The Comfort Zone
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
(Originally published December 4, 2005)
For many people, the approaching holiday season is a favorite time of year. Festive sounds and decorations are everywhere, and the familiar whirlwind of activities and good cheer create a comfort zone that we associate with the weeks preceding Christmas. But for many others who are still coping with Katrina‚s devastation or who face economic hardship, this year‚s holidays will be anything but comfortable. In this week‚s installment of The Immediate Word, team member Carter Shelley discusses the prophetic calls in the lectionary‚s Old Testament and Gospel texts ˜ and notes that, because they were addressed to a people who experienced extreme suffering in body and spirit, they offer a powerful message to us as well about how God offers comfort amidst the travails of the world. In addition, other team members offer their viewpoints along with illustrations, worship resources, and a children‚s sermon.
The Comfort Zone
By Carter Shelley
Before you can be comfortable, you have to be uncomfortable. This week I broke my wrist -- requiring x-rays, consultations, surgery, and casting. All of that was followed by intense bone and edema pain that has not been comfortably dispelled by pain pills every four hours. But as any of you who've had broken bones or other illnesses know, such suffering and medical treatment are limited in length. The pain recedes, the bone mends, and one's body returns to the comfort zone of everyday life.
The comfort zone is a place where you or I feel at ease. Having enough food; decent housing; a dependable, well-paying job; good medical insurance; and a reasonable pension plan all contribute to our sense of comfort and well-being as we enter the Christmas season -- but such will not be the case for all Americans this December.
General Motors announced last week the closing of a major factory and the downsizing of others. Several American airlines continue to seek either bankruptcy status or enormous federal loans and bailouts while simultaneously negotiating reductions in salaries and the loss of pensions for both their retired employees and their current staff. Meanwhile, Congress has spent the past two weeks lobbying, arm-twisting, name-calling, and quarreling over the 2006 budget and whether or not to severely cut the funds available to provide food stamps, free breakfasts and lunches for poor schoolchildren, and Medicaid benefits. This uncomfortable economic belt-tightening has been sanctimoniously presented as a noble means for slowing the growth of an out-of-control national debt, while its proponents tend either to ignore or justify the trillions of dollars of national debt already accumulated from financing two wars and occupations since 9/11. While our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan daily live with homesickness, fear, death threats, and discomfort, the current administration continues its ongoing support of expensive tax relief for prosperous, middle-class Americans and seeks to legislate bigger tax breaks for the wealthiest 1% of our citizens. Consequently, the comfortable will be even more so this Christmas while some American children, single-parent households, and recently laid-off workers will become even more uncomfortable and desperate.
Biblical Texts
Isaiah 40:1-11 offers holy comfort to the Jewish exiles in Babylonia only after their dis-ease and misery has led them to seek God's forgiveness for their national selfishness and abuse of the poor, the widow, and the orphan. As God's children, the Judeans were responsible for caring for the most needy and vulnerable of the citizenry. Their failure to do so led to disaster and exile in a foreign land, but, as Isaiah proclaims, God prefers forgiveness to ongoing vengeance. Thus, God does not take the exiled Jews' suffering lightly. In Isaiah 40:1-11, the prophet proclaims God's return and presence among them. Their God from on high is coming to attend to their cares and sorrows. Yahweh their Champion and Protector has returned to them and is offering himself as their Comforter.
The prophet Isaiah's words of comfort bring hope to his original audience. They also reveal what is permanent about God. God forgives. God calls his sinful children back to him. God always cares.
This same prophetic message is proclaimed again in the first century C.E. by John the Baptist in Mark 1:1-8. In order for God's will to be heard and obeyed, John must proclaim words that name and condemn the people's various offenses. John's proclamation of the Messiah's coming demands a radical change in behavior in order for the people to be spiritually and ethically ready for the Messiah's arrival. God's people must be prepared or they will miss the Messiah's arrival. Repentance is essential. Repentance is not repentance unless there is a change in behavior. Once again God offers comfort, this time though the promise announced is the Messiah's imminent arrival.
Sermon Commentary
This week's texts offer the opportunity to make a distinction between human comfort zones and divine comfort. The comfort zone is about us. Comforting is about caring for others. In both the Isaiah and Marcan texts, the good news is God's ongoing care for humanity. The Christian challenge is for us to shift from concern about our own comfort to care and concern for those in dire need of both care and comfort.
Our Comfort Zone: Three Examples
In approaching this subject, it isn't hard to identify ways we as individuals get caught up in our own physical, psychological, and social needs. My opening example of my broken wrist is a case in point. Breaking a bone -- or having any sort of inconvenient illness -- tends to make a person very self-centered. There is pain, physical inconvenience, embarrassment, and greater dependence upon others. At the same time, one is able to milk the situation to one's benefit. I'm not expected to work as hard this week. Church members are happy to cut me some slack and to express care and sympathy. On the home front, my husband is doing all the cooking, all the errands, and washing and folding the laundry since I obviously can't do my fair share of any of these tasks presently. The problem with all this tea and sympathy is how self-centered it makes me. All this effort to make me comfortable in an uncomfortable situation tempts me to think too much of my own needs and nowhere near enough about the needs of others.
During Advent, our Christian comfort zone has several dimensions to it. The first is our sentimental joy and feeling for favorite Christian traditions. Those feelings are savored and revisited through special worship services, Christmas pageants, choir programs, the singing of beloved Christmas carols, the reading of equally beloved scriptural texts, Chrismon trees, and so on. A second comfort zone concerns the amount of time, energy, and effort the Christmas season requires. If one has the time or organizational know-how to buy just the right presents for loved ones, address and send Christmas cards, get the tree up, get the house decorated, and plan or attend parties, one can enjoy the season rather than experiencing the discomfort of unprepared panic and anxiety. Third, we can feel okay about the financial outlay we expend upon presents for our families and friends, if we also are able to feel good about our largess toward others. Perhaps you send the Salvation Army a check for a $100 or your Sunday class sponsors Christmas for a needy family in your community. You'd never think of passing one of those Santa bell ringers without dropping a few coins in his pail. You know Christmas is about giving, and so staying in your Christian comfort zone includes giving something to those less fortunate.
Another kind of comfort zone familiar to many Americans is the one that gets challenged by a credible counselor or therapist. Most of us know the value psychotherapy or counseling may provide an emotionally damaged person who finds through it acceptance and grace and forgiveness. But we also know of individuals for who such encounters are a narcissistic way to receive individual coddling. A case of the latter would be the three-times-a-week therapy sessions that seem to be mandatory for the whiny, rich New York characters who occupy most of Woody Allen's movies. These folks are not trying to recover from years of child sex abuse or trauma. Nor are they seeking to deal with personal challenges of grief, loss, or other tragedies where therapy can be a godsend. Effective therapy does not allow the patient to remain within the boundaries of his or her comfort zone. Quite the contrary, personal growth and healing are only possible when one ventures into new, risky, uncharted territory. Remember, one of Jesus' titles announced by the angel hosts in Luke is "Wonderful Counselor."
