Prepare to Listen. (If using, light the first purple Advent candle.) Be still before the Lord who says, Comfort ye my people.
Prayerfully Read Isaiah 40:1-2 Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. 2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the LORD’S hand double for all her sins. Prayerfully Wonder “Comfort ye, Comfort ye my people,” sings Handel’s tenor, emphasizing the word comfort. After their defeat and exile in Babylon because of their failure to remain faithful to Yahweh, Israel needed comfort. With so much to disturb us today, we too need comfort. Not the comfort of a casual, ‘I’m so sorry for you.’ But a comfort that speaks tenderly to the heart, persuading us of God’s unwavering love. A comfort that, as Brueggemann explains, “is a powerful intervention that creates new possibilities,”[1] because it’s rooted in God’s resolve to forgive and restore. Centuries later Paul described God as “the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”[2] It’s not clear in Isaiah who is called to comfort God’s people. Paul made it clear that it is the church, you and I who are to give comfort in a way that is “a powerful intervention that creates new possibilities” because it assures full forgiveness of sin for all. This is the comfort urgently needed in our world, our nation, our churches. With so much that unsettles, shocks, angers us today; with so many condemning and accusatory voices, we urgently need God’s people to stand out and comfort in ways that transform and welcome others to live fully in the new realities of an unconditional welcome from God. Prayerfully Reflect How have you experienced God’s comfort in ways that created new possibilities? Who can you comfort this way today? Prayerfully Respond God of all Comfort, you comfort in ways that create new possibilities. May I experience your new possibilities today and offer the same comfort to those I meet. Amen. Live obediently. Comfort others as God has comforted you. [1] Brueggemann, W. Isaiah 40-66. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox press, 1998, p. 16. [2] 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV). You’re welcome to copy this, but please ask me first.
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