May only God’s word be spoken, and may only God’s word be heard.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. That Word is Jesus, and what we have received, a very fine gift from God, is a gift most worthy of rejoicing.
Today’s reading from Isaiah speaks of rejoicing. The reading is taken from two consecutive chapters. If you don’t have the text in front of you, it’s hard for you to realize that, just from hearing the reading. In Chapter 61, verses 10 and 11, Isaiah rejoices in the Lord, for the Lord has clothed him with garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness, like a bridegroom decked with garlands or a bride adorned with jewels. A garden springs up, and praise springs up from the nations. The Word of God, Jesus, is like those gifts, as fine as jewels, as fine as a beautiful garden, and worthy of our praise and rejoicing. We can acknowledge with gratitude that we have been given a wonderful gift from God. End of Chapter 61.
And so why does our lectionary include the opening of Chapter 62? It is Christmastime after all, when we are happy to receive meaningful gifts from those who love us. We can say that Isaiah is continuing his thoughts. “I will not keep silent… I will not rest… You shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.”
Before I say more about the Isaiah reading, I’d like to talk about chapter books. A chapter indicates a story within a story. The smaller story often wraps up at the end of a chapter and a new small story begins in the next chapter, helping the whole larger story move along. The next chapter may begin with “A few days later”, or “After they arrived home”, or “After a good night’s sleep.” There is a definite change from one chapter to another.
Sometimes, however, this smooth transition doesn’t take place in a book. When I was young, I loved reading in bed at night. I would finish a chapter and then turn off the lights and go to sleep. The next night I would pick up the book and read another chapter. But then I started reading the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, about 40 different books when I was in school. For those of you who haven’t heard of Nancy Drew, she was an 18-year-old high school graduate, the daughter of a famous criminal lawyer, and she was an amateur detective. These books did not allow me to end a chapter and go to sleep. Let me read to you why. The Secret of the Red Gate Farm, the end of chapter 16.
Though prepared for the unexpected, the girls were taken aback at the sight which greeted their eyes!
Or the end of chapter 18.
“Saved!” Nancy breathed. At that instant a dark figure loomed up from the grass. Nancy felt a heavy hand on her shoulder!
As you can only imagine, I stayed up half the night to finish the book, and not simply one chapter.
I want to tell you a story that has two chapters. It is a story about a woman named Sarah.
Chapter One. A few years ago, around Thanksgiving, a phone call came to St. Mary’s and the call was forwarded to me. The woman on the other end of the phone said her name was Sarah and she asked if our church had any programs to help families with Christmas gifts for children. I said yes. She said that her family was struggling and she needed help to buy presents for their children. I said we had a little program to fill stockings for children and we could help her with that. Now, the number of stockings we were going to fill that year had already been set, but I knew we could fill a few more. I learned about her children, stockings were filled, and when Sarah came to the church to pick them up, she was very grateful. The next year, Sarah called again. She said that things were getting better and she and her husband had hoped to be able to provide everything for Christmas, but the family needed help again. I said, of course we can help, because we can always fill one or two or three more stockings. And she was grateful. I didn’t hear from Sarah the next year, nor for the years that followed. End of Chapter One.
Chapter Two. This year a phone call came to the church and Louise took the voicemail. Louise texted to me: A woman named Sarah was asking for you about sponsoring a family for the holidays. I wondered if it was the same Sarah and if their family was struggling again because of the pandemic. So, the next morning I called her. She said we had helped her family out many years ago and were we still sponsoring families. I told her, yes, we were still sponsoring families with stockings and we could fill stockings for her family this year, too. She said, no, we don’t want to receive stockings. We want to help fill stockings. And I said, oh Sarah, it’s much too early in the day for me to cry. And we laughed, and she said they were doing fine and they would like to help stockings be filled for other children. She and her husband were going to spend Christmas with their grown children and their grandchildren, so it has been a few years. I explained to her how to give and she did. And another family received stockings from her family. End of Chapter Two.
This past week I have been writing thank you notes to everyone who made a donation to this year’s HO! HO! HO! Stocking project. It is a large number of people and not all the thank you notes have been written, in case you haven’t received yours. For many people I often include this little story. We tell the agencies we work with, Early Childhood Cares and Direction Service, that we can fill a stocking for children who receive their services, and for the brothers and sisters in the family. This year, because of the pandemic, many of the case workers could not go to families’ homes to deliver the stockings, but instead, the parents were asked to come to the agency to pick up the stockings. Lauren and I were invited to help with that distribution. One mom arrived and we gave her a stocking for her son, James. She asked about a stocking for his brother, Isaac. There had been a mix up and Isaac was not on our list. But because Lauren and I were there, and because we knew about all the generous donations, we were able to say, we can fill one more stocking. So, Lauren went shopping and I made the delivery to the very grateful parents. No matter the size of the donation from the parishioner, it meant that one more stocking could be filled. We planned to fill 150 stockings this year, but instead we filled 160 stockings, which is hardly less than a year when we aren’t suffering through a pandemic.
And this has been a very unusual year indeed. If we were reading the book 2020, we would find it like a Nancy Drew mystery, where every chapter ends with a cliffhanger. I’m sure we are all ready to set that book aside and open the new book 2021, filled with light and hope and faith, community in our beloved St. Mary’s church, and hopefully, a book with not so many surprises.
Now back to Isaiah. We can show our gratitude to God for all the gifts and blessings we receive. We can rejoice and gives thanks as we wrap comforting gifts around us like garlands and robes. Or we can be like Sarah. We can be grateful. And then, we can turn around and care for others, when we can, and as best as we can. When we see injustice, we can say, I will not keep silent. When we see those who are hungry, or those who need to be clothed, or those who need a stocking filled with gifts to let them know someone cares, we can take action and not rest. You shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. We are called by God to live into the Word, to become the Word. When we accept this gift and do these things, we do them in the name of Jesus Christ, the Word given to us.
Amen.