Audience
Unless you are the pastor of an indigent, homeless, recent immigrant population, it will be necessary to address the fact that we, and our congregants, are not in the same place as sixth-century Jewish exiles or first-century Jews and Christians. We are not members of an oppressed nation, nor are we members of a religious minority trying to hang on to our faith and values in the face of political opposition or punitive penalties. Rather, we are citizens of the richest, greatest nation in the world. We are the greatest military power the world has ever seen. Despite job layoffs and industry moving overseas, we remain the most economically prosperous country ever. The majority of us live in great comfort -- we have plenty to eat; warm, dry places to live and sleep; and gas may cost a lot more now than it did two months ago, but we're still driving where we want pretty much whenever we want. And far from believing that our God is angry with us or punishing us, we believe God is on our side. There's the rub, as it were. When we are overly confident of our God, we are most at risk of losing it all.
Holy Comfort
It takes only a cursory glance at Mark1:1-8 to know that John the Baptist himself is not interested in staying in the comfort zone. His wardrobe of camel's hair with a modest girdle around his loins is not a sexy "come on" to women, but an example of his disinterest in adornment or personal comfort. And his diet is such as would make an underweight model flinch. There is no bottled water, no vegan chef, no comfort foods; only locusts and wild honey. John's message is one of comfort for God's subject people, but the comfort God offers them requires a response. The Messiah is coming to save God's people, but God's people must prepare for the Messiah's coming. First, they must examine their hearts, name their sins, and repent. Repentance does not mean feeling bad about selfish or bad behavior. Repentance means a change in behavior away from selfishness to selflessness. If the people will repent, be baptized, and be changed, they will be ready when the Messiah comes and will recognize the Messiah when he appears. Thus John's message is one of hopefulness and a call to faithfulness.
God's relationship with humanity has always been about what is best for humanity -- even though we don't always know it or get it. God's law was not established for God's benefit but for ours. Obedience to the law and genuine worshiping of God as God are the means by which the Jews can live righteously and in harmony with one another and with other nations.
Comforting is about the needs of others. Compassion and caring are what God requires of those who would be faithful whether they are exiles returning to their homeland, subjected Judeans oppressed by Rome, or twenty-first-century Christians living in the most powerful nation on earth. As Christians we are called to be comforters, not conquerors; to be generous to the weak, the poor, the dependent ones; and to be politically and economically generous toward those who most desperately need assistance locally, nationally, and internationally.
Isaiah and John the Baptist both offer comfort to God's people. We twenty-first-century Christians need to ask ourselves who needs comforting this Christmas. Are there members of our congregation who are lonely, sick, depressed, or afraid? Are there members of our community who have been laid off from their jobs and who can't pay their rent, much less finance Christmas for their families this year? Are there people currently on welfare who will lose their food stamps, Medicaid, or other essential benefits if Congress cuts back on those programs? Are there not American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq for whom this Christmas will be a time of homesickness, sadness, fear, and anger? What about their families anxious for and bereft of them living here in the United States? Will not this season be one of grief and fear for loved ones living in the danger zones? In addition, there are many of God's children throughout the world who have never known the physical comforts of decent housing, a full belly, a healthy body, and a sense of peace. In this season, when we await the birth of the Prince of Peace, there are many who need comfort. May we as Christians pray and pledge to be God's messengers and givers of comfort to those God would have us comfort in his name.
Team Responses
George Murphy responds: Much of the Bible, and the prophets in particular, has the pattern of a good news/bad news story. "I've got some bad news... you're in trouble; and some good news ... God will save you." Often the bad news is even more pointed -- "You are a sinner," with "you" being either singular or plural. This isn't always the case, but our troubles may indeed be the result of individual or corporate sin.
The first 39 chapters of Isaiah are not all warning, condemnation, or threat, but a good deal of them are: chapters 1, 3, 5, 22, and 28 are examples. It is the sins of the people of Israel, and especially of the wealthy and those in power, that the prophets saw as the cause of the nation's defeat and exile. Then in chapter 40 there comes a message of comfort. This isn't just a matter of rhetorical strategy. The Jews did have to languish in exile for fifty or sixty years before they heard that Cyrus was on the way to conquer the Babylonian empire and liberate the captive (Isaiah 45:1-7).
An important special case of this bad news/good news pattern is the law/gospel motif that is familiar especially to Lutherans. (C.F.W. Walther's The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel [Concordia, 1929] is a classic exposition.) The law is to be preached to people until they realize their sinfulness and need for forgiveness. The law here plays an accusatory function, bringing out the reality of sin. But once the person realizes his or her sin, the gospel of God's free grace in Christ is to be announced. John the Baptist's demand for repentance to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah is part of this law/gospel structure.
This is a good pattern, but as the example of the Jewish exiles shows, it's not always necessary to "preach" law in so many words. Events may do that, making people aware of their situation and broken relationship with God.
Why this pattern? Why not just start out with the good news? For one thing, you won't realize that you need the good news if you haven't realized, or haven't accepted, the bad. Before you'll be willing to have major surgery, you have to be willing to go to a doctor and be willing to believe the results of a diagnosis that tell you that you have a life-threatening illness. The prophets often function as diagnosticians. (And Isaiah 1:5-6 in fact uses medical imagery to describe Judah's condition.)
Or use another, more vivid, picture. There's an old story of a man who bought a mule from a farmer. The seller assured him that the mule was very well trained and obedient and would respond to the owner's every command with no hesitation. Well, about halfway home with his new animal, the mule stopped dead in the middle of the road. No commands, shouts, or anything else could get it to move. The angry owner walked back to the farmer who had sold him the mule and told him the situation, and the farmer picked up a two-by-four and went with the mule's owner to find the animal still standing in the road. The farmer went up to him, whacked him alongside the head with the two-by-four, and said "Move" -- and the mule started off.
"What's that all about?" demanded the mule's owner. "You never said anything about doing anything like that. You told me he'd obey my commands with no hesitation!"
"Well, yes," said the farmer. "But first you have to get his attention."
Sometimes God has to get our attention before we'll be willing to listen to his promise. Does that mean that God deliberately causes GM layoffs, natural disasters, and other troubles as a way of whacking us alongside the head? I don't think we have to put it that way. To take just the first example, human selfishness, greed, and short-sightedness; the decisions of management and labor; and some of the features of our society can bring trouble upon us. (Paul Krugman's column "Bad for the Country" in the November 25 New York Times brings out some aspects of this.) God doesn't bring this about to warn or punish us, but God can use such things to get our attention. Are we listening?
Stephen McCutchan responds: It is natural for us to seek our comfort from the many blessings that we have received in life. Whether we are conscious of our blessings or just assume them as belonging to us, there is the natural temptation to assume that experiencing numerous blessings in our life is testimony to our worth as a person, church, or nation. Can you imagine a person who has just received a large merit raise along with many words of praise saying, "I think there must be something wrong with what I am doing?" Can you imagine a mega-church whose programs are always overflowing and whose worship service attracts a couple of thousand worshipers saying, "Where did we go wrong?" Can you imagine a country that is blessed with rich natural resources, a diverse and talented population, and a political system envied by the entire world agonizing about their lost opportunities? When things are going well, it is easy to assume that these are signs of our wisdom, skill, and virtue. It rarely seems to invite us to want to probe beneath the surface to examine the quality of our life.
