Jan 3. 2nd Sunday after Christmas Isaiah 61

 2nd Sunday after Christmas---Happy New Year Isaiah 61

The Collect/Prayer of the Day

ALMIGHTY God, who hast poured upon us the new light of thine incarnate Word; Grant that the same light enkindled in our hearts may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle

Isaiah lxi. 1.

THE Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

The Gospel

St. Matthew ii. 19.

WHEN Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life. And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.

Happy New Year Isaiah 61

How do we see ourselves having a happy new year? Is it possible? As we look forward to this year , it is true our hearts may be unhappy about how last year went, at least how we acted, spoke and reacted to events and occurences in our individual lives, our parish life and our lives in general in this world. We may now and then have a flash of " I wish I could have said that differently, or why do I get so mad about such things that are seem little but I feel pain about them, but are beyond my control anyway?" Or we may have had an epiphany ( coming Jan 6) and been like the tale of Christmas past, present and future that Dickens' character Scrooge had. That scared us and now we really want to change! For our lives here are really short if we were honest, and the little things do matter that we do for others and tell ourselves each day. For the little things do add up at some point and make bigger piles, do they not?

Today's Epistle reading actually is an OT one from Isaiah 61. " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the LORD hath annointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek..." This is what Jesus said applied to Him in Luke 4. I think it should apply to us as Christians to do this for others in the name of Christ. How hard it seems to speak a good word to those in difficulty. We do not want to be like Job's friends who failed to listen very well and gave him too many sermons instead of being his true friend and comforter.

Point 1. Start with the Holy Spirit. Apparently we get ourselves in too much trouble when we try things in our own power. Our problem is that though we are Christians and have the Holy Spirit we fail to know how He wishes us to proceed. My mind went to I John on this: " And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight, And this is His commandment , that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another...and he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us." I John 3:23

If something violates God's commandments, that would not appear to be spiritual. If something violates God's commandment to love one another that too would not be spiritual.

Taking a spiritual inventory of our selves may be quite helpful. All of us know pretty much what this will show. It will give us a list we are not very happy about as it is a list of our sins for sure. Our anger, our lust, our thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think , our lack of understanding of God and His will because we are not listening to Him in a time of prayer and reading His Word, failing to act in His ways in a general sense, being more concerned with our things than looking at the needs of those who need something from us................. Rushing ahead of God is an example of this without prayer, reflection and waiting for His directions.

Point 2. Speak good tidings unto the meek. This Hebrew word meek is actually meaning humble or those who are afflicted. In other words many people are not open to God and His Word but those who are open are humble and perhaps have even experienced some deep need in their because of the difficulties in circumstances in their situations. You can speak good tidings to the haughty and proud but they will probably not be very open to it.Ps 149:4 " He will beautify the meek ( afflicted ones) with salvation." The meek however are poor in spirit as Jesus said in the beatitudes. " Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3

Thomas Merton said it this way, " ..the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself , and yet recognizes that he may be the object of God's love precisely because of his shortcomings, can begin to be sincere. His sincerity is based on confidence, not in his illusions about himself, but in the endless, unfailing mercy of God. No Man is an Island.

Point 3. All of this recollection about our failings and shortcomings , lists if you have it should lead to a renewal and healing in our lives as we begin to see where we can truly head under God's Spirit. Isaiah 61 paints a spiritual picture of what true liberty is like----

" He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted" Bind up is a Hebrew word that means to wrap firmly such as a compress ---in other words, a healer. Such a person does not let another bleed out but sees the wound and puts a compress on it. We can do this as spiritual people as well. Build up others, accentuate their positive traits. No one is perfect. But if we see only those things in others that make us feel pity or anger without looking at the whole person, we are not seeing the forest for the trees. Everyone says something that they should not say. But that should not define them. Unfortunately our news media is good at replaying something someone says that is not very helpful.

" to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound" Christ does this for those that hear the good news, the gospel and receive eternal life.

" to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD...to comfort all that mourn, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified." Is 61

How to take the little gnats of negativity and to see the total positive mosaic of God in our lives for we that as the Apostle Paul said, " And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God." Romans 8:28

Renewal is possible in even the darkest situations for light shines brightest in the dark. Look at the stars. They shine brightest in the dark. Whatever has bound us or made us captive can be freed in Christ thru His Holy Spirit. Our new Year has possibilities from our perplexities and our problems.

"We must accept the fact that we are not what we would like to be. We must cast off our false, exterior self like the cheap and showy garment that it is. We must find our real self....created to be a child of God, and capable of loving with something of God's own sincerity and His unselfishness." Merton