“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
my whole being shall exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to spring up before all the nations.” [Isaiah 61:10-11]
So I've been letting an idea simmer in my brain for a few years, and I know it's not going to happen this December, but maybe one day. In addition to the familiar figurines of the traditional Nativity scene--your shepherds, your magi, your Jospeh, Mary, and Jesus, and maybe an angel or a star--I want to make a scene for Advent of the world we are waiting for the Christ to restore and make new.
I know, I know, it would seem weird and untraditional (I sort of see that as a feature of this idea, not a bug) to have a display that somehow depicts peace and justice for all people. Maybe there's a garden coming up and nobody is dumping chemicals into the ground beside it, or they are hammering their swords into plowshares. Maybe there are wolves lying down beside lambs and nobody is afraid of getting eaten, or there's a big table with food and people from all nations and backgrounds all gathering around it. Maybe it will be just people in a neighborhood showing love to each other--bringing over a casserole or fixing someone's porch steps, or welcoming a new family who has moved in down the block. Maybe it will be outlandish in its diversity of people, animals, and styles, all finding a place in God's beloved community. But what I want to keep in front of me is not just a tiny model of what it (might have) looked like when Jesus was born (although we'll need to have a conversation some day about how the traditional creche scene merges Luke and Matthew), but a vision of what we are hoping for in God's promised future. And above all, what the Scriptures describe in the messianic vision is a world set right.
Now, I hope that isn't a controversial idea... but my guess is that a lot of us aren't used to thinking about Jesus' coming and "setting the world right." We talk about Jesus "saving us" or "dying and rising for us," or God forgiving us. Many folks talk about "going to heaven when they die" when they think of Jesus, or some variation on that theme. But we've not done as good a job talking (or listening) on the subject of God making all things new and setting the world right. But that's exactly what so many of the prophets actually envisioned when they thought about God's promised "anointed one"/"messiah" coming. They were looking for the world to be set right, everywhere and for everyone, in every nook and cranny, every valley and every mountain. They were waiting, as Isaiah 61 puts it, for "righteousness to spring up before all the nations."
I think we may need to rescue that R-word while we're at it, too. All too often, folks hear the word "righteousness" and immediately tune out or walk away. Maybe it's because we're used to hearing it in the context of religious pretenders who are "self-righteous." Maybe it's because it sounds like vacuous religious jargon that we don't think is relevant to our daily lives (alongside words like "sanctification" or "holiness" or "transgression"). And maybe it's because if we have any sense at all for the notion of "righteousness," we hear it as a matter of religious rule-following that gets us access (or doesn't) into heaven. But for the prophets, the concept of "righteousness" is so much more than spiritual bean-counting or Bible-thumping. It is about a world "set right"--just like the word itself suggests. And a world set right is utterly relevant to our actual lives, since we have to wade through the mess of an unjust, unkind, and indecent world every day. What we are aching for is a world where justice is finally done, where compassion is the order of the day, and where nobody gets to bully or intimidate anybody else, because we trust in God's goodness to provide enough for all. That's what it means to hope for "righteousness to spring up."
In a sense, this passage is Isaiah 61's attempt to do what I want to do with my idea of an Advent world-set-right display: it's an attempt to visualize how it will be when all creation is in right relationship, when all people have what they need, and when all things lost are restored. The prophet pictures being clothed in salvation and righteousness (the state of things-being-set-right), and of that same righteousness rising up everywhere for all nations and peoples like the first crocuses in springtime. In other words, this hope is for everybody--it's for a whole world put right, restored, and remade. If our hope is any smaller than that, we are missing something.
I think for a lot of my life, I heard this business about being "clothed with the garments of salvation" as just an individual thing--like the prophet was saying, "God has given me the special status of being "saved" that covers me, so I know I'll get into heaven." Sometimes church folks and theologians have talked about this concept of "righteousness" like it's a commodity to be traded, or earned, or sold, or given, and then each one gives their own "take" on how you get adequate righteousness applied to your account... you know, so you can get into heaven when you die. But to actually hear this passage describe it, the hope is big and broad and collective. We aren't just wishing for God to give me a passing grade in "righteousness class" so I can graduate on to heaven, but we are longing for God to bring justice, goodness, and mercy everywhere in all creation. That's the idea: reconciliation and restoration to all of us, not as a deal or a transaction, but as a renewal of our deepest selves.
So in these days while we await the celebration of the coming of the Messiah, that child in a borrowed food trough on the outskirts of the empire, let's not allow our vision to be made too small. We are not merely hoping for Jesus to be born as some individual ticket-supplier for admittance into the afterlife and away from this world; we are hoping for the One who comes to set all things right--all things, in all places, for all of us. We are waiting for the One who brings new creation.
Whether you listen to Isaiah 61 describe it like a bridal party's fanciest clothes, or the shootings sprouting in the garden, or even if you make a little model of figures to display (and one day I will!), don't settle for a vision smaller than God's universal reclamation project: a world set right.
Lord God, come and make all things new--and don't let us settle for a vision smaller than that.
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