“Comfort, comfort now my people;
tell of peace!” So says our God.
Comfort those who sit in darkness
mourning under sorrow’s load.
To God’s people now proclaim
that God’s pardon waits for them!
Tell them that their war is over;
God will reign in peace forever.
- Johann G. Olearius, tr. Catherine Winkworth, “Comfort,
Comfort Now My People,” ELW 256
The words that begin the beautiful
Advent carol quoted above come from Isaiah, and open our first reading on the
second Sunday of this new church year. The prophet was writing to a people who
for nearly sixty years had toiled in Babylon under their imperial captors, a
people who had nearly forgotten their God and despaired that they would be
slaves forever. Trudging through endless days of servitude, stripped of power
and choice, God’s chosen people had little reason to hope that tomorrow would
be a brighter day for them or for their children.
Into this bleakness the voice of
God spoke these words of balm to the heavenly host: Comfort my people!
Speak
tenderly to them that their punishment is ended, and prepare a highway fit for
royalty, that they might return to Jerusalem and tell all the world that God’s
power and love remain. God can and will draw God’s beloved people into a
brighter future, a future in which God provides for their needs as their
suffering finally eases away.
This is a central part of the
church’s message this Advent and every Advent: Though times are dark, uncertain
and threatening, God will break again into this world with comfort and care for
Gold’s people. Though we live in a time of deep economic distress, of scarce
jobs and diminishing public resources for those in greatest need, there is yet
cause for hope.
God came into this world in Jesus
Christ. In Jesus God took on all human frailties and failings set a decisive
limit on their power. Though we will suffer and hurt one another and die, as
humans always will, none of those will define us. Ultimately God’s love is
stronger than all the evil we can find or create in this world, stronger than
all the pain we can cause or experience. A helpless infant would turn all
authority on its head, would put down the proud and the powerful and would
assure the least among us that God is always on their side, to the end.
We wait with patience and hope and
thanksgiving for God to continue to draw peace from a world of war. We follow
in Christ’s way of welcoming the stranger, healing the sick, feeding the
hungry, and challenging the mighty. We pray that Christ’s coming at Christmas
and into every day of our lives might transform us to live more fully into
God’s good future.
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