Comforter Call
Photo by @cdm on Unsplash
Preached Sunday, January 9th, 2022 by the Rev. Dina van Klaveren
For texts, see: https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Epiphany/CEpi1_RCL.html
Isaiah 43:1-7, Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
I did not learn about the prophet Isaiah in Sunday school - at least not that I remember. With that in mind, I’m going to share some Bible background on this text:
The text called Isaiah in the Hebrew Scriptures is most likely a compilation of three prophets put all together in one book. Scholars refer to each of these three separate prophets as First Isaiah, Second Isaiah, Third Isaiah. Creative, right? Like some friends who reused the name Rex on their dogs - male or female… Rex 1, Rex 2…3… (Second Isaiah comprises chapters 40-55.)
Around the year 540 BCE/BC, King Cyrus is ruling in Babylon. There is in Babylon a community of scholarly leaders who were forcibly removed from their city of Jerusalem and marched to Babylon, 800 miles away. To these exiled scholarly people in Babylon, some of whom walked those many miles as children, a prophet (whom we call Second Isaiah) announces that the ends of the exile is imminent.
The prophet expresses that God will deliver them up out of Babylon. We know that this is true. After 70 years, these exiles are permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. They do not leave all together from Babylon, they trickle back over time in groups, and it is likely that some decide to stay in Babylon, which establishes the first Jewish community outside of the Promised Land, what will be called the Diaspora. While Second Isaiah is prophesying to these exiled people in Babylon, they are unsure that they will ever go back to their beloved city of Jerusalem, with its temple, their well-established religious community of scholars and priests.
While exiled in Babylon, these folks create new ways of being faithful to God. They find ways to create community and remain a people devoted to God, without the temple being their central location for gathering and ritual events. Second Isaiah speaks to the longing of their hearts, their longing to return home, with poetic consolations. He names the longing, their need of God to intervene. To comfort them, Second Isaiah offers the exiled people this reassuring fact: God still controls history. Despite present appearances, God will soon demonstrate God’s power by bringing the exiled people back to their own country in a second exodus (first exodus being out of Egypt) more glorious than the first. Before this powerful God, who has created all things, the idols of their Babylonian oppressors are as nothing. We know the outcome - that the exiles are permitted to return to Jerusalem eventually.
And we also know that some stay behind. They choose to remain in Babylon, and to remain Jewish in identity and practice in community. Perhaps they had tenure at Babylon University. As I conjectured last Sunday, these wise scholars who stay behind in Babylon may have been some of the wise men from the East who followed the star to find the newborn king Jesus in Bethlehem.
One scholar ( Patricia Tull, Professor Emerita of Old Testament, Louisville Presbyterian Seminary on Working Preacher Commentary) described the text this way: “Composed for exiled people in the mid-sixth century BCE, just as the international tide is turning, just as the possibility of returning to the broken city of Jerusalem is reopening, Second Isaiah soars with inviting poetry of hope, offering to pave the way homeward with confidence and expectancy.”
Reading Second Isaiah was a gift to me this week. In the midst of the Omicron surge and reports covering the one year anniversary of the events at the capitol last year, and some difficult news about a friend, and the other stuff of life, this poetry was enfolding my soul:
Comfort, o comfort my people, says your God.
The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my sight,
and honored, and I love you,
I give people in return for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you;
I will say to the north, "Give them up,"
and to the south, "Do not withhold;
bring my sons from far away
and my daughters from the end of the earth--
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
The world needs to hear this! Our incomparable creator God is still in charge, and will never leave us.
Do these words reach you? Are you having an exile experience?
I am. And I believe that many of us are feeling the exiling effects of the pandemic, of the churning in our national politics that would have us divided from one another, of the ongoing work to understand the complexity and complicity of our history, major cultural shifts in how people find meaning, major cultural shifts in religious practice, in community organizations, and faith communities.
