Uncomfortable Comfort
Text: Isaiah 40:1-11
I remember once at an Advent worship service at Vancouver School of Theology, where Jim Lindenberger, the Old Testament professor was preaching. During the fall months at VST each of the faculty are responsible for the conduct and flow of the community worship, each taking turns in both leading and preaching, along with a group of students. In this case, when it came time for the Gospel reading, Jim announced “Isaiah 40” as the reading of the gospel. At first read it might seem a bit odd. We’ve taken “gospel” to mean the four collections of stories about the life and work of Jesus… namely Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Even in a scholarly direction, there’s also the non-canonical gospels that are out there… Thomas, Peter, the Ebionites… but that’s not what Jim was after. He announced that the gospel would be the passage from Isaiah 40… not because it was considered to be a “gospel” in the classic sense of the word, but because Isaiah 40’s powerful message is one of hope and good news. After all “gospel” truly means “good news.”
As much as we read it, and as familiar as we might be with its words, understanding where it comes from gives it so much power. For the past several weeks I have said that often the most inspiring words we have in the Bible come out of the darkest moments in their history. Isaiah 40 certainly fits the bill. The last 26 chapters of Isaiah, from Chapter 40 to 66 were written several decades after the fall of Jerusalem that both Jeremiah and Ezekiel witnessed. Things were as dark as they ever were… perhaps even more so because so much time had passed since things had been destroyed, and it seemed as if there was no hope of the people of Israel returning to their beloved homeland. But then, there came a glimmer. The power of the Babylonian Empire was beginning to crack, and an insightful prophet began to write… to help the people prepare the way for their return to their homeland.
And so the words began “Comfort, O Comfort my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
Powerful words… made all the more powerful in that the people were still in captivity, and had all but lost hope. Comfort, for when they were anything but.
That whole line about “penalty is paid,” and Jerusalem “receiving double for all her sins” was a way to interpret the fall of Jerusalem. Prior to the Babylonian invasion, the people had become comfortable in their own position in the world. They had become complacent about their faith, and the unique witness they had to the world. Despite prophets calling them back, they always seemed wander away, or taking God for granted. We’re the chosen people in the promised land they would think… and not do anything else. They lived with a sense of entitlement rather than gratitude for the land they had. It wasn’t about privilege, it was about reflecting of freedom, and they had forgotten that.
In the midst of their comfort, they presumed that God gave them carte blanche to do whatever they wanted, and God would protect them. Jerusalem would never fall. Even when the North Kingdom fell to the Assyrians, they presumed the same would happen with the Babylonians. In their comfortable arrogance, they had forgotten who they were… and then the unthinkable happened: Jerusalem fell… and now the people of Israel were scattered to the four winds… with many of them held captive in Babylon, left to contemplate their fate in uncomfortable surroundings.
Two generations later, it seemed they got the message. After eighty years of soul-searching they began to understand God in a new way, but also sought to reclaim their identity, rather than to be complacent in it.
Not only that, the political landscape was shifting… and there was a new power in the east, and the real possibility of them heading home. The prophet saw this, and began to tell the people to prepare… In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord… and every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain made low, and the rough places a plain… They were paving the way home, having learned their lesson, and anticipating how they could reclaim who they were.
But they learned this, and heard these words of comfort through their own dis-comfort. It was a hard lesson, but they learned it. The prophets words were an uncomfortable comfort in a sense, because it came with the understanding of how they got there in the first place… but it took eighty years of exile to figure it out.
The metaphor of the exile has been used in connection with the church in its decline in North America over the past few decades. We’ve lamented our loss of political clout, and have wondered why people don’t just simply walk through our doors like they used to. We are exiles in our own backyard in many respects… but we’ve not learned the lesson just yet. Pierre Burton’s “Comfortable Pew” in 1965 was an early warning that sold well, but we’ve not really learned the lesson. Like the people of Israel before the Babylonian invasion, we had gotten very comfortable with our place of privilege in society. Too comfortable… and we had forgotten what we were really there for… by 1965 things were already changing… but it wouldn’t be until the 1970’s that people started to notice the decline.
