 It's good to be with you for the third Sunday of Advent. So as you read this passage, as you hear it today, that I will be reading from the book of Isaiah. I'll be reading from the 61st chapter, verses one through four. These words will probably be familiar to you. Not because you remember them from perhaps the prophet Isaiah, but because they come later in the Scripture. Why don't you think about where you hear them and who spoke them? Listen to these words. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord to display His glory. And they shall bind up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. Again, it's good to be with you. And again from the prophet Isaiah, I read as I did last week. As you know, this is a familiar text to many of you, but I want to remind you that where you did hear it before is from the fourth chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke and their word spoken by Jesus. Let's look at it from the prophet Isaiah's viewpoint first. This is all about mission. This is not mission about what we typically call about. Think about it as terms of a purpose, a purpose in life or the purpose for the gathered community and yea, even later, a purpose for the church. But this mission is about salvation. And typically when we think about salvation, we're always thinking about what it means to save one from hell or about an afterlife. The salvation in this context is not about that, is about the very good or restoring the good of the created order. Think of it as the quality of life. We do get caught up in the season in so many ways at this time of the year. People decorated much earlier this year than I've ever seen before. Many people are waiting until after Thanksgiving, then that has been stretching back to Halloween or shortly after Halloween and it's even going farther back now. I think it's a way perhaps for the inward nature of ourselves or those who wanted to decorate earliest to have this kind of time in which they could begin to think that, well, we'll finally get to a place where life is better. If I can put up a Christmas tree or hang the Christmas lights or get all the garland out and start wrapping the packages. But all of those things will be done, the packages will be wrapped, the Christmas dinner will be shared and everything will be open and then you get to put it all up. But let me say this, in keeping with the prophet and in keeping with the mission statement of Jesus, if it all returns to normal, it could be said it was all for naught. Let me remind you when Jesus said these words, he had been tempted by the evil one and he comes back and he comes to Nazareth, his hometown. He goes to the synagogue. He volunteers to preach that day. He reads from the scroll. He hands it over, he sits down and he just says these words. He recites these four verses from Isaiah, the Spirit is upon me. And then he says, today this has been fulfilled in your hearing. Jesus was like giving his mission statement. This is what it's to like, to follow me. This is the way God intended the created order to be. And when he began to say that about what his mission would be, which is a good mission statement for the church, then people wanted to drive him out of town. We forget that the celebration of birth that will happen in about 10, 12 days will not be about just putting a baby in swaddling cloths. He'll be welcoming someone in to the world who becomes an adult, fully human and fully divine as there's things that are very challenging. And they come from the Prophet Isaiah and he says them again, and I want to say them to you again. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed and to bind up brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor in the day of vengeance of our God. Friends, when we celebrate the birth of the Christ child, it will be about the year of the Lord's favor, hopefully breaking out among us again. That really is not only the mission of this Messiah, but a mission for his church. And it's how God is trying to come into the life of the world and your life that could be a great focus for our prayers this week. May God anoint you. Amen.