A reflection on Isaiah 62:1-5 — Christmastide, 2nd Sunday after Epiphany C, January 20, 2019

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch. The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:1-5).

The relationship of the Creator with the whole of Israel and by extension the whole of creation is like that of groom to bride in a patriarchal system. God the Groom promises to be a good steward of the Bride Israel. Faithful to the end, even to the point of giving his life dying a horrible death as it turns out. In the case of Isaiah 62, the Bride Israel has been violated by Babylon and even now as the people Israel return from exile and try to begin again, corruption and evil hold them down and keep them cut off, forsaken and desolate. Groom God promises to vindicate Bride Israel, to give her a new name: “Delighted With, Married.” Like the dawn or a burning torch, whole nations will see her shine and know that the Creator has saved and redeemed her. I find it helpful to keep the meaning of the Biblical groom / bride metaphor clearly in mind, exactly because it is so prominent in Scripture, sometimes naming vindication as here, but sometimes naming horrible lament and female degradation when the prophet is naming Israel's apostasy and Babylon's (etc.) oppression of Israel. That the female (the bride or the potential bride) is an entire nation of men and women and all genders matters. What does Isaiah 62 mean in terms of any system, patriarchal or not? It means that God peels away all the layers of “-isms” that oppress and imprison. Most poignantly, this includes patriarchalism. It means that God restores all who are cast off, isolated. It means that God restores dignity and sacredness to the violated. It means that God enfranchises the voiceless and powerless. It means that God heals and restores to wholeness all who sit in the margins because of gender, sexuality, race, creed, class, you name it. It means that God cries with us and enters into our broken hearts journeying through the crap with us. It means that neither cancer nor shutdowns nor fear nor hatred nor hurt have the last word. God and God’s love do. It means that the oppressor never has the last word. God, who loves unconditionally and continually creates the whole of creation as an expression of that love, has the last Word. The God of the cross and the empty tomb, who came in a baby and ascended breathing on all the Holy Spirit as an expression of that love has the last word. God who still to this day is here, as near to you as your breath, breathing Light and Life even in the darkest places on the darkest days — from techni-quark to cosmos upon cosmos — has the last Word. Amen. Thanks be to God.