Messiah Reflections
November 30 - Isaiah 40:1-3 (Part 1)
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
I was driving through a blinding snowstorm. How bad was it? I could barely make out the front end of my wife’s Chevette as we drove through the night and blizzard. Occasionally though we could make out the lights of a farmhouse just off the road providing direction and if necessary, sanctuary. “A light shines in the darkness” as another hymn puts it, and I feel comforted. God commands Isaiah to comfort his people, a response to the destruction of Jerusalem and their exile to Babylon. The comfort Isaiah offers is a renewed relationship between God and Israel. It will not happen overnight, but it will happen. These pandemic days many are hurting and frightened, and we need to responsibly share words and actions of comfort: wearing masks and other healthy practices, providing for the needs of the less fortunate, a call or letter to affirm that the recipient is loved and not forgotten. How can you share some comfort this day?
December 1 - Isaiah 40:1 (Part 2)
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
They stand outside their church protesting their constitutional right to worship as they pleased. No masks, standing close together, talking and singing. I have the same right. However, I’ve long accepted that my rights are coupled to my responsibilities. In these times my right to worship as I please, is superseded by my obligation, nay my obedience to God’s command: “Love thy neighbour”. In this command I have a duty of care, an opportunity to give comfort to family, friend, fellow believer and stranger in the pew next to me alike. So, for now I offer comfort to them; I do not wear a mask, nor do I sing, I stay six feet away, and sanitize my hands accordingly. But what of the other commandment, “Love God”? By loving my neighbour I am loving God, at least according to Jesus and St. James. And I am comforted that while I may not be worshipping God as I please, I am worshipping in a way that I trust pleases God.
December 2 - Isaiah 40:2
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.
It was a national disaster. In the beginning of the 6th century BCE, Babylon invaded Judah, destroyed much of Jerusalem and deported its leading citizens back to Babylon, while occupying Judah for 50 years. This prophecy is written by the waters of Babylon decades after the invasion, and he imagines Jerusalem and the nation restored. Jeremiah and Ezekiel write of the same events but use a scolding tone accusing the people of causing their downfall due to their excessive sinfulness. This Isaiah (the 2nd of two) takes a different tact. He sets aside blaming and offers God’s message of comfort, hope, healing, and joy. The nation, the temple all that the have known and depended on may be gone, but God’s never-failing Word is steadfast. God will lead them home. So perhaps today we can think of some one or something we’ve always blamed for our troubles, and step away, and speak words of healing and forgiveness to people, and walk away from the things that are weighing us down.
December 3 - Isaiah 40:2
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.
The God who punished Judah and Jerusalem through the Babylonians now commands the prophet to tell the people they are forgiven, pardoned. I wonder how this news sounded on their ears, much less their hearts? Think back to your childhood, remember being punished by your parents for a misdeed. You sent to your room or made to sit on a chair in a corner, (or in my case facing my younger sister with whom I been squabbling just outside of kicking range). But then it was over, and you were free to resume your day. Remember how it felt? The punishment still stung, after all in a youngster mind any scolding or restriction is considered horribly unjust. I suspect it took Isaiah’s listeners awhile to warm up to God’s pronouncement of forgiveness. Tragically some people have never embraced the idea that they have been forgiven their sins because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. They appear more comfortable with the unnecessary burden of guilt and remorse they bear; despite the spiritual and psychological harm they are inflicting on themselves. Read and hear these ancient words of pardon and know that we too are forgiven.
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