ADVENT GREETINGS The Eighth Day of Advent AD 2014 The Second Sunday, December 7 Traditionally the theme for this Second Sunday of Advent is peace. Couple with that idea another one: comfort. Peace and comfort. Peaceful comfort. Comfortable peace. People need a touch of comfort for various reasons. Discomfort is something most people shun and understandably so. I don’t know anyone who wishes to be uncomfortable or live a life of discomfort. I know I certainly don’t. Often I will pray at a funeral, for example, that God will come along the sides of family members, and others, in their grief and “comfort” them. Medical staff in hospitals will often seek, as best they can, to make a dying patient “comfortable”. That especially gives family members peace of mind and comforts them, too. There is so much that makes us uncomfortable – some of it is of our own making. There is also much that makes for constant discomfort. So a word of comfort is always in order. Little wonder, then, that the writer of Isaiah 40 commences his discourse with potent words: “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God” (v. 1). Those are some of the strongest pastoral words in scripture. Our God tell us to comfort His people. We are to comfort each other and seek to assuage the pains that are inflicted on others. But the prophet was given this instruction for a specific reason – one that I want to believe is unintentionally overlooked. God tells him to “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” (v. 2). The people had been in exile for seventy years in Babylon. That exile was punishment for sins the people of God had committed. Namely “her sins” may be summarized with one word: disobedience. Disobeying God is sin. Sin always creates distress and Judah had been in distress for a long time. Those exiles were uncomfortable in a land not their own. They were aware of their sins or became aware of them during their separation from Jerusalem. They knew they had disobeyed. They were keenly aware of their rebellion against the Lord God. And during those exilic years they confessed and repented. They had gotten and were continuing to get their act together. So God, in essence, tells the prophet, “These years of enslavement are more than enough for past infidelity. So comfort them, speak tenderly to them. Tell them they are forgiven.” God wishes for us to experience comfort and we can through the forgiveness that comes by way of the Christ Child. Whenever we confess our unfaithfulness and determine to “repent”, which means to change our ways, we’ll experience a comfortable peace and a peaceful comfort. We’ll sense deep within a comfort that overwhelms with a kind of “everything is going to be alright”. In these Advent days listen for the voice of the prophet in John the Baptizer who, according to Mark 1:1-8, came in the spirit of Isaiah 40:3 as a voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord…” Mark notes that John “prepared the way” by “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (v. 4a). Sins, no matter what form they may take, can be forgiven by owning them, confessing them, and changing to a pattern of living that is different. When anyone does that there will be a coating of comfort for the journey to the Manger and beyond. How peaceful is that? Very! Hopefully you will join with others in corporate worship somewhere on this Lord’s Day. You may hear some preacher proclaim one or both of these texts. If you do remember through Jesus Christ your sins may be forgiven. And His forgiveness ensures your comfort which is peace.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 12:42:53 +0000
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