Weekday Advent Service Two, Comfort, Comfort Ye My People

Weekday Advent Service Two       Updated, Dec 7!
St. John’s Lutheran Church, Howard, SD
The Hymns of AdventComfort, Comfort, Ye My People (TLH31 / LW28 / LSB347
by Johann Olearius, 1635-1711 Translated by Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878

Comfort, comfort, ye My people,
Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
Mourning 'neath their sorrows' load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover
And her warfare now is over.

Yea, her sins our God will pardon,
Blotting out each dark misdeed;
All that well deserved His anger
He no more will see or heed.
She hath suffered many a day,
Now her griefs have passed away;
God will change her pining sadness
Into ever-springing gladness.

Hark, the Herald's voice is crying
In the desert far and near,
Bidding all men to repentance
Since the Kingdom now is here.
Oh, that warning cry obey!
Now prepare for God a way;
Let the valleys rise to meet Him
And the hills bow down to greet Him.

Make ye straight what long was crooked,
Make the rougher places plain;
Let your hearts be true and humble,
As befits His holy reign.
For the glory of the Lord
Now o'er earth is shed abroad,
And all flesh shall see the token
That His Word is never broken.

Grace and peace to you from Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

I love this hymn, but sometimes I wonder if we really need to sing it.  When I look at the way we live everyday, especially at this time of year, I don’t see the need what this hymn says, that is comfort.  I heard on the radio that the average person will spend over $700 on Christmas presents this year.  That’s over 100 bucks on family and about $60 for friends (each!).  And you know what I already said about those “Christmas Sale” flyers in the newspaper.  I’ve a weakness for them.  They present us with things we just can’t live without.  They tells us what will make our life better, more comfortable.  Today’s answer to fear, grief, pain and trouble is spending.  

God rest ye merry gentlemen let nothing you dismay.
Remember things are still on sale from now till Christmas day.
Just spend some cash and soon you’ll find some comfort on its way.
O buying of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O buying of comfort and joy.

Do you remember the Peanuts Christmas special “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown?”  Sally Charlie’s sister writes a letter to Santa Clause.  “I’ve been especially good this year so my list is long, please note the size and color of each item and send as many as possible.  If this is too much trouble just send cash, tens and twenties.”  

“Good grief!” Charlie Brown reacts.

Well, that’s the way we live.  If you don’t deny it, I won’t either.  Every day we act as if money is the answer to all our problems.  We act as if we can just buy our way into a more comfortable life.

But you and I are influenced by all this, too.  Sally is us.  You know what happens.  You’ve got to have what’s new.  The beautiful Christmas tree you bought this year instead of reusing the plastic one is a fire hazard at Christmas time because you couldn’t wait till after Thanksgiving to get one up.  The new extra expensive Christmas Ornament ends up glass shards on the carpet that the vacuum cleaner won’t pickup, but they very readily stick into your fingers.  Grandma says (and I’ve heard this from quite a few grandmas), I just don’t know what the (great) grand kids like so I just give cash.  Then they can get whatever they want.  

And that’s just at Christmas time, it goes on all year.  The cell phone you got last year isn’t up to snuff anymore.  Oh, you can make calls with it and all but it doesn’t take pictures, or allow you to get on to the web to do your shopping, or whatever else they do now.  The new car costs twice as much to maintain as the old one, and you don’t dare to open the hood ‘cause you couldn’t fix anything there anyway.  You’ve a kitchen cabinet full of gadgets you couldn’t live without that you’ve used just one time.  

Ah, you and I both know that the truth is none of this stuff brings comfort.  And these kind of things are just the tip of the ice burg as far as our lives go.  It’s just at this time of year, our brains go cloudy, it must be the twinkling lights, or the cold temps, or something.  We all know none of that stuff brings any kind of lasting comfort.  Life is hard and the only break from it, the only comfort we’ll really get is death.  Look at the hymn again.  

Comfort, comfort, ye My people,
Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;

God is saying that he wants us to have comfort, and He never gives anything half way.  When He says to give comfort He’s talking about the real thing.  The kind we know need when the lights go out; when rust takes over our possessions; when we get tired of taking care of the things that are suppose to take care of us; when towers fall on top of people and kill them; when accidents strike without warning; when we are personally staring down death; that’s when we need God’s comfort not the joy to the world feelings we have this time of year.  They are mostly just a very thin covering.