Now try to imagine our response when those markers of our success and well-being are suddenly removed from our experience. For many people, the removal of one or more of these blessings that they value will cause them to turn away from God altogether. The removal of such affirming experiences was the experience that Israel had. Because they believed that they were God's chosen people, they assumed that certain markers in their national experience were affirmations of their "chosenness." They knew that originally they were just a ragtag bunch of slaves in Egypt. If Joshua 24:15 is accurate, then they didn't even all worship the same gods when they were in Egypt. But then, in an experience that they could only attribute to a divine force from beyond them, they were miraculously set free from this slavery. For forty years they wandered across the harsh wilderness as a bunch of nomads. At Mount Sinai they experienced the power of being chosen by the God of the universe to be God's special people. While there were ups and downs, on the whole their experience seemed to affirm their specialness. They entered into a land they could call their own, defeated their enemies, built a temple, established a dynasty that was admired by other nations, and experienced prosperity.
But then, one by one those signs of well-being were removed from them. Their enemies defeated them, their royal dynasty was destroyed, the temple was burned to the ground, and the land was settled by foreigners while they were transplanted in other strange lands. I cannot imagine many citizens of a country that had experienced such devastation that could retain a sense of identity as a people. They had every reason to feel a sense of despair and worthlessness as a people. It was to this condition that Isaiah 40 speaks. The genius of the prophets of exile was that they refused to allow the negative experiences of their lives to drive a wedge between them and God. Rather, assuming that all experiences happened within the realm of God's control, they turned to examine what God was saying to them through these negative experiences. While they certainly concluded, as Carter mentions, that their exile was a punishment for their failure to exhibit justice for the vulnerable around them, they also made an even more radical assertion. Drawing upon the tradition of the original wilderness experience, the prophets claimed that their ultimate sin was their failure to trust God. As Deuteronomy 8 declared, the whole wilderness experience was designed to shape a people's ability to trust God rather than the blessings of life for their future. When they became dependent on possession of the land, the presence of the temple, and the power of the king, God removed them all and re-created the wilderness experience so that they once again could experience being completely dependent on God.
A further declaration of the prophets, which again drew upon their tradition of faith, was that while people can become faithless, God will always be faithful. God is a God of justice, and such justice does include punishment for wrongdoing. However, divine punishment is always for the sake of redemption. Even in the worst of experiences, the people were told that God had not given up on them. "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid ..."
In fact, it is exactly in the most devastating times, when the wilderness experience threatens to be beyond their control, that they are called to "prepare the way of the Lord ..." When things are going well, it is easy to become dependent on the gift rather than the giver. It is in chaotic times, when all the signs of security seem to be shaky, that we are reminded again that our real hope all along is not in our ability but in the faithfulness of God. The prophets, including John the Baptist, decried the injustice of the world, but having revealed the failure of humanity to create the perfect kingdom and actually to often get so caught up in hubris that they foolishly used one's blessings in devastating ways, the prophets then declared that our real hope is in the faithfulness of God.
Seeking to escape into the nostalgia of the past is exactly the opposite direction to move if we want to discover genuine good news in our lives. Rather, the path to hope asks us to look into the face of chaos and discover what idols we need to let go of so that we can again discover God as the source of our hope. A baptism of repentance is a turning from the false idols that we have created so that we might again trust in the God who gave us life. That is a message that will not be defeated by the uncertainties of our world.
Chris Ewing responds: Carter, you've well identified the elements of the paradoxical challenge the gospel faces in our world. On the one hand, comfort is fairly meaningless unless spoken to discomfort. And growth requires moving out of one's comfort zone. Yet God desires the best for us; and while this cannot be wholly identified with conditions of comfort, we are not wrong in thinking that conditions of pain and deprivation are, if not quite antithetical to God's "best," certainly not a necessary part of it. So we live with both a normal human yearning for comfort and a religiously equivocal outlook toward it.
Although religious suspicion of comfort sometimes becomes merely habitual and therefore unedifying, the very good reason that faith is cautious of comfort is that it too often represents either stagnation or a misuse of power (or both). There can be no question, for instance, that at least some of the material comfort that North Americans enjoy is bought at the price of injustice and irresponsibility. Primary producers, offshore workers, and the environment (to name only a few) frequently subsidize our affluent lifestyle.
Moreover, as Steve notes, we too often rely on the gifts rather than the giver, with the result that we stagnate spiritually or even fall into bondage. Though the very real and serious pain caused by the GM downsizing and other such actions is just the most noticeable example, our entire culture is in need of comfort as we collectively scramble, with ever less straw, to build ever more bricks for the Pharaonic tyrant of affluence. This is an oppression we all acknowledge at least occasionally as we groan about bills, the need for both parents to work, the resultant time crunch, kids' inflated Christmas gift expectations, and so on. Yet at the same time as we chafe at the oppression, we rarely seriously imagine that life could or should be otherwise. Although we have had the occasional would-be Moses try to alert us to our condition and lead us out, the cultural juggernaut by and large continues unimpeded. Though often enough exhausted and unsatisfied, we do not step back and recognize that we are actually a subject people; and therefore we cannot hear the full measure of liberating hope in God's word of comfort. Most of us, in fact, would be unwilling to "repent" in the sense of letting go of the "good life" as popularly defined in order to find that deeper and better life that Isaiah so well described, recognizing our own ephemerality and accepting the guidance and oversight of God. Usually we need to either catastrophically lose our hold on the culturally defined "good life" (through being laid off, for instance), or live long enough for the nagging dissatisfaction to bubble to the surface and be recognized, before we can take seriously the invitation to yearn towards a world "where righteousness is at home" (2 Peter 3:13). But the preacher can always try to hasten the process a little by naming the symptoms of our oppression and holding up the vision of a life released into wholeness, where righteousness and peace greet each other with a kiss, and salvation is indeed discovered to be as close as a heart tuned to God (Psalm 85:8-11).
Carlos Wilton responds: Carter, you've laid out for us one of the great paradoxes of ministry: to comfort or to confront?
One of my favorite preaching professors in seminary was Ernie Campbell, who had retired not long before from one of the nation's most famous pulpits: the Riverside Church in New York City. Campbell once remarked, "Some people have the idea that if you raise hell, you're prophetic. I have the idea that if you lower heaven, you're prophetic."
In Isaiah 40, the prophet is definitely about the business of lowering heaven. As far as the Jewish exiles in Babylon are concerned, it's about time. Even Isaiah himself admits as much, telling them Israel "has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (40:2). It's time to go home, and Isaiah wants to be the first to tell them.
I share your uneasiness about applying this message of comfort to our culture. It is well to be cautious about equating our circumstances with those of the defeated, dispirited exiles. It's kind of like listening to an all-white choir sing the African-American spiritual "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" -- somehow those words ring less than true when sung by members of an ethnic group that has not seen nearly so much trouble as the people who first sang them. Coming from the mouths of people for whom creature comforts are part of everyday life, the words of the song are doubly untrue: it's not true that nobody knows the trouble, and it's equally untrue that those people have seen it.
Is it right for preachers to extend a message of comfort, for example, to people driving SUVs who are dismayed over high prices at the gas pump? We Americans have been lining up to buy gas-guzzlers for years, and for an even longer period of time we've cheered on our elected officials as they've slowly choked off funding to what was once one of the most extensive passenger rail systems in the world. Maybe our people feel like exiles when they pony up the suddenly higher prices, but it would hardly be honest for us to agree with them.
