These words of Isaiah are a poem, a song, a prophecy of hope.  The hope is for Jerusalem; Jerusalem, here, is not simply a city, a spot on the map.  Jerusalem stands for God’s people.  Jerusalem is a way of saying the Church.  The prophet says he will speak out to encourage Jerusalem.  Isaiah knew God’s people needed encouraging; considering the times, the situation, it was obvious.  The people knew they needed it, but encouragement seemed hard to find.  Encouragement?  Hard to find?  Hard to believe, but true.  At another church, someone remarked to me how optimistic I was (if you can imagine).  Maybe that person was pessimistic, by nature or experience.  There is a saying my mother passed along from one of her old employers, a man who had done very well for himself selling insurance to wealthy people.  He was fond of saying “A pessimist is never disappointed.”

There are more than enough causes for pessimism in the world, beloved.  There always have been and there always will be, until the glorious day.  That day is part of our hope as Christians; it’s part of whatever optimism I may have.  I know I talk quite a lot about sin.  In part, because I’m so well acquainted with it!  It’s also my deep conviction that we really cannot begin to appreciate the worth of what we have, who we have, in God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—until we are very clear about why Jesus comes.  To talk about sin can be depressing; I know!  Can we just not talk about sin!?  How then would I, how could I, talk about Christ in a real, meaningful way?

Sin feeds on pessimism and works to foster pessimism.  If I have any optimism, it is because I know Jesus.  Knowing Jesus is encouragement.  Having the Holy Spirit is encouragement.  So, I will speak out to encourage God’s people.  God gives the gift of speech: prophetic speech, Gospel speech, for this very reason.  To be in the Church, as we are, is to speak and receive words of encouragement—to ourselves, God knows!, and to those who are not yet in the Church.

Isaiah says he “will not be silent until she is saved” (62:1).  When will she be saved?  When will the Church be saved?  The Church is saved, already—that’s the encouragement!  Not every member of the Church knows he or she is a member of the Church.  There are many people still to be saved.  I do not save them.  You do not save them.  God alone saves them.  One means He applies for salvation is us, His Church, us, the members of His Church.  “I will not be silent” is Isaiah’s pledge to be one who speaks Good News, who proclaims the works and worth of God.  “I will not be silent.”  This is a call to evangelism.

Not all of us are called to be evangelists: that is a special calling, and the man or woman who has that spiritual gift is truly a jewel in the crown of God.  We are not all called to be evangelists, but don’t get too comfortable!  Don’t sigh with Presbyterian relief just yet!  We are all called to evangelize, to make the Gospel plain, to introduce people to Jesus Christ, to make Christ’s call to them.  We wonder when the church will grow, why isn’t it growing, when will it grow?  Beloved, the church will grow as we evangelize, in just the ways God has given to us, among just the people with whom God has blessed us.  It’s a blessing to share Jesus with people!  Live for that blessing and you will see growth.

We live in times when people are clamoring for everyone to speak out, to speak up, to be heard.  Yes, speak out!  Yes, speak up—for Christ!  Of all the things we might speak up about, of all the things we feel moved to speak out about, let Jesus be first!  Jesus is the answer to the problems—the sins—that beset us.  Jesus is salvation.  Jesus is hope.  Jesus is the reason for optimism—the only reason.  Jesus is our encouragement.  Encourage one another, then, with Christ, and offer this true encouragement to others, also.

The day the prophet hopes for, because of which he speaks now, is the day of victory, that “shines like a torch in the night” (62:1).  I spoke about fire, last Sunday, fire and the Spirit.  Beloved, when Scripture speaks of fire, be sure the Spirit is in it, through it; fire is a sign of the Spirit.  Fire gives light.  As you have the Spirit, you have that light, the light of victory.  Gathered here this morning, we are a concentration of light, a concentration of fire—gathered together here, we have a clearer vision of our united purpose: to give light, to provide warmth.  Light serves other purposes, too: as a beacon, for direction—how glad pilots are to see the lights of the landing strip!  Put a candle in the window.  Better yet, take a lantern out to the road with you.  Light as a beacon provides hope: we know the way to go, now: we aren’t lost, anymore, we don’t have to be lost.  You aren’t lost, anymore; they don’t have to be lost, anymore.

