By the Rev’d Hilary Willett
Season: The Third Sunday of Advent
Readings: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 | 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 | John 1:6-28
When I was eighteen, I applied for a job working in a printing company. I was very excited about the opportunity. If I got the job, it would be my first job that wasn’t in hospo or retail. I turned up, dressed very nicely, feeling a bit nervous but mostly okay. I liked interviews. I liked chatting with people and getting to know them.
Initially, the interview was great! The man across from me was smiling and encouraging. I felt buoyant! This was a sure thing. I relaxed a bit and chatted about work experiences, sharing about my day-to-day experiences. He asked me if I had any questions. I thought hard for a minute and then said, “Oh yes if I get the job, is there an option to join a union?” The man looked at me for a second.
“A union?” he asked. I nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, I’ve just joined one at my current work and it’s great. We’ve got better conditions now. It’s wonderful!” He smiled and let me talk, suddenly a bit quieter. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Perhaps he was just a really nice person.
I finished my interview and met with my Mum outside. She immediately asked me how it all went. I said, “great!” I proceeded to give her a run-down on what had happened. I felt very confident and excited. She was too. Right up until I mentioned that I had talked about unions. Her face fell. I stopped talking.
“What?” I said.
“Why on earth did you talk about that?” I looked at her face, suddenly unsure of myself. “Because I wanted to know…” My mum sighed. “I don’t think you’re getting that job, Hil.”
I learned a hard truth that day.
This story may seem like a slightly odd start to an Advent sermon. Particularly today, today we have lit the candle for joy and my story isn’t exactly “joyous”. Why bring up a random story about a young person who clearly didn’t know much about the workforce or about the somewhat… tense relationships they have with unions?
So, to answer this question, we are going to take a quick moment to play a game of “Where on earth is Hilary going with this?” It’s a game I often like to play. Here’s how you win. Think about the readings. We had one from Isaiah, one from Thessalonians, and one from John. All three of these readings have a couple of thematic links. I want you to think about how some of these links might connect with my story. I’ll give you a couple of minutes to discuss and then I’ll take some guesses. Please feel free to move around and connect with people you don’t know. Maybe it will give you an edge to talk with some people different to you. Okay, go!
* * *
Okay, is everyone ready to come back? Good. Let’s get some ideas.
* * *
These were great ideas! Some of you have given me some thoughts for next year, for sure. Here’s the link: there is no joy without truth and justice. Or, as John describes it, “making straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:23).
Still confused? Let me explain. In my interview, there should not have been such a severe consequence for asking an honest, innocent question. Wanting a workplace that is accountable and cares for its workers is not a bad thing. In fact, that should be the bare minimum that we expect. It is a strange world that says that businesses are only accountable to shareholders and that their main responsibility is to turn a profit.[i] A view that is very much still prevalent in a number of business settings. What about responsibility to people? What about responsibility to the earth? Are we really free to do what we like when we have enough money, enough power?
In our readings today, the answer is fairly definite. No.
In Isaiah, we have a very clear description of what God’s priority is. To “bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Isa 61:1-2a). In 1 Thessalonians, we are told that alongside worshipping God in gratefulness and joy, we are to listen to prophets and “hold fast to what is good; abstain[ing] from every form of evil” (1 Thess 5:21-22). And in John 1, on Jordan’s banks, the Baptist cries: “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’” (John 1:23).
We are not free. We, like John, are witnesses to Christ. Nor are we free to interpret these passages comfortably in ways that benefit us. As one theologian highlights in her discussion on the Isaiah passage, it would be easy to refer to generalities here, aware that at this time of year, we would prefer to sing our carols and get excited about Christmas.[ii] “But what if,” she writes, “we dared to be specific?”.[iii] Are we, in this church, the oppressed that is spoken of in Isaiah? Bearing in mind that the context that Isaiah was prophesying in was pre-exile, where political advantages were given to the powerful and justice could be bought and sold.[iv] Who is it that benefits from that kind of system? Is it the poor and marginalised? Or better yet, who benefits from stripping the Māori language from our institutions? There is only one country in the world that speaks Māori. Who benefits when we refuse to allow this language to exist? Is it the oppressed?
There is no joy without justice and truth. We are not free to do whatever we like. We are called to bind up the brokenhearted.[v] To hold fast to what is good. To make the paths straight. And we need to be mindful that sometimes, that means we will pay a cost. When I was 18, asking an honest question about accountability in the workplace cost me a prospective job. And I said that on that day, I learned a hard lesson. Now perhaps you thought to yourself, “Yeah, the lesson is don’t talk about unions in job interviews.” But actually, the lesson I learned is that truth and justice are costly. It threatens institutions built on inequality. Sometimes it threatens us if we are wedded to that system also.[vi]
But there is no joy without justice and truth. As Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica, “Do not despise the prophets” (1 Thess 5:20), those difficult people who bring good news to the margins and work to make paths straight. They are pointing to God, to the kind of “complete” joy that only comes when things are made right.[vii]
This advent, when we are remembering the joy of Christ coming among us, I invite you to also think of Christ’s return to us. I invite you, like John the Baptist, to witness to Christ and prepare the way.
Bibliography
Booz, Donald. “Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11: Homiletical Perspective.” In Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, 139–43. Year B, Volume 1. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008.
Brosend, William. “1 Thessalonians 5:16–24: Theological Perspective.” In Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, 158–60. Year B, Volume 1. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008.
Jarvis, Cynthia A. “Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11: Pastoral Perspective.” In Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, 134–36. Year B, Volume 1. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008.
O’Connor, Flannery. Letters of Flannery O’Connor: The Habit of Being. New York: Vintage Books, 1980.
Tepper, Taylor. “Milton Friedman On The Social Responsibility of Business, 50 Years Later.” Forbes, September 16, 2020. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/milton-friedman-social-responsibility-of-business/.
[i] Taylor Tepper, “Milton Friedman On The Social Responsibility of Business, 50 Years Later,” Forbes, September 16, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/milton-friedman-social-responsibility-of-business/.
[ii] Cynthia A. Jarvis, “Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11: Pastoral Perspective,” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Year B, Volume 1 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008), 134.
[iii] Jarvis, 135.
[iv] Jarvis, 134–35.
[v] Booz describes this as our “job description” (Donald Booz, “Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11: Homiletical Perspective,” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Year B, Volume 1 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008), 140.).
[vi] “All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful” (Flannery O’Connor, Letters of Flannery O’Connor: The Habit of Being (New York: Vintage Books, 1980), 330.).
[vii] William Brosend, “1 Thessalonians 5:16–24: Theological Perspective,” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Year B, Volume 1 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008), 158–60.