Novelist Barbara Kingsolver is one who has raised a prophetic voice towards our culture in recent years, particularly through her essays (such as her much-acclaimed collection Small Wonder). Reflecting on the realities of life in a post-9/11 world, she observes:
The writing has been on the wall for some years now, but we are a nation illiterate in the language of the wall. The writing just gets bigger. Something will eventually bring down the charming, infuriating naivete of Americans that allows us our blithe consumption and cheerful ignorance of the secret uglinesses that bring us whatever we want. I am not saying I'm in favor of the fall; it terrifies me. I'm saying when the 900-pound bear gets all the way out to the very tip end of the limb, something's going to crash. Nostalgia for an earlier ignorance is not the domain of this discussion. Sitting here eating as fast as we can, while glancing around for the instruments of our demise, isn't it either. Would that the instrument might be a reconstruction guided by our own foresight and discipline, rather than someone else's hatred.... (From Small Wonder [HarperCollins, 2002]; excerpt found online at http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/newsh/excerpts/bookreview/excp_4143.html)
To preach a passage like Isaiah 40, we need to try to get into the minds of the dispirited Jewish exiles for whom those words were written -- and then we have to be frank in admitting to our people that, unless they have known exceptional suffering, those words cannot possibly apply to them.
By the way, Carter, I have one exegetical quibble: I don't think "Wonderful Counselor" means something like "wonderful therapist." Since the other messianic terms in Isaiah's list are political in nature, that expression is probably referring to the type of counselor who stands behind a royal throne and issues advice to a king -- a sort of cabinet officer, in other words.
Related Illustrations
Religion is tending to degenerate into a decent formula wherewith to embellish a comfortable life.... Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science.
-- Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (1927), pp. 269ff
***
From the Heidelberg Catechism:
Q. What is your only comfort, in life and in death?
A. That I belong -- body and soul, in life and in death -- not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
***
The theologian's job is not to make the gospel credible to the modern world, but to make the world credible to the gospel.
-- Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (Abingdon, 1989)
***
The situation of a person immersed in the prophets' words is one of being exposed to a ceaseless shattering of indifference, and one needs a skull of stone to remain callous to such blows.
-- Abraham Heschel, The Prophets
***
A story is told about John Bowes, chairman of the parent company that owns Wham-O, the maker of Frisbees. In response to a charity appeal, he once sent thousands of Frisbees to an orphanage in Angola, Africa, intending that the children would enjoy playing with those simple toys.
Several months later, a representative of the corporation visited the orphanage. One of the nuns thanked him for the wonderful "plates" the company had sent. The children, she said with delight, were eating off the Frisbees, carrying water with them, even catching fish with them. When the company representative explained the true purpose of the Frisbees, the nun was even more delighted: the children would now be able to enjoy them as toys.
***
Judith Brocklehurst has a "Prayer of God's People in the Wilderness" (Gifts of Worship 2, Elizabeth Muir, ed. [United Church of Canada Dept. of Stewardship Services, 1996]) that begins, "Lord, we wander in the wilderness hungry and thirsty, unfed by slimming diets, by junk food, by painkillers...." and goes on to give thanks for those prophets, teachers, and friends who bring both the hard word of law and the gentle word of love: "for those who call us home, home to You."
Worship Resources
By George Reed
N.B. All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.
Music
Hymns
"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"
WORDS: 9th cent. Latin; trans. stanzas 1, 3, 5ab, 7ab, The Hymnal, 1940; stanza 2, Henry Sloane Coffin, 1916; stanzas 4, 5cd, 6ab, 7cd, Laurence Hull Stookey, 1986; MUSIC: 15th cent. French; arr. and harm. by Thomas Helmore, 1854
Stanzas 1, 3, 5ab, 7ab (c) 1940. 19143, renewed 1981 The Church Pension Fund; trans. stanzas 4, 5cd, 6ab, 7cd (c) 1989 the United Methodist Publishing House; antiphons (c) 1962 Sisters of St. Benedict
as found in:
UMH: 211
Hymnal '82: 56
LBOW: 34
TPH: 9
AAHH: 188
TNCH: 116
CH: 119
"Blessed Be The God Of Israel"
WORDS: Michael Perry, 1973; MUSIC: Hal. H. Hopson, 1983
Words (c) 1973 Hope Publishing Co.; music (c) 1983 Hope Publishing Co.
as found in:
UMH: 209
Hymnal '82: 444
CH: 135
"Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates"
WORDS: Georg Weissel, 1642; trans. by Catherine Winkworth, 1855;
MUSIC: Psalmodia Evangelica, 1789
(c) public domain
as found in:
UMH: 213
Hymnal '82: 436
LBOW: 32
TPH: 8
TNCH: 117
CH: 129
"There Is A Balm In Gilead"
WORDS: Afro-American spiritual; MUSIC: Afro-American spiritual
adapt. and arr. (c) 1989 The United Methodist Publishing House
as found in:
UMH: 375
Hymnal '82: 676
TPH: 394
AAHH: 524
TNNBH: 489
TNCH: 553
CH: 501
"O God, Our Help In Ages Past"
WORDS: Isaac Watts, 1719; MUSIC: attr. to William Croft, 1708; harm. by W. H. Monk, 1861
(c) public domain
as found in:
UMH: 117
Hymnal '82: 680
LBOW: 320
AAHH: 170
TNNBH: 46
TNCH: 25
CH: 67
"O Day Of God, Draw Nigh"
WORDS: R. B. Y. Scott, 1937; MUSIC: Genevian Psalter, 1551; arr. by William Crotch, 1836
(c) public domain
as found in:
UMH: 730
Hymnal '82: 600, 601
TPH: 452
TNCH: 611
CH: 700
Songs
"Arise, Shine"
WORDS: Isaiah 60:1; MUSIC: Gary Alan Smith
Music (c) 1992 Gamut Music Productions
as found in:
CCB : # 2
"I Will Call Upon The Lord"
WORDS & MUSIC: Michael O'Shields
(c) 1981 Sound III and All Nations Music
as found in:
CCB : # 9
"Sing Unto The Lord A New Song"
WORDS: Jewish Folk Song; MUSIC: Jewish Folk Song; arr. by J. Michael Bryan
Arr. (c) 1996 Abingdon Press
as found in:
CCB : # 16
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Come and hear a word from God.
People: God will speak peace to us.
Leader: The salvation of God is at hand.
People: May God's glory dwell in our land.
Leader: Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet.
People: Righteousness and peace will kiss.
Leader: God will give what is good.
People: Righteousness shall make a path for God.
COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER
O God who desires the salvation of all your people: Help us in times of distress to remember that our hope and our salvation are grounded in you alone; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
We come to worship you, for you are our salvation and hope. When all around us is in chaos and nothing seems stable, you come to bring us peace and salvation. Hear our songs of praise and fix our hearts on you alone. Amen.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: Come and let us confess to God the state of our lives as we prepare for the Christmas season.
People: We confess to you, O God, that even as we celebrate Advent and prepare for your coming among us that we are fearful. Like Mary and the shepherds in the field, we need your reassurance. Like the people of Israel when all around them seemed lost, we find ourselves wondering if salvation will ever happen. Quivering with fear and afraid that we are all alone, come to us this day and by the power of your Holy Spirit renew in us the faith that conquers all. Help us so to trust in you that nothing will shake our confidence in your loving care. Amen.
Leader: God is our Shepherd and comes to gather us into the safety of the fold. In the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven and invited to rest in the everlasting arms of the Almighty. Amen.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.