Jesus strips it all away and gets right to the heart of the matter (as he always does!).  When some people were talking about how Pontius Pilate killed some Galileans because they defied him, He said,

“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:2-5, ESV)

And there it is a pretty clear need for comfort.  You and I are no better than the folks who die every day by accident, or the folks in the World Trade Center, or those killed in tsunamis or earthquakes or even car accidents on SD Hwy 34.  That because the world is a dangerous place for sinners (that’s what Jesus says!).  I just doesn’t matter how much stuff you’ve got, or how much money, or farmland.  Sinful people, (and here you can insert your own name) need to be on guard.

So, I guess we do need comfort, don’t we.  I think we do need this hymn because it reminds us where real, true, and lasting comfort can be found.  And, not only that but it actually speaks God’s words and promise of comfort right into our ears and it says That His Word is never broken.

Comfort, comfort, ye My people,
Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
Mourning 'neath their sorrows' load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover
And her warfare now is over.

The hymn recognizes our need, actually speaking back to God what He says about us.  We are under sorrows’ load.  But peace waits for us (whenever hymns like this one speak of the OT Church using terms like Jerusalem or Israel, we can apply it directly to us the NT church, baptized Christians).  The problem with the world for sinners is sin.  God promises peace to us because He covers over our sin.  The warfare against the sinner’s greatest enemy, God, is over.  That means that the troubles we experience in life can’t be punishment.  

Yea, her sins our God will pardon,Blotting out each dark misdeed;All that well deserved His angerHe no more will see or heed.

God pardons and blots out sin.  He doesn’t see it anymore.  It’s not because He sweeps it under the carpet and ignores it.  That wouldn’t really take care of it would it.  Dirt under the carpet has to be taken care of sometime or another.  No, for God to actually blot out and pardon sin, for His anger to be no more seen, sin has to be dealt with in the only way that sin can be dealt with… suffering.  

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, (1 Peter 3:18, ESV)

So God no longer sees the need to punish us for our sins.  They were suffered away by Jesus on the cross.  He was righteous but suffered for the sins of the unrighteous.  That’s you and me.  Now the hymn continues:

She hath suffered many a day,
Now her griefs have passed away;
God will change her pining sadness
Into ever-springing gladness.

How is pining sadness turned into ever-springing gladness?  Especially when we consider that our sadness, our troubles, our sufferings haven’t ended since the cross.  All those things that I talked about are really true for us.  Life is still difficult and full of sorrow and pain.  So, what’s the point of all this talk of comfort?  Just like that old commercial asks, “Where’s the beef?” we ask “Where’s the comfort?”

St. Paul:

For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:5-7, ESV)

St. Peter:

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:13, ESV)

What they are saying is this.  The comfort of God is this.  The trouble we’ve got every day isn’t as punishment for our sin, but to turn us to Jesus.  

Hark, the Herald's voice is cryingIn the desert far and near,Bidding all men to repentanceSince the Kingdom now is here.Oh, that warning cry obey!Now prepare for God a way;Let the valleys rise to meet HimAnd the hills bow down to greet Him.

This verse lands us squarely in Advent, standing right next to John the Baptizer, who is preparing the way for Jesus.  God is coming in the flesh Blotting out each dark misdeed.  God is coming headed for the cross.  God is coming to restore His control over the world and remove sin and all its consequences forever.  So, what’s this repentance that the Baptizer is calling for?  Repentance is simply recognizing that because of our sin we’ve got trouble; because of our sin we’re in trouble.  Life doesn’t work the way God intended.  We don’t work the way God intended and He’s the only one who can fix it.  Said simply, we are sinners in need of a Savior, God in Human flesh, Jesus Christ.  The things that we suffer, by our own sin and just because the world is a difficult place to live, actually prepare us for His coming when they turn us to God, looking for forgiveness through Jesus Christ.  That’s what repentance is.

So John says “Prepare for His coming.”  He was talking about Christ in the manger.  We are also looking forward to His coming again.  When He does he’ll bring everything that He accomplished to full completion.   That is, through faith in all that Jesus did we have all of His promises and all the comfort we need right now.  The comfort of knowing that:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life,…

We could add in here, “any kind of trouble, little or big, any kind of failure, any kind of pain or sorrow,”

… nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39, ESV)

That’s the comfort this hymn of Advent talks about.  And it ends looking forward to all that God promises yet to come in Jesus.

Make ye straight what long was crooked,
Make the rougher places plain;
Let your hearts be true and humble,
As befits His holy reign.
For the glory of the Lord
Now o'er earth is shed abroad,
And all flesh shall see the token
That His Word is never broken.

The peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.