First, the church began to tinker, to try to “fix” things… the Presbyterian Church in Canada had a campaign to “Double in the 80’s” –a campaign that not only failed, but seemed to accelerate the decline of the denomination. Now, some forty years later, the church as a whole is very much in exile… and we’re still trying to figure this out. If we’re to take the example of the Babylonian exile, we may only be halfway through this…
This may sound horribly pessimistic, but bear with me. This is where the real hope kicks in. The Babylonian Exile fundamentally transformed the faith of the Israelites. It laid the foundation for a genuine, core-up transformation that radically altered their understanding of God. God went from just being a local deity among many, to the Lord of all creation. The people who had been scattered to the four winds had developed networks in communities across the Mediterranean and the Near East. It would be these communication lines along which early Christianity would even begin to spread. The faith of the Israelites had transformed into something that would outlast the faith traditions of all of the great Empires of the day.
In the discomfort of the exile, the people of Israel re-discovered their faith. They began a process which would transform them into something entirely new… something that God was calling them to be. They began to understand that the exile was not because God was incapable of protecting them, but that this was truly an opportunity to re-learn and re-discover who they were and what God was calling them to be.
It has been said that Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. I’d agree. I think it is a reminder that as we go through our own time in the wilderness it is truly an opportunity to re-discover and re-learn who we are and what it means to be Christians in North America in the early 21st century. I think that this discomfort that church has been feeling has been because we were too comfortable in the way things were… and that God is calling us to reinvent and transform ourselves into something truly new.
So maybe we need to hear Isaiah’s words again, not only his words of comfort, but his call to action. In this wilderness that we are in, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths a highway for our God. Learn to be the people that God is calling us to be, making a difference and responding to the needs of those around us. See the potential see the possibility and rediscover what it is that God is calling us to be.
Amen.
I remember once at an Advent worship service at Vancouver School of Theology, where Jim Lindenberger, the Old Testament professor was preaching. During the fall months at VST each of the faculty are responsible for the conduct and flow of the community worship, each taking turns in both leading and preaching, along with a group of students. In this case, when it came time for the Gospel reading, Jim announced “Isaiah 40” as the reading of the gospel. At first read it might seem a bit odd. We’ve taken “gospel” to mean the four collections of stories about the life and work of Jesus… namely Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Even in a scholarly direction, there’s also the non-canonical gospels that are out there… Thomas, Peter, the Ebionites… but that’s not what Jim was after. He announced that the gospel would be the passage from Isaiah 40… not because it was considered to be a “gospel” in the classic sense of the word, but because Isaiah 40’s powerful message is one of hope and good news. After all “gospel” truly means “good news.”
As much as we read it, and as familiar as we might be with its words, understanding where it comes from gives it so much power. For the past several weeks I have said that often the most inspiring words we have in the Bible come out of the darkest moments in their history. Isaiah 40 certainly fits the bill. The last 26 chapters of Isaiah, from Chapter 40 to 66 were written several decades after the fall of Jerusalem that both Jeremiah and Ezekiel witnessed. Things were as dark as they ever were… perhaps even more so because so much time had passed since things had been destroyed, and it seemed as if there was no hope of the people of Israel returning to their beloved homeland. But then, there came a glimmer. The power of the Babylonian Empire was beginning to crack, and an insightful prophet began to write… to help the people prepare the way for their return to their homeland.
And so the words began “Comfort, O Comfort my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
Powerful words… made all the more powerful in that the people were still in captivity, and had all but lost hope. Comfort, for when they were anything but.
