The Year of the Lord's Favor

 If the first verse of today’s reading sounds familiar, it is because this is the text that Jesus read at the synagogue to describe Himself and His ministry. Read through the passage carefully and consider all that it says. What does it tell you about Jesus that He chose this text to describe His work on earth?

 

STUDY THE SCRIPTURE

 

Click here to access the reading from Isaiah 61:1-11

 

For more help use these Bible Study methods.

 

REFLECTION

 

The Year of the Lord’s Favor

By Katie Borden

In a normal year, my family starts listening to Christmas music on November 1. This year, which has been anything but normal, I began inundating myself with Christmas tunes significantly earlier than that. One of the pieces I’ve been listening to with some regularity is “O Holy Night”, and as I read today’s Scripture from Isaiah, I am reminded of one of my favorite lines from that carol:

 …A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices…

I think today’s text gives us permission to name the weariness and grief that has hung heavy around & upon us throughout these last months, but it does so much more than that. It gives us hope to cling to, particularly in the midst of an acutely intense week.

At the beginning of this week, we remembered those who have gone before us into the glorious company of the saints on All Saints Day, and at the end of this week, our nation will be processing the results of Tuesday’s election. To be honest, as I write I do not know what our world will look like on this post-election Wednesday. I do not know which candidates may be rejoicing and who may be mourning. I pray to the Lord for peace, though I do not know if I will see peace in our world today. But this I do know: that ultimate hope and true peace is only found in the Prince of Peace, and that someday, God will bring peace and justice and restoration to all things. Dear readers, I look forward to that day so much!

As we process the events of the last days, weeks, and months, and as we consider what the future may hold, we as believers know that we can rest our ultimate hope and faith in Jesus, in whom these words of Isaiah are fulfilled. My heart leaps when I read Luke 4 where Jesus quotes this very chapter of Isaiah and then declares in the power of the Spirit, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”. Thanks be to God!

The people of Israel heard these words and looked forward to the day when they would be fulfilled. Today, we can look to Jesus and know that hope, healing, peace, freedom, and restoration are found this very day in him. And someday, the whole creation will be set right with God’s shalom—his peace and his justice will reign forevermore. In that truth, dear weary world, we can rejoice.

 

UALC’S CAMPAIGN OF PRAYER

WEDNESDAY: JUSTICE: Stir up the power of your Holy Spirit to create reconciliation and justice where we cannot. We are enmeshed in the sin and hurt and futility of a fallen world. But you, O God, have raised Jesus from the dead and poured out the Spirit of your new creation. Reconcile us to one another across the divides we alone cannot cross, in the justice and wholeness only you can create.