Narrative Lectionary Program Year – Spirit of the Lord Upon Me
Isaiah 61:1-11
Free Additional Resources for Study & Sermon Preparation
Furthering the Power of God’s Story – Narrative Lectionary Commentary
by Pastor Ron Valadez
What a beautiful passage to end our Hebrew scripture readings with. I love how forward thinking it is, how future oriented its hope is. Though not a narrative in the strict sense, it has more than enough vivid imagery for you to sink your hermeneutical teeth into. One challenge you might face here is allowing this text to stand on its own two feet without bombarding it with our Christian mortars. This is especially true for us Narrative Lectionary users because this is the year of Luke and Jesus quotes from this chapter of Isaiah directly! Now, I’m not saying to ignore that. In fact, I can’t think of a more wonderful segue into our Lukan readings! However, before we get to Jesusy with this, we’d be wise to step into the sandals of our post-exilic Jewish siblings and hear it from their perspective first. Because, as I’ve often discovered since using the Narrative Lectionary, there is plenty of gospel within the text even before we add Jesus to it.
I’m not sure how much you might want to get into this in a sermon but it’s interesting to note that this passage comes smack dab in the middle of Third Isaiah, which as a whole is known for it’s hopeful, future oriented, grace-filled perspective. It’s so grace-filled that it opens with some quite controversial, and dare I say, contradictory theology, beginning at chapter fifty-six. Third Isaiah opens with a gospel message to include “immigrants” and “eunuchs”, two groups that had been explicitly left out of God’s graces previously. However, from the perspective of the author of Third Isaiah, God’s grace is now offered to all. So, it’s no surprise when we read the heart of that message in our reading for this week.
As Third Isaiah was written from the perspective of several different authors and time periods, it’s unclear whose voice this chapter is coming from. “A prophet” is about as much as we can surmise, but the ambiguity of the voice actually becomes quite handy later, oh about five-hundred years later. Whichever prophet is speaking, it’s someone with the utmost confidence that God will come through for God’s people, and for this author “God’s people” are anyone who want to be God’s people. And not only did this prophet have confidence in God, but had confidence that God would work through them to bring about this good news that is spoken of, “God has sent me to…”
One thought that might be worth some further exploration on your own: there had been many points in Israel’s history that they needed to hear some good news but maybe no more than at this point. Having been in exile for so long, now they had some hard questions to ask themselves and a long journey of rediscovery. Third Isaiah has therefore been a great theodical resource. Likewise, we too, particularly now, enduring this pandemic, are also feeling a bit exilic, and are in need of some good news more than ever. Without trivializing their own exile, I believe we can draw some powerful parallels between their exile and our own, that could be just the answer to many a prayer these days. Especially if we keep in mind that this author had already begun to fling the gospel doors wide open.
Scripture Reference Links
Menu
Sitewide Search for Topics & Readings
We Have Worship Resources For You
Clergy Stuff NL
Clergy Stuff RCL
Clergy Stuff Plays, Dramas, Lenten Series
Clergy Stuff Sermon Series
Menu
The following links and resources are not produced or maintained by Clergy Stuff. However, at the time of this posting, the links were active and considered to be good source material for proclamation for the text for this week. Please scroll down or click on the quick jump menu you find below. For more free worship resources & planning materials, please visit our links for RCL Worship Resources.
Contemporary Resources
The Psychology of Exile by Wray Herbert, Association of Psychological Science
Jesus and His Jubilee Mission by The Bible Project - For an entirely different direction with this text.
The Foreigners Among Us by Robert Solomon - For yet another direction you could go with this text.
A Good Read
Virus as a Summons to Faith: Biblical Reflections in a Time of Loss, Grief, and Uncertainty
by Walter Brueggemann
Why bother with the interpretive categories of biblical faith when in fact our energy and interest are focused on more immediate matters? The answer is simple and obvious. We linger because, in the midst of our immediate preoccupation with our felt jeopardy and our hope for relief, our imagination does indeed range beyond the immediate to larger, deeper wonderments. Our free-ranging imagination is not finally or fully contained in the immediacy of our stress, anxiety, and jeopardy. Beyond these demanding immediacies, we have a deep sense that our life is not fully contained in the cause-and-effect reasoning of the Enlightenment that seeks to explain and control. There is more than that and other than that to our life in God's world!
Video Resources
Historical
Great overview of Third Isaiah (starting at 6:01)!
Daily Devotional Feed
Free Dramatic Reading For This Text (NRSV)
Readers: Narrator 1, Narrator 2
Narrator 1: 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.
Narrator 2: They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines; but you shall be called priests of the Lord, you shall be named ministers of our God; you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory. Because their shame was double, and dishonor was proclaimed as their lot, therefore they shall possess a double portion; everlasting joy shall be theirs. 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.
Narrator 1: 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. For as 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.