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"Prophets of Hope: Second Isaiah"
Isaiah 40:10
A Sermon Preached by The Rev. Douglas M. Donley
“Oh Tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, oh tidings of comfort and joy.”
That’s one of the songs we sing at this time of the year and yet it seems so out of place with our Advent theme of Prophets of Hope. Many people think that the job of prophets is to afflict the comfortable. That is certainly true for First Isaiah, for Amos, for Hosea, for Jeremiah. All of them point out how bad the people are. They point out how far we have gone from God’s plan. These prophets of gloom and doom predict destruction if we do not change our ways. We need to hear their words, but it can be so dang tiring. We reach our saturation point, even when we agree that we have done wrong and that our tendency is toward idolatry. Can’t we please have some tidings of comfort and joy for a while? Please?
Thank God we have Second Isaiah. Second Isaiah’s mission is to comfort the afflicted. That is part of the prophetic mission of hope. In this time when so many of us feel afflicted, afflicted by warfare; afflicted by terrorism; afflicted by consumerism; afflicted by dysfunction; afflicted by depression; afflicted by the tentacles of empire which e\invade out very lives; afflicted by economic factors that threaten our employment or our schools, or our homes, or even the violence of our streets, we need words of comfort.
Many of the traditional prophetic
scriptures used during this season are taken from the so-called "book of
comfort." This is the section of
the prophecy attributed to second Isaiah in chapters 40-55. Isaiah was writing to the people in exile
saying that very soon the days will be accomplished when the exile will be
ended and the people can go back home to their holy land of
The tenor soloist sings in the
first words heard in Handel's Messiah, quoting Isaiah 40: "Comfort ye my
people saith your God. Speak ye
comfortably to
If you have ever felt alone; If you have ever felt like the whole world has left you high and dry with no one left to care about you; If you have ever felt beaten up by your family and friends; If you have ever felt like even God has left you; Then this sermon is for you. This scripture from second Isaiah is for you. This entire season of Advent is for you. Christmas is for you.
“Comfort ye my people says your
God. Speak tenderly to
In this world of violence, loss of rights, victims being created instead of sheltered, we need some comfort. We need some hope. We need the assurance that we are not alone. We need each other and we need God.
“A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of YHWH, make a highway straight for our God. 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.” That means all the barriers are removed and in their place is an eight-lane highway for God.
As we await the arrival of Christmas in just three days, we wait with anticipation of having God-with-us again: us no longer alone, us comforted and challenged to be more than we are, for Christ has overcome the world.
That's what Isaiah wanted. That's what the people were still waiting for when Jesus was finally born. That’s what we are waiting for, too. We need a messiah who will bring us tidings of comfort and joy, not simply a joy that comes from getting things, but a joy that comes because the world is going right once again. We need to hear the prophets of hope. We need to follow their words, so that there might be comfort and joy.
The Messiah put forth in second Isaiah is different from the one of first Isaiah. First Isaiah shows a messiah who is a military leader. Second Isaiah, on the other hand gives us an image of a Messiah as a suffering servant. Hear these words from second Isaiah: “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations…
He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth.”(42:1,4)
Now, scholars differ on the
identity of the servant. Some say it is
the nation of
As Second Isaiah comforts the people, he does not let us off the hook. He still says that the people need to follow God, but in the place of exile, when it seems that all is lost, in that strange land where it’s hard to sing the sacred songs, Second Isaiah offers comfort. The 43rd chapter says: “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 the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am YHWH your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…you are precious in my sight and I love you.”(43:1-4)
This does not mean relaxing and letting God take care of everything. No, this is different. It is a comfort that says, our power comes from God on high.
Isaac Watts wrote a hymn almost 300
years ago, which Sacred Harp singers know as number 107,
“My Spirit looks to God alone,
My rock and refuge is God’s throne.
In all my fears, in all my straits,
My soul on God’s salvation waits.
Trust thee ye saints in all your ways,
Pour out your hearts before God’s face.
When helpers fail and foes invade,
God is our all-sufficient aid.”
That’s the hope. That’s the comfort that second Isaiah gives to this remnant people. Even though enemies encamp around us, God isn’t done with us. There is hope. There is life. There is one who is coming to set things right again. We need to keep our faith. We need to sacrifice to the God of justice instead of the god of easy answers and blind patriotism, disguising itself as Christianity. When we do that, then the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
We are constantly awaiting the coming of the messiah. We want there to be a happy existence in this world and a respite from the chaos which we all experience. We want the days to finally be accomplished. We need a little Christmas now. We need those tidings of comfort and joy. We want to embrace the words the angels said to the shepherds, “Peace on earth, good will to all people.”
I find that prophets of hope bring me comfort when things are going tough. They also bring me challenge when I get too complacent. I want to tell you about a few of the prophets of comfort and hope this morning. We can certainly think of the famous ones like Mother Theresa. But I want us to consider the not-so-famous ones who are sitting right here today.
1.
The first is the Mienerts/Roy family who are here from
2. Chea Castro and so many others have helped deliver toys and food and services to many families in need this holiday season. The gifts they have collected about burst through the tiny storage room up on the third floor. We made Christmas miracles happen to people who were lacking in the very comfort many of us take for granted.
3. The children have been working hard all month on gifts that they will bring to members of our church who are not able to get here as much as they would like to. They will be little prophets of comfort and joy tomorrow as they make their deliveries.
4. Mel and Shirley Roy are prophets of comfort and hope as they open their home to children in crisis as they await a more stable home life and family situation. Their home is a haven of comfort and hope to children in great need.
5. Harriet Johnson is a prophet of hope. She won’t like me saying this. As she was going stir-crazy in her home these past few months, she kept asking if there was any little project she could do to make things easier for me or the church. I told her she could call people. And many of us were recipients of her generous comfort and joy.
6. There is Jim Ketcham, Gayla Marty, the Beinhoffs and the people of the Waging Peace group who have been active in teaching us not only how to avoid war, but also how to be peaceful, loving and nonviolent in all of our lives.
7. Need we even mention the musicians, the educators, the students, the people who volunteer for Loaves and Fishes and Families Moving Forward. All of you offer yourselves as prophets of comfort and hope not only during the holiday seasons, but whenever there is a need. I am humbled to be a part of this great and giving community of faith which sees granting comfort and hope as one of its highest priorities.
There are so many others who have offered hope and comfort and joy this season. You know of other prophets of comfort and hope. Tell them how much their words and presence means to you. When you do, you will bring them tidings of comfort and joy. And it will give us all the strength to be prophets of hope.
“Speak ye tenderly to
That’s what Christmas is all about. At Christmas, we get Jesus to come back to us. We get him with all of the hope and expectation which a newborn child can bring. And that newborn child is called Emmanuel, God-with-us. When we do acts of comfort, compassion, peacemaking and justice-seeking, then we are in tune with a powerful and moving God who will not leave us comfortless. This God-with-us, which we see in the sweet little Jesus child at Christmas brings us hope of a new life: the hope of a new birth, the hope of comfort and the assurance that we are not alone.
Hear again these words of Second Isaiah:
"Comfort ye my people says
your God. Speak ye comfortably to
And may we then sing, “O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy. O tidings of comfort and joy.”