We continue with our contemplation of Isaiah 61:1-4 as we come to the end of verse 1. Isaiah says we are to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners. This admonition comes directly after we hear that we are to bind up the brokenhearted. We each carry our own wounds that can effectively keep up imprisoned in the ‘old ways’. How can we proclaim liberty to ourselves and to others? Perhaps it begins as we 'bind up the brokenhearted'.
At the start of each new year many of us make resolutions to
change those ‘old ways’ and lose weight, be more organized, exercise…the list
is infinite. Yet, now four weeks into 2021, how many of us have already
abandoned those good intentions? We have put ourselves back into the prisons of
our own making. We have returned to the ‘norm’ because it’s familiar, even if
it’s not comfortable (or healthy).
God wants us to be free. During his life and ministry, Jesus
freed many men and women from their prisons of demonic possession, ill health,
and loss. When Jesus said Follow me to the disciples he freed them from
their normal routine and started them on a path of change and transformation.
It’s not enough to just be freed from our own prisons, we
have to actively work to free others from their prisons. Those can be actual
prison walls, they can be sickness, they can be discrimination and injustice. Again,
the list is endless.
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry notes that it is not an easy
road. In talking about his faith journey regarding homosexual marriage, he says
“My only challenge was learning how to receive anger and not give it back in
return. I needed to do something very difficult: to stand and kneel at the same
time. I needed to stand in my conviction, laying out what I believed and why.
And when the response was anger, I needed to learn to kneel before it. Believe
me, standing in self-righteousness is so much easier. But when you’re facing
someone else who feels as strongly in their conviction as you do, anger Is
totally unproductive. Actually it’s counterproductive. You’ve got to create
space for the other person.” (Love is
the Way, 2020, pg. 181)
As Curry says, it’s easier to demand that our voice be heard
and that our view is acknowledged as right. He notes, “This isn’t easy, and
it’s even harder if the anger is coming at you from people you love and
cherish…I could only do what I believed to be right as best I could discern
it.” (Love is the Way, 2020, pg. 182)
Howard Thurman, theologian and civil rights leader, preached
a sermon in which he said, “Look well to the growing edge. All around us
worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and
life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at
work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new
leaves, fresh blossoms, green fruit.
Such is the growing edge. It is the extra breath from the
exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward
reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor. This is the basis
of hope in moments of despair, the incentive to carry on when times are out of
joint and men and women have lost their reason, the source of confidence when
worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash. Such is the growing edge
incarnate. Look well to the growing edge.”
Bishop John L Selders, Jr. (United Church of
Christ) reads the excerpt.
The Growing Edge is where new life is found. It is where our dreams and hopes begin to flower. It is where we can find a way forward. We may see only the “darkness of the earth”. Then, we can begin to look around for the roots working for “a time when there shall be new leaves, fresh blossoms, green fruit.”
Even in the seeming darkness of pandemic, social distancing,
violence and discord we can look for new life, new growth, change, and hope.
As we, individually and as communities and as a nation,
attempt to move toward a time of healing and freeing, we must keep in mind that
we do not know all the answers and that others have valid viewpoints. Let’s pray
for one another, not to change their minds, but because they are, as Michael Curry notes, “children
of God. The same love that made space for Michael Curry and Bishop Robinson
could makes space for them, too. We are all children of God.” (Love is the
Way, 2020, pg. 182)
As we proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to
the prisoners, we are really setting ourselves free to live more fully the
whole and holy life God desires for us. We can be the growing edge. We can be
the ones who make space for change and growth.
What walls of fear or hopelessness keep you captive? Look
for the roots bringing new life. Search for the growing edge and focus on that
for yourself and for others.
Is there someone you disagree with? Pray for them,
remembering they are a child of God.
