Tis the Season of Comfort

Good morning and welcome to another week at Syvlania Wesleyan Church. I am so glad that we can be here together this morning.

As you can see we are talking about comfort this morning. Now i know that that means for many of us. Comfort reminds me of my couch or recliner in the house.

Think about that for a moment. When we here the word comfort we think of relaxation.

Being able to sit down is important for us in the church.

Did you know that the Pew or row of chairs for some churches are a relatively new invention. Now I know what you might be thinking.

Pastor Andy Chairs aren’t new. You are right. However, the idea of sitting at church in a row is comparative to the life of the church.

It wasn’t till the Reformation that Pews started to become more popular. Now i know that it has been about 500 years since the reformation but the pews of early days aren’t like what you are sitting on right now.

Pews early on would only be along the walls of a church. In fact if you needed to go sit on a pew there was a saying for you.

The Weak Go to the Wall

Only the weak were the ones who would go sit on a pew. Over time though the Reformation sparked the movement of people wanting to sit while they listened to the preacher.

In all honesty this was a result of the rejection of the liturgy of the Catholic church. Earlier church services would involve a lot of standing and kneeling and movement in worship. Than we removed almost all of that but the sermon.

We all know even us preachers that we need to be able to sit while we listen. How else are we expected to get a short nap every Sunday morning.

Uh oh. The Pastor said the quiet part out loud. I know who you are. I see you.

Now that you are all awake.

Another fun fact about Pews is that early views of them were like luxury boxes of our modern day stadium.

Wealthy people would have them built to house their family. They would pay for them to be built and to have them in the church. They were mostly enclosed.

Church pew photo

Notice who could see in that pew. Only the Preacher and the balcony.

Personally i wonder sometimes if the pastors choice to raise the pulpit or lectern up like that was to help them be able to keep their people accountable.

Now i will also admit that this would have made it easier as a parent with young children. Now days if you aren’t careful you kid can start crawling under the pews and they are gone. You look down and all of the sudden your kids on the other side of the church. Not that i would have ever done that as a kid.

Pews were built for people to be more comfortable though in church. To sit. over the years the comfort has increased.

Instead of being straight backed benches we started to recline and ad some angle to the pew. Than we decided that straight no padding benches weren’t comfortable so we added some padding.

We increased leg room. Praise Jesus.

I have been to churches that were built and installed their pews when the average height in this country was much lower Needless to say my knees hurt afterwards form them hitting the bench in front of me.

The point is that when we think of comfort we are thinking about our enjoyment or relaxation.

This morning that isn’t the comfort we are talking about. Instead we are speaking about a much different kind of comfort. To help us see that we are going to read two stories about Christmas right now.

WE will be in the first chapter of Matthew and of Luke this morning. For Matthew v. 18-25 and Luke v. 26-38. Turn with me to Matthew first and than we will move to luke right after it.

Matthew 1:18–25 NIV

18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

and turn Luke chapter 1

Luke 1:26–38 NIV

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Mary and Joseph

Now many of us have heard this story every year of our life for most of our lives. This is an important story in the life of the church because it talks about how Jesus came into this world. This is the story of the incarnation. This is the story of the Virgin birth. Now I could go into a deep theological discussion right now one why that is so important that we recognize the movement of God and how the incarnation of Jesus is essential to our faith based on these stories. That, would not be a waste of our time. However, i don’t want the comfort of those pews to lead you to that nap i was talking about earlier.

Instead something else stood out to me about this passage.

Take a moment. If your a guy i need you to put yourself in Joseph’s shoes.

Your engaged to this girl named Mary. You just found out she is pregnant and you aren’t married yet. We all know what that means. You don’t want to shame her because you want to show her some mercy and grace. What do you do?

Now, Ladies. Put yourself in Mary’s shoes for a moment. God sends an Angel to you and says he guess what you are special.

You look at the Angel and say, “Tell me something i don’t know”

No, you look at the angel and say what are you talking about.

You are so special you are going to give birth to the Messiah. Oh and you are going to do this as a virgin.

Your response is of course, “umm how is that going to work”. No, instead you say you are willing and follow the instruction of God.

Now I know i am trying to bring some humor into the situation but really put yourself in their shoes for a moment.

I don’t know about you but now matter if your Mary or Joseph I would probably be freaking out a little bit. I don’t think I would be calm and collected. I think i would have a little bit of panic in my mind.

Needless to say. I wouldn’t be comfortable.

Yet, they both had their moments of doubt and/or concern. Joseph was going to divorce Mary. Mary was troubled by what the angel told her. Neither of these two were certain about the future.

Joseph’s Discomfort

Joseph was faced with a difficult choice. He was faced with the reality that the person he was married to was pregnant and it wasn’t his child. Now what often gets left out of this story is he found out about this before he knew that the child was the will of God. He was completely ignorant to what God was doing. Which is why he was thinking of breaking it off. Yet, he didn’t want to disgrace Mary.

He was clearly torn and in a place of uncertianity about this.

Mary’s Discomfort

Was a lot shorter. She was troubled or scared when the Angel greeted her.

She had an attitude more like what did i do to deserve this. Not only that she wanted to be clear on how this was going to work.

While she trusted God I can only imagine what had to be going through her mind at the time.

Did she wonder if Joseph would still Mary her?

How was she going to explain this pregnancy?

Would anyone believe her?

In those times to be honest there would be an element of if she would be able to survive this?

God Comforted them both

The beauty of both of these stories is that God provided for them what they needed to hear. Joseph was encouraged to take her as his wife. To see that this was something from God and it was the will of God. Joseph could have run but God gave him the courage to be the man that he needed to be.

The Angel told Mary the story of Elizabeth her relative who was giving birth despite her age and barrenness. He shared with her that nothing is impossible with God. That all her fears that had to have been running through her mind would be dealt with.

The Promise of Comfort

God took care of their need to be comforted. To be given a peace about he situation. God didn’t promise that everything was going to be perfect for them. In fact, I am willing to bet that both Mary and Joseph knew that they had a hard road in front of them.

God promised though that they would be blessed and they would in his hands. This comfort of knowing God was on their side was enough for both of them no matter what would come their way.

Have you thought about that. God doesn’t promise to take all of our burdens away but he promises to walk with us in them. To help us through both the good and the bad times. That if we look to him we have the promise that we are his children and he will walk with us. He is faithful to that and reminds us of that when he sent his son down to this earth. For that we can be so thankful and take great comfort in knowing that Jesus is King and he is coming. In just one week we get to celebrate that. Let’s thank him for that this morning.

let us pray.