Peace: Comfort in Exile

Text

The New Revised Standard Version God’s People Are Comforted

40 Comfort, O comfort my people,

says your God.

2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that she has served her term,

that her penalty is paid,

that she has received from the LORD’s hand

double for all her sins.

3 A voice cries out:

“In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,

make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be lifted up,

and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,

and the rough places a plain.

5 Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,

and all people shall see it together,

for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

6 A voice says, “Cry out!”

And I said, “What shall I cry?”

All people are grass,

their constancy is like the flower of the field.

7 The grass withers, the flower fades,

when the breath of the LORD blows upon it;

surely the people are grass.

8 The grass withers, the flower fades;

but the word of our God will stand forever.

9 Get you up to a high mountain,

O Zion, herald of good tidings;

lift up your voice with strength,

O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,

lift it up, do not fear;

say to the cities of Judah,

“Here is your God!”

10 See, the Lord GOD comes with might,

and his arm rules for him;

his reward is with him,

and his recompense before him.

11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd;

he will gather the lambs in his arms,

and carry them in his bosom,

and gently lead the mother sheep.

Introduction: Peace?

Peanuts

In one Peanuts cartoon Lucy says to Charlie Brown, “I hate everything. I hate everybody. I hate the whole wide world!”

Charlie says, “But I thought you had inner peace.”

Lucy replies, “I do have inner peace. But I still have outer obnoxiousness.”

Kind of like last week, it feels a little…odd to preach a sermon about peace in this particular season.

This season is anything but peaceful at the best of times.

Holiday preparations

Black Friday Shopping

Out of town family coming to visit.

Wrapping presents

Stress. Stress. Stress.

Place on top of that the uncertainty of the pandemic, and I don’t know that any of us has gotten a good handle on our outer obnoxiousness.

But, as it often does, God’s word has something to say to us in this moment.

Exiles: Israel and Us

First Isaiah: Warnings

Most scholars agree that Isaiah is actually two or three books stitched together over time.

Isaiah 1-39 is frequently called First Isaiah.

It features the prophet Isaiah speaking warnings over Isreal.

They had totally forgotten the God who had brought them through the wilderness and out slavery.

Now they were using their own slave labor, and leaning on an impressive military as their strength.

God, through Isaiah, essentially says “You’d better get your act together, or you’re going to end up in exile.”

Extremely predictably, Isreal ends up in exile.

The Exile:

The people of Isreal are carried off in a brutal military defeat, and taken to a place they do not know.

They are seperated from their homes.

They are separated from their families.

They are separated from their temple, which in their minds means

They are separated from God.

As a parent, I totally get this:

At least two times a day, we issue the warning that jumping on the couch is not a great idea.

And at least one or two times a week, we hold a weeping child in our arms as he holds an ice pack to his head.

Second Isaiah: “You’ll be ok!” and not “I told you so”

Given all that, you might assume that Second Isaiah would begin with a healthy “I told you so!”

Not the case at all.

This text is the opening of Second Isaiah, and it starts with a repeated use of the word “Comfort.”

Even if God’s people are going to continue to jump on the couch and hit their heads, God is going to be the one in whose arms the people find comfort.

This puts second Isaiah in a neat place for God’s people.

They are in exile, feeling the weight of their problems.

In fact, Isaiah says here, they are feeling the weight of more than their decisions. They are suffering more than anything they could have done to earn the suffering.

They are in the darkness.

But Isaiah is speaking to them about the hope of the light.

Comfort is a promise from God, but it isn’t here yet.

2020: The Church in Exile

Famed author, bishop, and theologian N.T. Wright wrote a piece for TIME magazine a little while ago where he compared our current situation to a kind of exile.

We are separated from our friends and families.

We are separated from our cultural rituals, like holiday planning and such.

And, for the moment at least, we are separated from our worship spaces like the sanctuary and our liturgies.

If he’s right, the question I might ask this morning is where we can find comfort from God in this season?

Comfort Foods (and places and things)

Comfort Foods

When you are stressed out, at the end of a long day, what is the comfort food you reach for first?

Mac and Cheese?

A big bag of potato chips?

Chinese take-out?

I think these are foods that can by qualified thusly:

I know this isn’t healthy for me in any way, but I’m going to eat it anyway because 2020.

