Christmas Day

25 December 2009

The Rev’d Lloyd Prator

New York City

Isaiah the prophet is one of the figures in the Old Testament who most clearly connects with Jesus and the incarnation in the New Testament. He speaks his words of prophecy to his own people with clarity and hope, but he also speaks to us, in another culture and another day.

Often it is the little lines in Isaiah that claim our attention. In today’s readings, Isaiah speaks of the new things that God is doing. He speaks of them as being like the feet of the messengers who come down from the mountains with good news. And, for Isaiah, the good news was the return of Israel from bondage in exile out in Babylon. She could come home again. Rebuild houses. Build a new temple. Restore the worship of the Lord. Establish and settle families. Build hope for the future.

When I think of what it must have been like for Israel to come home again, I think of some of those old pictures you used to see of the South Bronx, before our city began to prosper again. IN those days, you could walk through empty lot after empty lot, kicking an empty beer can, breaking an old wine bottle, looking straight through windows to the sky because the houses had no glass in them.

So Israel was home and home to go to work.

And that is precisely where Isaiah ends his reflection today. The Lord has comforted his people and redeemed Jerusalem. He has bared hi holy arm before the eyes of all the nations. Bared his holy arm. Sounds like “rolls up his sleeves and goes to work.” Showing a little strength, getting down to cases, beginning the process of redemption.

In fact, Isaiah is setting the agenda for the church. Today, the Lord comes to dwell among us. And, the incarnation of God, God dwelling among us in human form, is the classic instance of God rolling up his sleeves and getting to work. God is starting the process of redemption, a process which be4gins today, but which comes to its conclusion not by God coming down from a mountain. But by God going up a hill, up the hill of Calvary to die for those he loved.

If Jesus is god rolling up his sleeves and getting to work, that should set the agenda for his Church. The light of the love of God spreads into the world at Christmas. When the Church witnesses to peace in the world, when the church witnesses to genuine care for the poor and the needy, when the church stands for justice for all people no matter who is oppressing them—when these things happen, we will have rolled up our sleeves and got down to work.

It is high time.