That whole line about “penalty is paid,” and Jerusalem “receiving double for all her sins” was a way to interpret the fall of Jerusalem. Prior to the Babylonian invasion, the people had become comfortable in their own position in the world. They had become complacent about their faith, and the unique witness they had to the world. Despite prophets calling them back, they always seemed wander away, or taking God for granted. We’re the chosen people in the promised land they would think… and not do anything else. They lived with a sense of entitlement rather than gratitude for the land they had. It wasn’t about privilege, it was about reflecting of freedom, and they had forgotten that.
In the midst of their comfort, they presumed that God gave them carte blanche to do whatever they wanted, and God would protect them. Jerusalem would never fall. Even when the North Kingdom fell to the Assyrians, they presumed the same would happen with the Babylonians. In their comfortable arrogance, they had forgotten who they were… and then the unthinkable happened: Jerusalem fell… and now the people of Israel were scattered to the four winds… with many of them held captive in Babylon, left to contemplate their fate in uncomfortable surroundings.
Two generations later, it seemed they got the message. After eighty years of soul-searching they began to understand God in a new way, but also sought to reclaim their identity, rather than to be complacent in it.
Not only that, the political landscape was shifting… and there was a new power in the east, and the real possibility of them heading home. The prophet saw this, and began to tell the people to prepare… In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord… and every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain made low, and the rough places a plain… They were paving the way home, having learned their lesson, and anticipating how they could reclaim who they were.
But they learned this, and heard these words of comfort through their own dis-comfort. It was a hard lesson, but they learned it. The prophets words were an uncomfortable comfort in a sense, because it came with the understanding of how they got there in the first place… but it took eighty years of exile to figure it out.
The metaphor of the exile has been used in connection with the church in its decline in North America over the past few decades. We’ve lamented our loss of political clout, and have wondered why people don’t just simply walk through our doors like they used to. We are exiles in our own backyard in many respects… but we’ve not learned the lesson just yet. Pierre Burton’s “Comfortable Pew” in 1965 was an early warning that sold well, but we’ve not really learned the lesson. Like the people of Israel before the Babylonian invasion, we had gotten very comfortable with our place of privilege in society. Too comfortable… and we had forgotten what we were really there for… by 1965 things were already changing… but it wouldn’t be until the 1970’s that people started to notice the decline.
First, the church began to tinker, to try to “fix” things… the Presbyterian Church in Canada had a campaign to “Double in the 80’s” –a campaign that not only failed, but seemed to accelerate the decline of the denomination. Now, some forty years later, the church as a whole is very much in exile… and we’re still trying to figure this out. If we’re to take the example of the Babylonian exile, we may only be halfway through this…
This may sound horribly pessimistic, but bear with me. This is where the real hope kicks in. The Babylonian Exile fundamentally transformed the faith of the Israelites. It laid the foundation for a genuine, core-up transformation that radically altered their understanding of God. God went from just being a local deity among many, to the Lord of all creation. The people who had been scattered to the four winds had developed networks in communities across the Mediterranean and the Near East. It would be these communication lines along which early Christianity would even begin to spread. The faith of the Israelites had transformed into something that would outlast the faith traditions of all of the great Empires of the day.
In the discomfort of the exile, the people of Israel re-discovered their faith. They began a process which would transform them into something entirely new… something that God was calling them to be. They began to understand that the exile was not because God was incapable of protecting them, but that this was truly an opportunity to re-learn and re-discover who they were and what God was calling them to be.
It has been said that Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. I’d agree. I think it is a reminder that as we go through our own time in the wilderness it is truly an opportunity to re-discover and re-learn who we are and what it means to be Christians in North America in the early 21st century. I think that this discomfort that church has been feeling has been because we were too comfortable in the way things were… and that God is calling us to reinvent and transform ourselves into something truly new.
So maybe we need to hear Isaiah’s words again, not only his words of comfort, but his call to action. In this wilderness that we are in, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths a highway for our God. Learn to be the people that God is calling us to be, making a difference and responding to the needs of those around us. See the potential see the possibility and rediscover what it is that God is calling us to be.
Amen.
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