The Second Sunday after CHRISTMAS

3 January, AD 2010

TEXT:  Isaiah 61:1-3

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; to proclaim liberty to the captives . . . to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”  (Isaiah 61:1 and 2).

These words, originally proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah, have become indelibly associated in our minds with Our Lord’s proclamation of them referring to Himself at the beginning of His public ministry when he read them in the synagogue at Nazareth.  Chronologically, they were uttered some thirty years after the words of the Evangelists that we hear and have come to know and love during Christmastide.  Why, then, on this second Sunday after Christmas, which occurs every four years out of seven, do we hear them today?  Frankly, it has a lot to do with where we are in the Christian Year and the season we are about to enter.  

Without rushing things, depending upon the date on which Christmas Day falls, in the span of those twelve days of Christmas we can either receive a compacted version of events that occurred after Christ’s birth or we are, as now, given the luxury of a fuller picture of events that surrounded the birth of Our Saviour.  Either way, before the Epiphany, which we celebrate on January 6th we hear the accounts of the martyrdom of St. Stephen; an explication of the Incarnation by the Apostle and Evangelist, St. John; the event of the slaughter of the Holy Innocents by Herod the Great in an attempt to eradicate Our Lord; and the flight of Mary, Joseph, and the babe, Jesus, into Egypt and their return to Nazareth – all before we celebrate the coming of the three Magi to offer their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  This often becomes a confusing and tangled mass of chronology if one tries to figure it all out.  But instead of considering an historical time-line for all of this, it better serves us and our spiritual lives to consider what the Holy Spirit wants to tell us about Our Lord’s life and work in this passage from the prophet Isaiah during this time just before His manifestation or Epiphany to the world.  In order to do that, we must delve deeper into what Isaiah was prophesying and the event during which time Our Lord uttered these words and proclaimed them of Himself.

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah is the longest book of prophecy in the Old Testament:  so long, in fact, that given the changing historical settings of book as it progresses, Isaiah, as a human being, would have had to have lived far longer than was humanly possible.  But throughout the entire book the main thrust of Isaiah’s prophecy does not change, which is this, the only hope of the world is bound up in one man – God’s Messiah; the promised Davidic King; the servant of the Lord God; the anointed preacher of the Gospel; and the lone victor over all evil.  He maintains his central call of “Return to the Lord!  Repent! and be Renewed!”  He proclaims, “Your Saviour has come and He will come again!”  As Christians we read and hear his words through Christological lenses and ears, understanding in our hearts and minds that who Isaiah is talking about is none other than Jesus the Christ, the Anointed One of God, the Messiah!  Isaiah achieves and concretizes His points through the use of no less than five sections called “Servant Songs” which picture God’s Anointed One, His Christ, as the One whom God, Himself calls to lead the nations, who is anointed by the Lord God’s own Spirit, who will be horribly abused, who will sacrifice Himself – accepting the punishment due others, and who, at the end of all of that will be rewarded by the Lord God, Himself.  While it is true that, given the history of the Hebrew people, Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled at different times in varying degrees of fulfillment, the ultimate fulfillment of his prophecy was revealed in Jesus Christ and Him crucified and then resurrected on the third day.  It is the fifth of those sections called “Servant Songs” to which our attention is drawn today.  Within the space of Isaiah 61, verses 1-3, Isaiah proclaims the Messiah’s purposes through seven clauses.  His work is and will be; to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant them the oil of gladness, and to make His people oaks of righteousness that the Lord may be glorified.  These are the attributes which the Messiah, the Anointed One will bring to His people.  On this Second Sunday of Christmas we affirm that the Lord Jesus Christ has come among us.  He has been born to us.  When the Lord read these words of Isaiah as he opened His public ministry at Nazareth, that process of that fulfillment began.  Remember, Our Lord had been Baptized by St. John in the river Jordan and the Spirit had alighted upon Him in the form of a Dove.  Jesus, as God’s Messiah, sent the Holy Spirit and man received Him and the decisive year of the Lord’s favour has already taken place in His Holy Incarnation and through our own Baptism!  Now, to the fact that Our Lord has come, there is no place for despair to those who believe on His Name!  Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus, who lived from AD 393 – 466 says of this passage from Isaiah:

“We do not need many examples to explain the meaning of this prophecy.  For the Master, Himself, has made it clear to us. . . .  Isaiah calls “poor” those who have lost heavenly riches, “broken-hearted” those who have corrupted their reason, “blind” those who do not know God and who worship creation, “prisoner” those brought into the enemy’s camp and who have lost their original freedom. . .  Christ did not only give to us the forgiveness of sins and free us from the tyranny of the devil and reveal to us the divine light, but he also announced the future existence and warned of the righteous judgment.  For I think that “the year of grace” means his first coming and “day of recompense” the day of judgment.  To console all who mourn with the hope of the resurrection, he has even tempered the despair of death.”

Through Jesus Christ and our Baptism, that reality has become our birthright.  By God the Holy Ghost our treasure has been restored, reason has become enlightened, our blindness has been turned back into sight, and our freedom has been restored.  This is all the result of Immanuel – God with us being born to us in this world.  And it is just before Our Lord’s great revelation to the world on Epiphany that God the Holy Ghost reminds us of the eternal benefits Jesus brings to us through the power of His Holy Incarnation.  For on this very day dawns the year of the Lord’s favour and we have nothing to despair or fear.  We as a Church and as a people can walk boldly into 2010 knowing that, because of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His Spirit that now dwells within us, we, through Him, can face any challenge that may come to us as a people or as individuals.  Always remember that the self-same Spirit of God that indwelt Our Lord at His Baptism which He proclaimed at the beginning of his public ministry dwells within us as well through our Baptism and then walk with Our Lord during this new year and always as He leads us closer to an eternity with God!  Let us pray.

ETERNAL God, Who makest all things new, and abidest for ever the same:  grant us to begin this year in Thy faith, and to continue it in Thy favour; that, being guided in all our doings, and guarded all our days, we may spend our lives in Thy service, and finally, by Thy grace, attain the glory of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ Our Lord.  Amen.

And now, unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion as is most justly due this day both now and forever; world without end.  Amen.        

SOLI DEO GLORIA – JEU+