Isaiah 40:1-11
Comfort, O give comfort. It is what we yearn for right now. Yes, thoughts of a vaccine coming out are speeding our thoughts of returning to normal, yet there really is no normal. Look at us right now. We have had to put our Christmas Eve services online, leaving our churches empty. Here is the thing though. Christ will be born in us. Christ will come on Christmas Eve! It is a comfort to know this even though we are not together the way we wish to be. As Jesus says in John when he is saying his final words to the disciples, he will not leave us as orphans.
These words today were written when Israel was enslaved, they were written after their own house of worship was destroyed. Anyway they were taken away from it and they had to struggle with their identity. Who are we with no building, who are we with no central place to gather, who are we apart in a strange land, doing things we never expected to do. Does any of this sound familiar? No we are not in bondage, but it may seem this way, as we stay away from others our families during this season. This is why it resounds comfort us, give us comfort.
We might feel set adrift right now. We may feel abandoned and lost. Yet, just as these people wrote stories of comfort, so might we be able to find ones of our own. What were those stories which helped see the people through? Well, they seem fanciful, a little outrageous, but they show God has not left them alone. One is the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace. Remember the king (of Babylon) wants them to kneel and worship the statue of a god he has made. They refuse and are thrown into the furnace. Now the furnace is so hot it kills the ones who throw them in, but they are whole and they even have a fourth person in with them. Because of this they get to eat the diet they want and worship the God they trust. A comfort, we can still worship. Even now, we gather online, out of our homes and we have new opportunities given to us to worship. These are things we will keep as we go forward.
The next story is of Daniel in the lions den. Remember the counselors to the king are so jealous of Daniel they have the king make a law that everyone can only pray to the gods of the kingdom. Well, Daniel prays with the windows open in his home, just the way he always does to God. He is then thrown into the lions den and survives the whole night with the hungry lions. He is then allowed to pray the way he wishes. Again, we have a multitude of offerings now day and night online. Tonight a lessons and carols is being done on Facebook live. There is morning, noonday, and evening prayer as well as compline. All these offices we never used before are resurfacing in a new space.
Comfort, O comfort us God. We only have to look around us to find the comfort. God has planted hope, as God always does in the midst of situations we have found hopeless. When it seems the worst, God is there. We just have to attune ourselves to where this is. In telling the story we will find it. These stories only come after the events have happened. See the bible is an oral tradition, written down after it has been told and retold and embellished and people have found their footing once again. Then they see where the strong arm of the Lord was. Then we see where we have been carried in God's bosom.
Just because it is hard to see now does not mean we don't have hope. This is the thing which has lit our faith for ages. We have hope that in death there is life. We have a hope when things are at their worst, God is in the midst of it. We have a hope of finding God's light in the dark. We have a hope in which God breaks into the midst of a dark times with a promise. Messiah is coming, silently in the night, in the form of a helpless babe. Entrusted into the hands of a teenage mom and dad and loved, nurtured, and grows. All we have to do is prepare to find the hope.
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