Words of Comfort, Cries of Hope

 

 

Scripture

Isaiah 40:1-5

 Comfort, O comfort my people,
    says your God.
² Speak 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.

³ A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,

    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴ Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
    and the rough places a plain.
⁵ Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all people shall see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”   (NRSV)

Devotion

   One of my favorite aspects of Advent is the hymnody--music that sadly often gets passed over in our excitement to get to Christmas carols.  One fantastic Advent hymn that does not get enough "air time" is "Comfort, Comfort Now My People."

Based off of Isaiah 40 and the ministry of John the Baptist, this hymn focuses on God's promise that help is on the way for God's ailing people.  Isaiah was writing from the context of the Babylonian Exile, as the people struggled to survive under the crushing weight of their captors.  It was then--when the present was terrible and the future seemed bleak--that God sent a message of hope and comfort.  Isaiah explains that this horrible time will not last forever, because the Lord is already on the way to save them.  The people are to do their part to prepare the world for the Lord's coming and to live hopeful expectation of the moment when God's glory will be revealed.

Isaiah's hopeful message has continued to ring true down through the ages.  It spoke to the people of John the Baptist's day...and to people of faith in all kinds of horrible situations throughout the ages.  There should be no doubt that Isaiah's words to  speaks truth to the challenges the Church faces today.  The details of our circumstance may have changed over the millennia, but there are still  times when we still feel confused, afraid, overwhelmed, helpless, or in danger of being destroyed.  And we too need a word of hope from time to time.

Advent is the perfect time to explore this need.   As Joyce Rupp writes, this season focuses "on our own place of exile and makes a difference in our lives.  Have we taken to heart the promises of hope that he held out to us?  Do we have a great yearning in our heart for the sacred?"  I would add two more questions to Rupp's musings.  First, what word of comfort and hope is God to proclaiming to us today?  Second, what can each of us do to prepare the way of the Lord and make a highway through the wilderness for our God as we await Christ's arrival?

 These are not easy questions to ponder; but they are hopeful ones.  If we are willing to prepare the world for Christ's coming, then we are showing our faith in Isaiah's promise that God's glory shall be revealed...and that we shall all see that glory together.  In the words of the song, God shall change our aching sadness into ever-springing gladness.

As we travel further into this Advent season, let us the warning cry obey and do our parts to prepare for God a way through the rough and difficult terrain of this world.  Let us do so humbly yet joyfully, trusting in the Good News that "all flesh shall see the token that [God's] word is never broken."  Amen.

 

Prayer

 Homecoming

Something in me is stirring;

I think it’s the part of me

that waits in lonely exile

and yearns for a homeland. 

 

it’s the hidden part of me

that wanders aimlessly,

stumbling in the dark,

crying to be found. 

 

O God of exiles and strangers,

find the homeless parts of me;

guide them toward yourself,

for you are my promised land. 

 

Take the stranger inside of me

and find familiar soil for it.

Keep me mindful of the Emmanuel,

whose sojourn brought a glimpse of home.

 

(Joyce Rupp) 

 

Works Cited

 Olearius, Johannes.  "Comfort, Comfort Now My People" (No. 87), trans.Catherine Winkworth in Glory to God, edited by David Eicher.  First ed.  Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2013.

 

Rupp, Joyce.   May I Have This Dance?  Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1992.