000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

10 Christmas Day 3/Years A, B, and C
Often the good news is presented in the statement or promise that God
is or will be “with us.” This is why Jerusalem “shall be called, ‘Sought Out,
A City Not Forsaken’” (v. 12). The good news is shaped by the form of
human hurt that it addresses. Often that hurt is the feeling that we are
abandoned, that not even God cares about us. The Judeans—destitute,
bedraggled, small, and weak—could easily have felt godforsaken. Isaiah
reminds us of the good news that God never abandons God’s children.
God’s deliverance of and presence in Zion is to be celebrated with food
and wine (vv. 8–9), a festal meal in the Temple: “those who gather it shall
drink it in my holy courts.” So the church celebrates Christmas with
eucharistic food and wine, celebrating God’s coming among us in the person
of Jesus Christ.
Christmas Day 3/Years A, B, and C
Isaiah 52:7–10
Isaiah 52 exhorts Zion (the Judean people in exile in Babylon) to rejoice in
the Lord’s return to “Jerusalem, the holy city” (52:1). A triumphant, ecstatic
exultation begins our reading: “How beautiful upon the mountains are
the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news,
who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’” (v. 7).
The people are still oppressed in Babylon as Isaiah indicates: “you shall
drink no more from the bowl of my wrath. And I will put it in the hand of
your tormentors, who have said to you, ‘Bow down, that we may walk on
you’; and have made your back like the ground and like the street for them
to walk on” (51:22–23).
In this intense chapter, Isaiah instructs the people to dress in the clothes
they would wear to a great celebration: “Put on your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem . . . for the uncircumcised and the unclean shall enter you no
more” (52:1). Isaiah urges them to trust the strengthening word that he
has been proclaiming since 40:1–11. He pleads with them to “shake yourself
. . . loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter Zion!” (52:2).
In verse 11, he urges them: “Depart, depart, go out from there!”
The tension comes from the fact that verses 7–10 celebrate YHWH’s
return to Zion “in plain sight,” yet two realities persist: Jerusalem is a devastated
city and the people are still under the Babylonian heel. The messenger
announces peace, but peace is not a visible reality to the Judeans.
In this context, Isaiah celebrates God’s victory, much as at Christmas
Christians celebrate the coming into the world of Jesus, of whom the