Tag: Church

The Spirit of the Lord Has Come

He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,

and went according to his custom 

into the synagogue on the sabbath day.

He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.

He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

            The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

                        because he has anointed me 

                        to bring glad tidings to the poor.

            He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives

                        and recovery of sight to the blind,

                        to let the oppressed go free,

                        and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,

and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.

He said to them,

“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Luke 4:14-21
The Spirit of the Lord has come
and filled the weary heart.
It whispers of what God has done,
and what has yet to start:
of captives given sweet release
and good news for the poor,
the bowed of all their burdens freed,
kingdom's open door.

The Spirit of the Lord has come,
the ancient hopes fulfilled,
to free the songs that fear struck dumb
and racing heartbeats stilled,
to take the blindfold from our eyes,
the fingers from our ears,
that we may see the morning rise,
the kingdom drawing near.

The Spirit of the Lord has come,
anointing those who hear,
who see the wonders God has done,
proclaiming God's own year.
Then let us rise up to proclaim 
and rise to meet the task
of healing in the Savior's name:
The kingdom comes at last!
Scroll By Linusorrgren – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25875449

Jerusalem (Rage Hymning)

Up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights;

    look to the east and see your children

gathered from the east and the west

    at the word of the Holy One,

    rejoicing that they are remembered by God.

Led away on foot by their enemies they left you:

    but God will bring them back to you

    borne aloft in glory as on royal thrones.

For God has commanded

    that every lofty mountain be made low,

and that the age-old depths and gorges

    be filled to level ground,

    that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God.

Baruch 5:1-9
Jerusalem, your streets are standing empty,
your children led away as spoils of war.
The walls that stood between you and the desert
have crumbled now, protecting you no more.

You say you've been abandoned by the Father,
though you had slain the best within your flock,
but you laid down your infants on the altar
and poured you people's blood upon the rocks.

When shall God look again upon your fasting
and offer you rewards to keep his ways?
When you have turned the deserts into pastures
and made it so your sheep may safely graze.

When you have turned the waste into a garden,
undammed the stream to let the flowers bloom,
oh, then and only then shall you have pardon.
Then light shall break upon you in your gloom.

Cast down your princes; lift up all your lowly,
and make at last a smooth and level way.
Throw out your idols—love your Maker wholly,
and see again the dawning of your day.
Illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle of the destruction of Jerusalem under the Babylonian rule By Michel Wolgemut, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff (Text: Hartmann Schedel) – Self-scanned, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1129601