We worship you, O God, who is the very foundation upon which all creation rests. It is from your Word that we sprang and it is to your Word that we will be gathered up.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess that we have a faltering faith. We look around at all that is happening to us and to our world and we wonder if you will ever save us. We look to military power and wealth and we find them lacking. We look to family and friends and realize they are as lost as we are. Forgive us for being so foolish as to look anywhere but to you. Refresh us with your Spirit, that we may once again know your peace.
We give you thanks for all the blessings of this world and of this season. We anticipate with joy the celebration of your coming into the world. May we be awake to all the ways you continue to come into our presence to bring us peace.
(Other specific thanksgivings may be offered.)
As you cared for your people Israel, we know you care for us. We offer up to you those who are on our hearts this day. We remember that there are still those who have been driven from their homes; those who have nowhere to live and little or nothing to eat. As you move in love and compassion among them, help us to be your hands of healing.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of Jesus who taught us to pray, saying, "Our Father...."
Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
Renew: Renew! Songs and Hymns for Blended Worship
Children's Sermon
Second Sunday of Advent
Jesus is the real thing!
Object: a stick of margarine, some sugar substitute, a can of decaf coffee, some non-dairy creamer
Based on Mark 1:1-8
Good morning! Did you know that you make me and many other people happy when they know you are in church on Sunday? Turn around and look at all of the grown-ups. How many people are happy today because these children are in church? If you are happy, stand up! (have all of the adults stand up) See how happy you make all of these people? That is good.
I brought along some things with me this morning and I want to see how smart you are by telling me what they are and what kind of things they take the place of. (hold up the margarine) What is this? (wait for an answer) Very good, this is margarine, and it is a substitute for what? (let them answer) Good, for butter. (do the same with the other objects) You are very smart.
A long time ago people were waiting for the Messiah. They just knew that God was going to send into the world a great gift. The prophets had been promising it for years. Everyone wanted this person to arrive. There was a man named John the Baptist who represented God and people thought he was pretty awesome. He preached and baptized and caused a big stir among all of the people. Some of the people started to think that he was the Messiah, the Son of God. They wanted him to be it because they had waited for such a long time.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 4, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
For many people, the approaching holiday season is a favorite time of year. Festive sounds and decorations are everywhere, and the familiar whirlwind of activities and good cheer create a comfort zone that we associate with the weeks preceding Christmas. But for many others who are still coping with Katrina‚s devastation or who face economic hardship, this year‚s holidays will be anything but comfortable. In this week‚s installment of The Immediate Word, team member Carter Shelley discusses the prophetic calls in the lectionary‚s Old Testament and Gospel texts ˜ and notes that, because they were addressed to a people who experienced extreme suffering in body and spirit, they offer a powerful message to us as well about how God offers comfort amidst the travails of the world. In addition, other team members offer their viewpoints along with illustrations, worship resources, and a children‚s sermon.
The Comfort Zone
By Carter Shelley
Before you can be comfortable, you have to be uncomfortable. This week I broke my wrist -- requiring x-rays, consultations, surgery, and casting. All of that was followed by intense bone and edema pain that has not been comfortably dispelled by pain pills every four hours. But as any of you who've had broken bones or other illnesses know, such suffering and medical treatment are limited in length. The pain recedes, the bone mends, and one's body returns to the comfort zone of everyday life.
The comfort zone is a place where you or I feel at ease. Having enough food; decent housing; a dependable, well-paying job; good medical insurance; and a reasonable pension plan all contribute to our sense of comfort and well-being as we enter the Christmas season -- but such will not be the case for all Americans this December.
General Motors announced last week the closing of a major factory and the downsizing of others. Several American airlines continue to seek either bankruptcy status or enormous federal loans and bailouts while simultaneously negotiating reductions in salaries and the loss of pensions for both their retired employees and their current staff. Meanwhile, Congress has spent the past two weeks lobbying, arm-twisting, name-calling, and quarreling over the 2006 budget and whether or not to severely cut the funds available to provide food stamps, free breakfasts and lunches for poor schoolchildren, and Medicaid benefits. This uncomfortable economic belt-tightening has been sanctimoniously presented as a noble means for slowing the growth of an out-of-control national debt, while its proponents tend either to ignore or justify the trillions of dollars of national debt already accumulated from financing two wars and occupations since 9/11. While our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan daily live with homesickness, fear, death threats, and discomfort, the current administration continues its ongoing support of expensive tax relief for prosperous, middle-class Americans and seeks to legislate bigger tax breaks for the wealthiest 1% of our citizens. Consequently, the comfortable will be even more so this Christmas while some American children, single-parent households, and recently laid-off workers will become even more uncomfortable and desperate.
Biblical Texts
Isaiah 40:1-11 offers holy comfort to the Jewish exiles in Babylonia only after their dis-ease and misery has led them to seek God's forgiveness for their national selfishness and abuse of the poor, the widow, and the orphan. As God's children, the Judeans were responsible for caring for the most needy and vulnerable of the citizenry. Their failure to do so led to disaster and exile in a foreign land, but, as Isaiah proclaims, God prefers forgiveness to ongoing vengeance. Thus, God does not take the exiled Jews' suffering lightly. In Isaiah 40:1-11, the prophet proclaims God's return and presence among them. Their God from on high is coming to attend to their cares and sorrows. Yahweh their Champion and Protector has returned to them and is offering himself as their Comforter.
The prophet Isaiah's words of comfort bring hope to his original audience. They also reveal what is permanent about God. God forgives. God calls his sinful children back to him. God always cares.
This same prophetic message is proclaimed again in the first century C.E. by John the Baptist in Mark 1:1-8. In order for God's will to be heard and obeyed, John must proclaim words that name and condemn the people's various offenses. John's proclamation of the Messiah's coming demands a radical change in behavior in order for the people to be spiritually and ethically ready for the Messiah's arrival. God's people must be prepared or they will miss the Messiah's arrival. Repentance is essential. Repentance is not repentance unless there is a change in behavior. Once again God offers comfort, this time though the promise announced is the Messiah's imminent arrival.
Sermon Commentary
This week's texts offer the opportunity to make a distinction between human comfort zones and divine comfort. The comfort zone is about us. Comforting is about caring for others. In both the Isaiah and Marcan texts, the good news is God's ongoing care for humanity. The Christian challenge is for us to shift from concern about our own comfort to care and concern for those in dire need of both care and comfort.
Our Comfort Zone: Three Examples
In approaching this subject, it isn't hard to identify ways we as individuals get caught up in our own physical, psychological, and social needs. My opening example of my broken wrist is a case in point. Breaking a bone -- or having any sort of inconvenient illness -- tends to make a person very self-centered. There is pain, physical inconvenience, embarrassment, and greater dependence upon others. At the same time, one is able to milk the situation to one's benefit. I'm not expected to work as hard this week. Church members are happy to cut me some slack and to express care and sympathy. On the home front, my husband is doing all the cooking, all the errands, and washing and folding the laundry since I obviously can't do my fair share of any of these tasks presently. The problem with all this tea and sympathy is how self-centered it makes me. All this effort to make me comfortable in an uncomfortable situation tempts me to think too much of my own needs and nowhere near enough about the needs of others.
