Excerpted from 2024 Advent Guide: Hope is Near, an Advent Guide for Lectionary Year C from the North Carolina Council of Churches.
Isaiah 12:2-6
“Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and will not be afraid,
for the Lord is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.”
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say on that day:
“Give thanks to the Lord;
call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
proclaim that his name is exalted.
Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be known in all the earth.
Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
This third Sunday of Advent, as Christmas draws closer, we are called to rejoice, even in the face of all that swirls around us. Communities are recovering from devastating floods. War is raging around the world, with escalating conflict in the Middle East and destruction in Ukraine. Deep political polarization is dividing families, churches, and communities. There is fear and uncertainty. And yet, there are also stories of communities coming together to rebuild; we hear the sounds of laughter and children playing; we experience joy amidst the heartache. Experiencing joy doesn’t mean we ignore the pain and suffering around us. We choose joy each day as an act of defiance. We choose hope as an act of courage.
“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and will not be afraid, for the Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation” (v. 2). When the prophet Isaiah spoke these words to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, they were witnessing the annexation of their northern neighbors in Israel by the Assyrian Empire. Such an imminent threat creates its own form of political instability, a future that feels beyond our control. Isaiah’s proclamation is a challenge to trust God amidst seemingly insurmountable odds. We are called to place our hope in the God who brings salvation, even when the world feels out of control. This trust invites us to resist the culture of fear and scarcity and, instead, live as people anchored in God’s promise of restoration and peace.
That to which we remain present and towards which we give our energy, is what will grow within us. Advent calls us to remain present to hope and give our energy to joy. Rather than focus on situations where we feel powerless, we root ourselves in God’s promise to dwell with us. Just as Isaiah invited the people of Judah to shift their focus from the power of the Assyrians to the higher power of God, we are invited to shift our focus from the brokenness of the world to the strength of God’s saving work. We are invited to sing songs of joy in the face of despair.
“Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” (v. 6).