And while not all of this is bad for us, there are very real comforts for us in stressful times.

Sacred Space

I am beginning to think that Facebook is rubbing salt in the wound.

Every few days or so, they show me memories from a few years ago of my taking pictures of the opening face off in PPG Paints arena.

I don’t go super often, but I have a friend who has season tickets and can’t always get to the games, so throws a pair of tickets my way from time to time.

And true enough, for as ridiculous as this statement may sound, that arena is a sacred space of comfort for me.

No matter how stressful the day has been, or even how stressful the product on the ice may be at any given moment, I actually feel weight lifted off my shoulders when I’m in that room.

It’s a physical location version of comfort food.

What sacred spaces do you have in your life?

A room in your house?

A spot in the woods?

A sporting arena?

A church sanctuary?

Sacred Routines

The bell choir has started to see some of my neurotic behavior in recent days...

Starting when I was in college, before every worship service I do three things:

I pray.

I say “Let’s go give ‘em heaven,” a corny joke our former keyboard player started.

And I tap the top of the door frame on the way out of whatever room we were praying in.

By and large I’m not a deeply superstitious guy!

I’m not worried that I’ll trip over my shoelaces or something if I forget the routine.

It’s just that there can be tremendous comfort in the routines of life.

What sacred routines do you carry with you?

Do you and your family have a pre-meal prayer?

Do you have a certain order to the chores on Monday?

Have you made a habit out of worshiping in a certain time, place, and way?

Moving the water dish

I love the writing of Aaron Sorkin.

One of my favorite images is from a (really bad) show he wrote called Studio 60.

The main character is struggling with unrequited love, and when his love interest is away for a few weeks, his best friend says “It’s like someone moved his water dish.”

Isn’t that how it feels when our comfort foods, and spaces, and routines are stripped away from us?

Doesn’t it feel like a dog who used to have a steady supply of water, but can’t find it, to have our comfort stripped away?

Doesn’t this season just feel, odd?

Am I alone in waking up some days in a fog of uncertainty and lack of clarity?

This is what happens in exile. Our comforts are removed, and we start to lose our way.

Which might lead us to the question, why does God put his people in exile in the first place?

Comfort From God

The Dark Night of the Soul

John of the Cross wrote extensively on a concept called the Dark Night of the Soul.

This has been over-used a little bit in some Christian circles.

Stubbing your toe is not the Dark Night of the Soul.

What the Dark Night is for John is any time that God removes all things that used to console or comfort your soul.

Church doesn’t do what it used to do for you.

You read the Bible, but it’s just not super inspiring.

You pray, but you don’t hear anything back.

John proposed that the reason God does this to us, and it’s important to note that it is in fact God that inflicts the Dark Night, is to see if we can abide in God’s comfort alone, not the things that usually bring us closer to God.

That might seem like it’s splitting hairs, and in a lot of ways it is.

But could you get by on the comfort from God alone?

Could you allow God to give you comfort, instead of the vices or even virtues we rely on on a regular basis?

Shalom: The Peace of God

When you are able to rely on God alone, you are closer to the Hebrew notion of Shalom.

Shalom is the word for peace, the theme of this week in the Advent cycle.

But Shalom is not merely the absence of conflict or war.

Rather, it’s better understood as the peace that comes from wholeness.

It’s what happens when all is merry and bright!

And it’s only possible when Shalom comes inside ourselves first, in our relationship with God.

Shalom is what happens when God brings us comfort, and not our traditions and habits and rituals.

Maybe, like the people of Isreal, we’re in exile not because of what we’ve done, but because of what God is about to do.

Maybe we’re in this 2020 pandemic style exile because God is laying the ground work for something amazing in our lives, in the life of this church, in our neighborhood, and all around the world.

None of this is to suggest that exile is enjoyable. Anything but!

But it is to suggest that God is up to something here.

I believe with all my heart that God is working, even in the midst of this pandemic, to bring us someplace beautiful.

I believe with all my heart that God’s desire is not for us to suffer, but for us to find our comfort and our peace in him.

And I believe with all my heart that the newborn King, Jesus Christ, has a very big role to play in our finding our peace.

My brothers and sisters, may you be at peace this Advent Season. May you find your comfort in God alone.

Let’s pray.