Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen
“Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord's
hand
double for all her sins. . .”
double for all her sins. . .”
“He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.”
and gently lead the mother sheep.”
These are the
words that the prophet Isaiah was called to speak to the people of Israel.
Beautiful words. So beautiful that one could write a song, or
two, from them. As Handel did in the
Messiah, or Johann Olearius did in the hymn we’ll sing later.
Words of comfort,
Words of hope,
Words of peace,
Are most powerful
for us at those times when we are not comfortable, when our hope is dried up,
and when peace seems so far away.
So it was for the
people of Israel.
“They had
received from the Lord’s hand double for all their sins.”
Through the first
39 chapters of Isaiah the prophet spoke words of warning to the people of Israel,
words of warning about the judgment that was to come.
In Chapter 10
Isaiah warned:
1 Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees,
who
write oppressive statutes,
2 to turn aside the needy from justice
and
to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that
widows may be your spoil,
and
that you may make the orphans your prey!
3 What will you do on the day of punishment,
in
the calamity that will come from far away?
To whom will you flee for help,
and
where will you leave your wealth,
4
so as not to crouch among the prisoners
or
fall among the slain?
What followed
these words of warning was a time of judgment.
Israel was
defeated by her enemies,
The nation was
destroyed,
And the people
were taken into captivity and exile in Babylon.
It seemed that
all of the promises that God had made to his people had failed them.
Promises of a
great nation, a Holy Land, and of being God’s Chosen People.
Promises that had
been made to Abraham, to Moses, and to David.
And now all was
lost.
Had God abandoned
his people?
The answer is no,
he had not abandoned them, he had judged them and punished them for their sins.
Ironically, it
was their prosperity that had become their undoing.
8 Woe to those who join house to house,
who
add field to field,
until
there is no more room,
and
you are made to dwell alone
in
the midst of the land.
9 The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
"Surely
many houses shall be desolate,
large
and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
and
a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah."
The rich
were getting richer, and the poor, poorer.
This disparity
displeased the Lord and the judgment was a return to slavery.
God’s vision for
the Kingdom of Israel was that all of his people would share in its prosperity.
Nowhere is this
more evident than in the concept of the Year of Jubilee, which was to be
celebrated every fifty years. During the
year of Jubilee, or the Year of the Lord’s favor, all debts were to be
cancelled, all prisoners set free, and the land was to be returned to the
original owners.
Jesus quotes Isaiah
in this regard when he begins his ministry with the words:
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Judgment and
punishment for Israel.
Words of hope and
comfort in their distress.
And finally, a
promise of Good News for the poor as the nation is rebuilt.
We live in
interesting times.
As Isaiah did of
old, there are many prophets today that warn us about the rich getting richer
and the poor poorer.
For many, what
has made America a great nation was the emergence of a middle class, people who
have shared in the great American dream, who, though they are not rich, have
plenty.
Today, we are
being warned that the middle class is slipping away. That as the rich get richer, the rest of us are
falling behind.
Wages have not
kept pace with inflation. The cost of
living, especially for things as essential as health care, has risen
astronomically.
One example of
this is that the cost of my health insurance now exceeds what I received in
salary the first years I was in ministry.
I am also struck
by the fact that the wages I receive as a woodworker are but a fraction of what
I received thirty years ago, when adjusted for inflation.
Are we at a time
in our nation’s history similar to those days in Israel’s history when the
prophets spoke the words of warning?
I don’t know.
I simply don’t
know.
What I do know is
that sometimes when we feel most secure, we are in fact most vulnerable.
A day of judgment
came to Israel.
Everything that
they cherished was lost.
That loss was a
judgment of God upon them.
Then and only
then, did the words of comfort come to them.
It was like a
child, being comforted in their parent’s lap, after having received a spanking.
They misbehaved. They were punished. And now, they are being
reassured that they are still loved.
Judgement.
Comfort.
And Hope.
We confess.
We are forgiven.
And we are
reborn.
This is the
spiritual cycle of life.
There is a time
for confession, a time to hear the comforting words of forgiveness, and a time
to live anew in the grace of God.
Part of wisdom is
to know what time it is.
I’ve been
thinking and praying a lot about this question.
What time is it
in the church’s life?
What time is it
in our congregation’s life?
Is the decline of
the church in America, and of our own congregation, a sign that this is a time
of judgment in the life of the church?
Is this a time of
comfort where, following a period of judgment, we hear tender words of comfort
that reassure us of the never failing love of
God, and that though we have been judged, we are also forgiven?
Or is this the
beginning of a new day? Of the
restoration of the church? A time of
hope and anticipation?
One way to put
these questions is to ask “have we suffered enough to come to repentance, be
forgiven, and be reborn?”
Or are we still
secure in our own sins?
One oft quoted
adage is that the Gospel is a comfort to the afflicted and an affliction to the
comfortable.
I would suggest
that one of the ways that you can recognize a false prophet is that false
prophets tend to comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted. They say that the rich and powerful are
blessed by God, but the poor and outcast are under God’s curse.
Is that what is
happening today? That the comfortable
are becoming more comfortable while the afflicted are even more afflicted?
Is this a time of
judgment?
A time of
comfort?
Or a day filled
with hope?
In a few hundred years
we may know the answers to those questions.
Today, though,
all I can offer you is a promise.
That God is
present in the times of judgment.
That God speaks
tenderly to us when the time comes that we need such comfort.
And that God
remains with us until the day that we are reborn and renewed.
“He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.”
and gently lead the mother sheep.”
These were the
words of hope and reassurance Isaiah spoke to Israel as they labored in exile,
bereft of hope.
These also are
words that speak to us today, regardless what time it is.
God is with us.
Amen.
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