Notes for Is. 61:10-62:3

Is. 61:10-62:3

1) The decorations are coming down, but not in churches. Isaiah uses decoration language to capture a sense of promise and a new future, wedding imagery.
2) The earth itself is decorated with new growth, perhaps like the image of the lilies of the field.
3) 62: starts with a challenge, by the prophet or the servant (or even god??) that the coming vindication will indeed come, with the insistence and maybe annoyance of a car alarm.
4) The promise includes a new name. Sometimes what we are called or call something is so worn or distorted that it needs a new sew name. Look at how liberal has been distorted in how time, or how tea Party arose to give new impetus to the alienated, radical right wing. Think of the change of biblical names of Abram, Saul, Simon Peter, and Jacob as well.
5) We close with emblems fit for Cinderella, I imagine a diadem as bejeweled but it doesn’t have to be.
6) Some good children’s Christmas stories involve decoration such as the spider’s gift or Gift of the traveler.