I think these exile experiences would be more bearable without the ongoing stress and anxiety of COVID. That feels like too much for me, some days. I want to offer three thoughts today about this ancient text from Second Isaiah and the exile experiences we may be living right now.
We have a Comforter. I’m not talking about that thick cozy, fluffy bed linen comforter that you pull right up to your ears on these cold winter nights. I’m talking about a Comforter with a capital C: The kind of comfort we know in Christ, in the eternal presence of our God, who will be with us as we pass through the waters and walk through the fire.
The word comfort derives from strengthen… con-fort
Fort, as in fortress, fuerte, fortitude.
We are living in a moment that demands prophets, people like you and me, to comfort, to strengthen one another to get through the struggles of this present time. We are here to bolster one another, to encourage one another, to point to the hope of Christ in the midst of difficult days.
If I want stronger muscles, there are things I must learn and then do to get them. I must learn how to eat and hydrate properly for strength training. Then follow that guidance. I must learn the techniques of weight lifting. Then practice the techniques, ideally with a coach observing and makings tweaks. I must learn how to schedule the time to warm up and train. Then create a schedule where time is devoted and utilized. Over the course of training, I will add a little more weight each with each workout, gaining strength. I will focus on the weak areas, building up strength where I need it most.
We want a stronger spiritual core, and so there are things for us to learn and then do to bring such strength about in our lives. It is my hope this morning that we will commit to becoming spiritually strong together so that we may be Second Isaiah prophets comforting, strengthening, the communities around us. To grow spiritually stronger, we must ingest the right food, expose ourselves to life-enriching content that will allow us to grow stronger. To grow spiritually stronger, we must clarify and practice the values of faithful living as God’s Beloved People. Today we will renew our baptismal covenant together in celebration of the Baptism of our Lord. These covenant statements outline our values, and call us to practice them. Some of us will interpret these differently, choosing to focus on different aspects of our community, which strengthens our community more. To grow spiritually stronger, we must prioritize the activities that warm us up and work on our strengthening— activities like worship, prayer, meditation, serving others, aligning our hearts with God and community so that we grow more centered in the hope of Christ, connected to the peace of Christ, clear about ways we are called to live. To grow spiritually stronger, we must focus on areas that seem a bit weaker, that are holding us back from a robust and resilient spiritual core.
Here are a few ideas of what a weak spot may be…
Coping with challenges by turning to bitterness and gossip, or alcohol and food, or cynicism and self-righteousness.
Instead, Christians are called to compassion and understanding, moderation and balance, hope and forgiveness. These are the muscles to build up.
I urge you to take a Sabbath rest, a full 24 hours, to pull away from any habits or practices that put distance between you and God, or distance between you and God’s Beloved community, distance between you and those baptismal values of our covenant. Take a 24 hour Sabbath- any day of the week will do, silence your phone and computer and TV, get out into nature or create some art, play with children, pay attention to the wonder-filled world around you WITHOUT MAKING ANY DEMANDS UPON THE WORLD OR YOURSELF - be in creation and enjoy it for 24 hours. Taste the food you eat. Put on a favorite album and dance. Notice the small things. Sniff the air. See the sky. Strengthen your spiritual core by telling God the truth: that you are sad. That you have had enough of this pandemic, that you are struggling. Look around and listen to God who still says to each of us today:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
Find the comfort you need, the strength you need for today, in your experiences of God’s faithful presence. Then, share it. Share it the way Chris Adrian, a palliative care doctor at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles shares it: “working with families over months and years, teaches you to hope that life reconstitutes on the other side of catastrophe, and that people can find joy in living again on the far side of unbearable loss.”
Hear the prophet speaking to you this very day, from Isaiah, from your life experiences, in the stories of others.
Grow stronger in your spirit. Make that commitment to grow spiritually stronger each day, pandemic or no pandemic.
Comfort those around you who are faltering in exile. Tell those around you that God is still here, with us, walking through the flood and fire alongside us.