During Advent, our Christian comfort zone has several dimensions to it. The first is our sentimental joy and feeling for favorite Christian traditions. Those feelings are savored and revisited through special worship services, Christmas pageants, choir programs, the singing of beloved Christmas carols, the reading of equally beloved scriptural texts, Chrismon trees, and so on. A second comfort zone concerns the amount of time, energy, and effort the Christmas season requires. If one has the time or organizational know-how to buy just the right presents for loved ones, address and send Christmas cards, get the tree up, get the house decorated, and plan or attend parties, one can enjoy the season rather than experiencing the discomfort of unprepared panic and anxiety. Third, we can feel okay about the financial outlay we expend upon presents for our families and friends, if we also are able to feel good about our largess toward others. Perhaps you send the Salvation Army a check for a $100 or your Sunday class sponsors Christmas for a needy family in your community. You'd never think of passing one of those Santa bell ringers without dropping a few coins in his pail. You know Christmas is about giving, and so staying in your Christian comfort zone includes giving something to those less fortunate.
Another kind of comfort zone familiar to many Americans is the one that gets challenged by a credible counselor or therapist. Most of us know the value psychotherapy or counseling may provide an emotionally damaged person who finds through it acceptance and grace and forgiveness. But we also know of individuals for who such encounters are a narcissistic way to receive individual coddling. A case of the latter would be the three-times-a-week therapy sessions that seem to be mandatory for the whiny, rich New York characters who occupy most of Woody Allen's movies. These folks are not trying to recover from years of child sex abuse or trauma. Nor are they seeking to deal with personal challenges of grief, loss, or other tragedies where therapy can be a godsend. Effective therapy does not allow the patient to remain within the boundaries of his or her comfort zone. Quite the contrary, personal growth and healing are only possible when one ventures into new, risky, uncharted territory. Remember, one of Jesus' titles announced by the angel hosts in Luke is "Wonderful Counselor."
Audience
Unless you are the pastor of an indigent, homeless, recent immigrant population, it will be necessary to address the fact that we, and our congregants, are not in the same place as sixth-century Jewish exiles or first-century Jews and Christians. We are not members of an oppressed nation, nor are we members of a religious minority trying to hang on to our faith and values in the face of political opposition or punitive penalties. Rather, we are citizens of the richest, greatest nation in the world. We are the greatest military power the world has ever seen. Despite job layoffs and industry moving overseas, we remain the most economically prosperous country ever. The majority of us live in great comfort -- we have plenty to eat; warm, dry places to live and sleep; and gas may cost a lot more now than it did two months ago, but we're still driving where we want pretty much whenever we want. And far from believing that our God is angry with us or punishing us, we believe God is on our side. There's the rub, as it were. When we are overly confident of our God, we are most at risk of losing it all.
Holy Comfort
It takes only a cursory glance at Mark1:1-8 to know that John the Baptist himself is not interested in staying in the comfort zone. His wardrobe of camel's hair with a modest girdle around his loins is not a sexy "come on" to women, but an example of his disinterest in adornment or personal comfort. And his diet is such as would make an underweight model flinch. There is no bottled water, no vegan chef, no comfort foods; only locusts and wild honey. John's message is one of comfort for God's subject people, but the comfort God offers them requires a response. The Messiah is coming to save God's people, but God's people must prepare for the Messiah's coming. First, they must examine their hearts, name their sins, and repent. Repentance does not mean feeling bad about selfish or bad behavior. Repentance means a change in behavior away from selfishness to selflessness. If the people will repent, be baptized, and be changed, they will be ready when the Messiah comes and will recognize the Messiah when he appears. Thus John's message is one of hopefulness and a call to faithfulness.
God's relationship with humanity has always been about what is best for humanity -- even though we don't always know it or get it. God's law was not established for God's benefit but for ours. Obedience to the law and genuine worshiping of God as God are the means by which the Jews can live righteously and in harmony with one another and with other nations.
Comforting is about the needs of others. Compassion and caring are what God requires of those who would be faithful whether they are exiles returning to their homeland, subjected Judeans oppressed by Rome, or twenty-first-century Christians living in the most powerful nation on earth. As Christians we are called to be comforters, not conquerors; to be generous to the weak, the poor, the dependent ones; and to be politically and economically generous toward those who most desperately need assistance locally, nationally, and internationally.
Isaiah and John the Baptist both offer comfort to God's people. We twenty-first-century Christians need to ask ourselves who needs comforting this Christmas. Are there members of our congregation who are lonely, sick, depressed, or afraid? Are there members of our community who have been laid off from their jobs and who can't pay their rent, much less finance Christmas for their families this year? Are there people currently on welfare who will lose their food stamps, Medicaid, or other essential benefits if Congress cuts back on those programs? Are there not American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq for whom this Christmas will be a time of homesickness, sadness, fear, and anger? What about their families anxious for and bereft of them living here in the United States? Will not this season be one of grief and fear for loved ones living in the danger zones? In addition, there are many of God's children throughout the world who have never known the physical comforts of decent housing, a full belly, a healthy body, and a sense of peace. In this season, when we await the birth of the Prince of Peace, there are many who need comfort. May we as Christians pray and pledge to be God's messengers and givers of comfort to those God would have us comfort in his name.
Team Responses
George Murphy responds: Much of the Bible, and the prophets in particular, has the pattern of a good news/bad news story. "I've got some bad news... you're in trouble; and some good news ... God will save you." Often the bad news is even more pointed -- "You are a sinner," with "you" being either singular or plural. This isn't always the case, but our troubles may indeed be the result of individual or corporate sin.
The first 39 chapters of Isaiah are not all warning, condemnation, or threat, but a good deal of them are: chapters 1, 3, 5, 22, and 28 are examples. It is the sins of the people of Israel, and especially of the wealthy and those in power, that the prophets saw as the cause of the nation's defeat and exile. Then in chapter 40 there comes a message of comfort. This isn't just a matter of rhetorical strategy. The Jews did have to languish in exile for fifty or sixty years before they heard that Cyrus was on the way to conquer the Babylonian empire and liberate the captive (Isaiah 45:1-7).
An important special case of this bad news/good news pattern is the law/gospel motif that is familiar especially to Lutherans. (C.F.W. Walther's The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel [Concordia, 1929] is a classic exposition.) The law is to be preached to people until they realize their sinfulness and need for forgiveness. The law here plays an accusatory function, bringing out the reality of sin. But once the person realizes his or her sin, the gospel of God's free grace in Christ is to be announced. John the Baptist's demand for repentance to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah is part of this law/gospel structure.
This is a good pattern, but as the example of the Jewish exiles shows, it's not always necessary to "preach" law in so many words. Events may do that, making people aware of their situation and broken relationship with God.
Why this pattern? Why not just start out with the good news? For one thing, you won't realize that you need the good news if you haven't realized, or haven't accepted, the bad. Before you'll be willing to have major surgery, you have to be willing to go to a doctor and be willing to believe the results of a diagnosis that tell you that you have a life-threatening illness. The prophets often function as diagnosticians. (And Isaiah 1:5-6 in fact uses medical imagery to describe Judah's condition.)
Or use another, more vivid, picture. There's an old story of a man who bought a mule from a farmer. The seller assured him that the mule was very well trained and obedient and would respond to the owner's every command with no hesitation. Well, about halfway home with his new animal, the mule stopped dead in the middle of the road. No commands, shouts, or anything else could get it to move. The angry owner walked back to the farmer who had sold him the mule and told him the situation, and the farmer picked up a two-by-four and went with the mule's owner to find the animal still standing in the road. The farmer went up to him, whacked him alongside the head with the two-by-four, and said "Move" -- and the mule started off.
"What's that all about?" demanded the mule's owner. "You never said anything about doing anything like that. You told me he'd obey my commands with no hesitation!"
