Sunday 6 December 2020

Sermon: Comfort my people, 2nd Sunday of Advent Year B


 

Isa 40:1-5,9-11; Mk 1:1-8

Today I want to speak of God’s plan to comfort us

 -His Advent plan to comfort us by His coming

 

Today is our last Sunday together

When we are next together for a Sunday the year 2020 will be over, 

and few of us will be sad to see it go.

 

Now, it’s true, there have been many other, worse moments in history.

If we think of the history the PCJ has lived through:

Mgr Jessing had to fight through the Prussian war with Denmark

Members of the PCJ must also have been through 

WWI and WWII

We’ve not had starvation and famine, many have.

We’ve been separated from family, 

but at least we had telephone and zoom -other generations did not.

Yet

This has been a pretty lousy year

A horrible year

And,

I want comfort

I’m pretty sure YOU want comfort

WHO will comfort us?

 

Who?

God promised

God did

God does in every generation

 

HOW does He comfort?

In His coming

-this is a truth so perpetually available that we easily forget it,

 

His coming makes all things bearable, even joyful.

The presence of a loved one, the present of a friend, makes all the difference:

I might have a shake from Steak and Shake

A burger from Chick-fil-et

And a cookie from the PCJ kitchen

but alone, without a friend -it doesn’t feel like much.

Whereas even the worst ordeal become a lighter with a friend.

 

And

WHO is coming? 

Your best friend, your greatest friend 

And He says that He comes with “comfort”

The message His commands His prophet Isaiah to proclaim to you is “comfort”

 

 

(pause)

Let’s recall the context of that first promise of coming (Isa 40:1-11):

The chosen people were at their lowest point:

They no longer had the land,

They knew their sin had caused The Lord to take it from them,

They were in exile, in Babylon, with no reasonable cause for hope.

 

 

The cause of hope they had was not natural, but Divine:

A promise

Yes, they had sinned, 

but, the promise says, 

their time of guilt has been expiated

Yes, they were still in a foreign land, 

but, the promise says, 

their God is coming, 

His Glory will be revealed

The valleys will be filled in,

The mountains laid low

The rugged ground made plain

In a phrase I always feel sums it up:

He is “Coming in POWER”

-He is a God who DOES stuff 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(pause)

I’m going home tomorrow

I’ll have 14 days of quarantine,

BUT I’m going home

And that’s a comforting thought.

I want to make the point to you, however,

Is that it would be a mistake to make my deepest COMFORT be about going home

My real comfort has to be about the presence of God.

 

 

(pause)

He is coming

But

There is something WE must do:

We must prepare

Isaiah said we must, 

“Prepare the way of the Lord”

John the baptist says, 

“prepare the way of the Lord”

 

He will not comfort me if I’m are not ready

He will not comfort me if I’ve not prepared 

He CANNOT comfort me if I have not prepared 

-within us, we need to be ready for what He WANTS to do in us and for us

 

But,

If I’ve prepared,

As much as I’ve prepared,

He comes

He comforts.

 

 

 

To return to my opening thought about the year 2020:

 

What does 2021 hold?

We might point to worldly indicators of what it holds, and some of those look good:

At least one of the 3 vaccines could restore normality to society before 2022. 

It seems, with that, an end to lockdowns and restrictions,

 in society and in the PCJ

-an end will be coming!

But, it’s still not going to be an easy year

 

So, let’s think of the non-worldly indicator of what 2021 will bring:

Yes, It’s going to be a LONG year again

But, HE could be with me in it

He WANTS to COMFORT me in it

Comfort me by His COMING

NOTHING can make life as bearable as His Presence

As one of our English martyrs said,

“First friend He was,

Best friend He is,

All times will find Him true.”(St Robert Southwall)

He was even true to me through 2020.

I can make it more so in 2021, if I let Him come

 

 

“Comfort, comfort my people…

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem…

Fear not and cry out

And say to the cities of Judah:

HERE is your God!

He comes with power…His reward with Him…

Like a shepherd He feeds His flock”