From Ashes to Garland: Isaiah 61:1-11 - Third Sunday in Advent

If you’ve been a child or raised a child over the last sixty years, you’ve probably seen the stop motion-animated primetime TV special, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. 

The show tells the story of how a young Rudolph found himself ostracized by his peers and even his father for his glowing red nose. After meeting up with one of Santa’s elves who’d just been fired from the workshop, the two embark on a hero’s journey which takes them to the Island of Misfit Toys. There, they encounter a Charlie in the Box, a spotted elephant, a train with square wheels, a cowboy riding an ostrich, and a water pistol that shoots jelly.

Image by Peggychoucair from Pixabay

The moral of the story is that there is a place in the world even for the misfits. The unwanted toys all find new homes. Rudolph and his red nose end up saving Christmas for Santa Claus and all who awaited him. 

The prophet Isaiah delivers a strikingly similar message in our first reading.

Click here to read the Scripture text

God’s people had become the misfits, and unlike Rudolph, it was not due to an accident of nature. It was because their forebears had sinned. God allowed for the holy land to be conquered, for Jerusalem to be destroyed, and his people taken into exile. But the time of judgment was now over. The time of mourning was now over. A new day was on the horizon. The poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, and the prisoners will be the first to be uplifted by God’s saving grace. Those whom the rest of the world has left behind will be the first to rejoice in God’s salvation.

This stunning reversal is good news for all those who are not merry this Christmas. 

We call Christmas “the most wonderful time of the year,” and spend nearly one-third of the year preparing for it. There are gifts to be bought, cards to be sent, decorations to put up, family gatherings to plan—that is, if you are fortunate enough to enjoy those blessings. But what if you’re not? Christmas may be a reminder of how unwonderful your life is. You are once again reminded of loved ones you’ve lost. You feel ashamed if you can’t afford to buy gifts for your children. If it hurts, it always hurts worse at Christmas. 

We say, “there’s no place like home for the holidays,” but many will be spending Christmas in hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, orphanages, or military bases. Others will spend their Christmas working in medical facilities, as emergency responders, or in the hospitality industry. Thousands of homeless wander our city streets. Millions huddle in war zones or refugee camps. 

Yet, while those who are first in this world celebrate and make merry, God’s focus will be on the despised, rejected, and forgotten of the world. These will be joined by none other than the Son of God, a misfit among misfits, born into poverty and far from home, who will spend his childhood as a refugee, and grow to be despised and rejected by the very people he came to save.

It is the misfits who will respond most to Jesus’s teachings and his ministry, and not those who think they’ve got it made. Many rich and powerful people will come to faith in Jesus Christ, they see in him the love, the life, and the grace their money could not buy them. All the privileges they enjoyed came to nothing when compared to the worth of Jesus. 

As we embark on the second half of our Advent journey, the mere nine days that it is, amid all the busyness, the traffic, the noise, and the hassles, there is a big difference between celebrating Christmas and celebrating Jesus. 

If you are anticipating a Merry Christmas, praise God! But if you are not, take heart. You are the reason Christ comes to earth. He has come to give you garland instead of ashes, and gladness instead of mourning. Christ will heal your wounds. He will forgive your sins. He will bind up your brokenness and give you new life. You, together with all who have been redeemed by him, will be the heralds of a new creation. 

As the lights of Advent illuminate God’s activity in your life, you will find that the greatest Christmas gifts are not the ones you buy but what you give and share. 

Earlier this week, a grandmother told me about the gift she’s been giving her teenage grandchildren every year. She puts some money in a card and writes in the card that they are welcome to use the money to buy whatever they wish. But she also includes an invitation to use that gift to help the less fortunate by purchasing a gift through the ELCA Good Gifts Catalog. (The Presbyterian Church (USA) has a similar charity). 

This is something that she and her grandchildren look forward to every year, because this is how we celebrate Jesus. This what his birth brings about in us. 

Not everyone will be merry this Christmas, but Jesus is born for everyone. For those who cannot make merry right now, a greater celebration awaits. Jesus Christ is in the world. We the redeemed are living proof. Our sins are forgiven, our wounds are healed, our selfish hearts have been turned inside-out. And there is no better way to proclaim the coming of Christ than become someone’s reason to believe in him, so that they may, at last, to be clothed with garland instead of ashes.