"Well, yes," said the farmer. "But first you have to get his attention."
Sometimes God has to get our attention before we'll be willing to listen to his promise. Does that mean that God deliberately causes GM layoffs, natural disasters, and other troubles as a way of whacking us alongside the head? I don't think we have to put it that way. To take just the first example, human selfishness, greed, and short-sightedness; the decisions of management and labor; and some of the features of our society can bring trouble upon us. (Paul Krugman's column "Bad for the Country" in the November 25 New York Times brings out some aspects of this.) God doesn't bring this about to warn or punish us, but God can use such things to get our attention. Are we listening?
Stephen McCutchan responds: It is natural for us to seek our comfort from the many blessings that we have received in life. Whether we are conscious of our blessings or just assume them as belonging to us, there is the natural temptation to assume that experiencing numerous blessings in our life is testimony to our worth as a person, church, or nation. Can you imagine a person who has just received a large merit raise along with many words of praise saying, "I think there must be something wrong with what I am doing?" Can you imagine a mega-church whose programs are always overflowing and whose worship service attracts a couple of thousand worshipers saying, "Where did we go wrong?" Can you imagine a country that is blessed with rich natural resources, a diverse and talented population, and a political system envied by the entire world agonizing about their lost opportunities? When things are going well, it is easy to assume that these are signs of our wisdom, skill, and virtue. It rarely seems to invite us to want to probe beneath the surface to examine the quality of our life.
Now try to imagine our response when those markers of our success and well-being are suddenly removed from our experience. For many people, the removal of one or more of these blessings that they value will cause them to turn away from God altogether. The removal of such affirming experiences was the experience that Israel had. Because they believed that they were God's chosen people, they assumed that certain markers in their national experience were affirmations of their "chosenness." They knew that originally they were just a ragtag bunch of slaves in Egypt. If Joshua 24:15 is accurate, then they didn't even all worship the same gods when they were in Egypt. But then, in an experience that they could only attribute to a divine force from beyond them, they were miraculously set free from this slavery. For forty years they wandered across the harsh wilderness as a bunch of nomads. At Mount Sinai they experienced the power of being chosen by the God of the universe to be God's special people. While there were ups and downs, on the whole their experience seemed to affirm their specialness. They entered into a land they could call their own, defeated their enemies, built a temple, established a dynasty that was admired by other nations, and experienced prosperity.
But then, one by one those signs of well-being were removed from them. Their enemies defeated them, their royal dynasty was destroyed, the temple was burned to the ground, and the land was settled by foreigners while they were transplanted in other strange lands. I cannot imagine many citizens of a country that had experienced such devastation that could retain a sense of identity as a people. They had every reason to feel a sense of despair and worthlessness as a people. It was to this condition that Isaiah 40 speaks. The genius of the prophets of exile was that they refused to allow the negative experiences of their lives to drive a wedge between them and God. Rather, assuming that all experiences happened within the realm of God's control, they turned to examine what God was saying to them through these negative experiences. While they certainly concluded, as Carter mentions, that their exile was a punishment for their failure to exhibit justice for the vulnerable around them, they also made an even more radical assertion. Drawing upon the tradition of the original wilderness experience, the prophets claimed that their ultimate sin was their failure to trust God. As Deuteronomy 8 declared, the whole wilderness experience was designed to shape a people's ability to trust God rather than the blessings of life for their future. When they became dependent on possession of the land, the presence of the temple, and the power of the king, God removed them all and re-created the wilderness experience so that they once again could experience being completely dependent on God.
A further declaration of the prophets, which again drew upon their tradition of faith, was that while people can become faithless, God will always be faithful. God is a God of justice, and such justice does include punishment for wrongdoing. However, divine punishment is always for the sake of redemption. Even in the worst of experiences, the people were told that God had not given up on them. "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid ..."
In fact, it is exactly in the most devastating times, when the wilderness experience threatens to be beyond their control, that they are called to "prepare the way of the Lord ..." When things are going well, it is easy to become dependent on the gift rather than the giver. It is in chaotic times, when all the signs of security seem to be shaky, that we are reminded again that our real hope all along is not in our ability but in the faithfulness of God. The prophets, including John the Baptist, decried the injustice of the world, but having revealed the failure of humanity to create the perfect kingdom and actually to often get so caught up in hubris that they foolishly used one's blessings in devastating ways, the prophets then declared that our real hope is in the faithfulness of God.
Seeking to escape into the nostalgia of the past is exactly the opposite direction to move if we want to discover genuine good news in our lives. Rather, the path to hope asks us to look into the face of chaos and discover what idols we need to let go of so that we can again discover God as the source of our hope. A baptism of repentance is a turning from the false idols that we have created so that we might again trust in the God who gave us life. That is a message that will not be defeated by the uncertainties of our world.
Chris Ewing responds: Carter, you've well identified the elements of the paradoxical challenge the gospel faces in our world. On the one hand, comfort is fairly meaningless unless spoken to discomfort. And growth requires moving out of one's comfort zone. Yet God desires the best for us; and while this cannot be wholly identified with conditions of comfort, we are not wrong in thinking that conditions of pain and deprivation are, if not quite antithetical to God's "best," certainly not a necessary part of it. So we live with both a normal human yearning for comfort and a religiously equivocal outlook toward it.
Although religious suspicion of comfort sometimes becomes merely habitual and therefore unedifying, the very good reason that faith is cautious of comfort is that it too often represents either stagnation or a misuse of power (or both). There can be no question, for instance, that at least some of the material comfort that North Americans enjoy is bought at the price of injustice and irresponsibility. Primary producers, offshore workers, and the environment (to name only a few) frequently subsidize our affluent lifestyle.
Moreover, as Steve notes, we too often rely on the gifts rather than the giver, with the result that we stagnate spiritually or even fall into bondage. Though the very real and serious pain caused by the GM downsizing and other such actions is just the most noticeable example, our entire culture is in need of comfort as we collectively scramble, with ever less straw, to build ever more bricks for the Pharaonic tyrant of affluence. This is an oppression we all acknowledge at least occasionally as we groan about bills, the need for both parents to work, the resultant time crunch, kids' inflated Christmas gift expectations, and so on. Yet at the same time as we chafe at the oppression, we rarely seriously imagine that life could or should be otherwise. Although we have had the occasional would-be Moses try to alert us to our condition and lead us out, the cultural juggernaut by and large continues unimpeded. Though often enough exhausted and unsatisfied, we do not step back and recognize that we are actually a subject people; and therefore we cannot hear the full measure of liberating hope in God's word of comfort. Most of us, in fact, would be unwilling to "repent" in the sense of letting go of the "good life" as popularly defined in order to find that deeper and better life that Isaiah so well described, recognizing our own ephemerality and accepting the guidance and oversight of God. Usually we need to either catastrophically lose our hold on the culturally defined "good life" (through being laid off, for instance), or live long enough for the nagging dissatisfaction to bubble to the surface and be recognized, before we can take seriously the invitation to yearn towards a world "where righteousness is at home" (2 Peter 3:13). But the preacher can always try to hasten the process a little by naming the symptoms of our oppression and holding up the vision of a life released into wholeness, where righteousness and peace greet each other with a kiss, and salvation is indeed discovered to be as close as a heart tuned to God (Psalm 85:8-11).
