Advent Prayers of Joy

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. (Isaiah 61:1a ESV) Our Advent joy comes to life this morning as we hear these brief but amazing advent words of the prophet Isaiah. Just as we need to hear good news, release, freedom, and jubilee, the Lord God has anointed His Servant Jesus to embody this joy in His advent into our lives. He is the Good News come down! 

The Advent season is filled with a mix of many different images and emotions as we contemplate and reflect on our Lord’s three-fold advent. These feelings attend us as we anticipate His advent in His coming at His birth, in His coming through the Word and Sacraments, and in His coming in glory at the end of the age. There is the thrilling excitement and expectancy of reunions, and the fulfillment of family traditions. But sometimes there is also the stark pressure and anxiety of things that don’t live up to these expectations and the hard realities of the challenges of our daily lives that don’t pause or stop just because Christmas is around the corner.

As we enter this third week of Advent we are greeted and filled with joy. This is the “little Christmas” within our Advent waiting that reminds us that our preparation and prayers have already been answered in the person of our Savior Jesus Christ. His birth, death, and resurrection are already completed events in His first advent and now we wait with joy for His Second advent. This Sunday we join our Advent prayers of peace and hope with the prayers filled with joy. Let’s be clear. Joy is not just the result or outcome of fortunate events, something like “happy.” Joy is not simply a feeling or an emotion. Joy is the embodiment of God’s own presence in us. Joy is the coming of His life-giving Spirit upon us, as Nehemiah 8:10 says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength!”

The Scriptures are filled with images of the Spirit who comes upon His people in power. The prophets, priests, and kings of the Old Testament were the vessels of the LORD. He used Moses, Aaron, and David to declare the LORD’s word and ways “in the Spirit of the LORD.” Here the Spirit-filled Isaiah speaks of the One who would be anointed with the Spirit without measure – the Messiah, the Christ. This Chosen One was the fulfillment of all of that the prophets, priests, and kings were unable to contain in their own brokenness. Good news, freedom, release, jubilee: these were the embodiment of His work.

When questioned about his ministry of baptism, John freely testifies that he is not the Messiah (John 1:20-28). He saw the limitations of his own brokenness. Instead, John pointed to Jesus as the One who was coming in the power and might of the Spirit to baptize us with the Spirit. In Him the fullness of the Godhead would dwell, and the Spirit would be in and upon Him without measure. This Spirit-filled Jesus announced in His first sermon in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30) the fulfillment of these words from Isaiah. He had come to them and us to announce to all the coming of God’s jubilee, the canceling of debts, the release of prisoners, the lifting up of those who are broken in spirit and heart. This Good News was embodied on the tree as He did not scorn its shame but for the “joy set before Him, He endured the cross.” (Hebrews 12:2) His joy was this Spirit that He released of His own free will, and this same Spirit that He then breathed into the lives of His disciples only three days later. (John 19:30; 20:22)

Now, His joy and Spirit fills the church as we are baptized into Him and filled with that same Spirit. He now comes to fill us and send us out into all creation to bind up the broken hearted and announce the Good News and release of the captive. This is the year of God’s favor. He confirms in us His joy as His Spirit. As His Advent people, our Advent prayers and lives are now filled with His joy and Spirit so that we would fill the lives of all those right around us. May the words of Isaiah fill us this morning and give us His joy!

Pastor Carl