Comfort, O Comfort my people. After so many chapters of holding the People of God accountable for worshiping other gods and thinking we know better. After chapters of dissonant chords of brokenness and missed opportunity, Isaiah decides to write in a major key instead. Comfort and care is a hope many have the church.
Let's face it, we live in a difficult world that tries our patience, empties our hope, and runs our soul through the wringer, I understand why people look to the church for comfort. And it is a great place to look for care. At the most basic level, the church should embody caring. The difficult part is knowing when to care and when to challenge. At some point, if all the church does is care, we can become complacent or think that we deserve the care. This is a grey area in ministry.
On any given Sunday there are those sitting there who need to hear good news of great joy of God's love and there are people who are just counting to ten trying to get through the service and there are people who are trying their best to put their actions that past week out of their head lest God hear the brokenness they caused. All sitting there. All sitting side by side. All suppose to be addressed in some way through hymns, prayers, proclamation and through physically being together.
One of the best images for the church is the Body of Christ, the living, breathing body of Christ. Right now, I have various parts of my body that ache from running on Friday or from swinging my golf club on Saturday. Yet, other body parts feel just fine. So, do I rest or do I keep going? Just as that question is individually hard to answer, so too is the question of what to emphasize Sunday after Sunday.
The amazing part is that Isaiah talks about comfort even before the people go into exile. We don't often think about God speaking comfort to us before we go into brokenness, pain, or grief. We want that comfort in the midst of the valley moments. Yet, what if God's presence and comfort comes before? Before we need it. The hard part too is trying to answer, what does comfort look like, feel like, or taste like?
Maybe comfort is taking all the pain/suffering away instantaneously. Now, to be clear, there is some pain and suffering that needs to be removed immediately. The pain of abuse, the pain of parents neglecting children, and the pain of emotional violence. Yet, there is other pain that is part of what it means to be alive. Jesus felt the pain of betrayal and dissertation ...and that was by his friends the disciples!
I invite you to think about a place in your life where you need to know comfort and strength. Then, click on the link above and read, re-read and re-read again these words of Isaiah trusting in the One who reached out with comfort and compassion to the People of God in Isaiah's time and to us still today.
May the traces of God's grace sustain you and comfort you in the midst of the twists and turns and rocky places in your life right now.
Blessings and peace!
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