This victory of which Isaiah speaks—victory that is sure, victory that is coming—he speaks of as shining, brilliant in the darkness, so that the nations will see, so that their kings will see (62:2): the powers of this world, and those who are under their rule, at the moment.  Greed.  Fear.  Lust.  Anger.  Superiority.  Apathy.  The answer?  Jesus!  For those now subject to fear: Jesus.  For those now subject to lust—for prestige, for control: Jesus.

These kings and those whose vision they govern have a name for us, who know God, who trust Jesus, who are guided by the Spirit: Fools.  In their eyes we are fools.  Heartless.  Ignorant.  Strange, how sin paints God’s people with its own qualities.  We’re the intolerant haters.  We’re the inflexible, dogmatic ones, bound by old words written by old men in old times.  Isaiah says that God will give us a new name (62:2).  Isaiah hears that our new name, the Church’s new name will be “God Is Pleased with Her” (62:4).  We heard last week with whom God is pleased: His Son, Christ.  Our name is Christian.  That is the name of victory, victory that shines in the darkness of this benighted world, that still dazzles and defies the powers of this world.  It’s an unholy alliance, indeed, when the culture makers, the PC drill instructors, and ISIS all have Christians in their gunsights.  Pessimism is understandable, and Christ is still the answer.

Isaiah speaks of us as a torch of victory, and he says that we will be “like a beautiful crown for the Lord” (63:3).  How do you like it?  I think I spent like eleven bucks on it.  Worth it?  What’s a crown for?  This one isn’t very comfortable, which just means I’m not meant to wear one, thank God!  It’s not just anyone who gets to wear a crown, a real one, anyway.  A king wears a crown.  It’s a sign—a sign for His majesty.  With all that brilliant metal, all those jewels, a crown is intended to catch the light, to reflect the light.  It’s designed to draw attention.  We speak of a crowning achievement, a crowning victory.  Isaiah speaks of victorious Jerusalem as a crown, because victorious Jerusalem will be a sign of God’s majesty, proclaiming, reflecting, signifying God’s majesty, His power, and His glory.  The crown is visible.  It draws notice.

This is a call to the Church, a reminder for us of who we are and are to be, of what we are and are to be.  God’s glory, majesty, and power will be visible, through us, His Church, His crown.  That’s a high calling, beloved.  How can we ever, meagre as we are, poor as we are, humble as we are, ill-equipped as we are?  But God’s glory, God’s majesty, and God’s power have this special distinction from all earthly power: God’s glory, majesty, and power become dazzlingly bright, crystal clear, in our smallness, our poverty, our humility, and our weakness.  We are God’s crown!?  Strange crown!  Wonderful crown.

Maybe like me, about all the experience you have with crowns is through those Imperial margarine commercials: dun dun da DA!  That dates me badly, but there it is.  On every crown there are larger and smaller jewels.  It would be easy to think that the larger are more valuable, more important, but it isn’t necessarily so.  Size is not the crucial factor.  Being part of the crown is.  You are part of the crown: each of you a jewel upon it.  God has provided more than enough room on His crown for all the other jewels He means to affix upon it.  He sends us, you, as light, for a beacon to the others whom He is calling, who haven’t arrived yet, but who are on their way; He sends you to them, and He sends them to you.

We make God’s glory, majesty, and power visible, just as a crown.  By your faithful lives—not your perfect lives!—by your faithful lives, be beacons, and remember that you are each a jewel in God’s crown.  Live in that knowledge.  Rejoice in the cosmic beauty of this crown, the Church—let us commit ourselves, together, to make that beauty—the beautiful power of God’s grace in Jesus Christ—known more widely, more deeply, more personally, more effectually for salvation.  Be encouragement, and you shall be encouraged.

And to Jesus Christ, who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests of his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.