Carlos Wilton responds: Carter, you've laid out for us one of the great paradoxes of ministry: to comfort or to confront?
One of my favorite preaching professors in seminary was Ernie Campbell, who had retired not long before from one of the nation's most famous pulpits: the Riverside Church in New York City. Campbell once remarked, "Some people have the idea that if you raise hell, you're prophetic. I have the idea that if you lower heaven, you're prophetic."
In Isaiah 40, the prophet is definitely about the business of lowering heaven. As far as the Jewish exiles in Babylon are concerned, it's about time. Even Isaiah himself admits as much, telling them Israel "has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (40:2). It's time to go home, and Isaiah wants to be the first to tell them.
I share your uneasiness about applying this message of comfort to our culture. It is well to be cautious about equating our circumstances with those of the defeated, dispirited exiles. It's kind of like listening to an all-white choir sing the African-American spiritual "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" -- somehow those words ring less than true when sung by members of an ethnic group that has not seen nearly so much trouble as the people who first sang them. Coming from the mouths of people for whom creature comforts are part of everyday life, the words of the song are doubly untrue: it's not true that nobody knows the trouble, and it's equally untrue that those people have seen it.
Is it right for preachers to extend a message of comfort, for example, to people driving SUVs who are dismayed over high prices at the gas pump? We Americans have been lining up to buy gas-guzzlers for years, and for an even longer period of time we've cheered on our elected officials as they've slowly choked off funding to what was once one of the most extensive passenger rail systems in the world. Maybe our people feel like exiles when they pony up the suddenly higher prices, but it would hardly be honest for us to agree with them.
Novelist Barbara Kingsolver is one who has raised a prophetic voice towards our culture in recent years, particularly through her essays (such as her much-acclaimed collection Small Wonder). Reflecting on the realities of life in a post-9/11 world, she observes:
The writing has been on the wall for some years now, but we are a nation illiterate in the language of the wall. The writing just gets bigger. Something will eventually bring down the charming, infuriating naivete of Americans that allows us our blithe consumption and cheerful ignorance of the secret uglinesses that bring us whatever we want. I am not saying I'm in favor of the fall; it terrifies me. I'm saying when the 900-pound bear gets all the way out to the very tip end of the limb, something's going to crash. Nostalgia for an earlier ignorance is not the domain of this discussion. Sitting here eating as fast as we can, while glancing around for the instruments of our demise, isn't it either. Would that the instrument might be a reconstruction guided by our own foresight and discipline, rather than someone else's hatred.... (From Small Wonder [HarperCollins, 2002]; excerpt found online at http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/newsh/excerpts/bookreview/excp_4143.html)
To preach a passage like Isaiah 40, we need to try to get into the minds of the dispirited Jewish exiles for whom those words were written -- and then we have to be frank in admitting to our people that, unless they have known exceptional suffering, those words cannot possibly apply to them.
By the way, Carter, I have one exegetical quibble: I don't think "Wonderful Counselor" means something like "wonderful therapist." Since the other messianic terms in Isaiah's list are political in nature, that expression is probably referring to the type of counselor who stands behind a royal throne and issues advice to a king -- a sort of cabinet officer, in other words.
Related Illustrations
Religion is tending to degenerate into a decent formula wherewith to embellish a comfortable life.... Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science.
-- Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (1927), pp. 269ff
***
From the Heidelberg Catechism:
Q. What is your only comfort, in life and in death?
A. That I belong -- body and soul, in life and in death -- not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
***
The theologian's job is not to make the gospel credible to the modern world, but to make the world credible to the gospel.
-- Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (Abingdon, 1989)
***
The situation of a person immersed in the prophets' words is one of being exposed to a ceaseless shattering of indifference, and one needs a skull of stone to remain callous to such blows.
-- Abraham Heschel, The Prophets
***
A story is told about John Bowes, chairman of the parent company that owns Wham-O, the maker of Frisbees. In response to a charity appeal, he once sent thousands of Frisbees to an orphanage in Angola, Africa, intending that the children would enjoy playing with those simple toys.
Several months later, a representative of the corporation visited the orphanage. One of the nuns thanked him for the wonderful "plates" the company had sent. The children, she said with delight, were eating off the Frisbees, carrying water with them, even catching fish with them. When the company representative explained the true purpose of the Frisbees, the nun was even more delighted: the children would now be able to enjoy them as toys.
***
Judith Brocklehurst has a "Prayer of God's People in the Wilderness" (Gifts of Worship 2, Elizabeth Muir, ed. [United Church of Canada Dept. of Stewardship Services, 1996]) that begins, "Lord, we wander in the wilderness hungry and thirsty, unfed by slimming diets, by junk food, by painkillers...." and goes on to give thanks for those prophets, teachers, and friends who bring both the hard word of law and the gentle word of love: "for those who call us home, home to You."
Worship Resources
By George Reed
N.B. All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.
Music
Hymns
"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"
WORDS: 9th cent. Latin; trans. stanzas 1, 3, 5ab, 7ab, The Hymnal, 1940; stanza 2, Henry Sloane Coffin, 1916; stanzas 4, 5cd, 6ab, 7cd, Laurence Hull Stookey, 1986; MUSIC: 15th cent. French; arr. and harm. by Thomas Helmore, 1854
Stanzas 1, 3, 5ab, 7ab (c) 1940. 19143, renewed 1981 The Church Pension Fund; trans. stanzas 4, 5cd, 6ab, 7cd (c) 1989 the United Methodist Publishing House; antiphons (c) 1962 Sisters of St. Benedict
as found in:
UMH: 211
Hymnal '82: 56
LBOW: 34
TPH: 9
AAHH: 188
TNCH: 116
CH: 119
"Blessed Be The God Of Israel"
WORDS: Michael Perry, 1973; MUSIC: Hal. H. Hopson, 1983
Words (c) 1973 Hope Publishing Co.; music (c) 1983 Hope Publishing Co.
as found in:
UMH: 209
Hymnal '82: 444
CH: 135
"Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates"
WORDS: Georg Weissel, 1642; trans. by Catherine Winkworth, 1855;
MUSIC: Psalmodia Evangelica, 1789
(c) public domain
as found in:
UMH: 213
Hymnal '82: 436
LBOW: 32
TPH: 8
TNCH: 117
CH: 129
"There Is A Balm In Gilead"
WORDS: Afro-American spiritual; MUSIC: Afro-American spiritual
adapt. and arr. (c) 1989 The United Methodist Publishing House
as found in:
UMH: 375
Hymnal '82: 676
TPH: 394
AAHH: 524
TNNBH: 489
TNCH: 553
CH: 501
"O God, Our Help In Ages Past"
WORDS: Isaac Watts, 1719; MUSIC: attr. to William Croft, 1708; harm. by W. H. Monk, 1861
(c) public domain
as found in:
UMH: 117
Hymnal '82: 680
LBOW: 320
AAHH: 170
TNNBH: 46
TNCH: 25
CH: 67
"O Day Of God, Draw Nigh"
WORDS: R. B. Y. Scott, 1937; MUSIC: Genevian Psalter, 1551; arr. by William Crotch, 1836
(c) public domain
as found in:
UMH: 730
Hymnal '82: 600, 601
TPH: 452
TNCH: 611
CH: 700
Songs
"Arise, Shine"
WORDS: Isaiah 60:1; MUSIC: Gary Alan Smith
Music (c) 1992 Gamut Music Productions
as found in:
CCB : # 2
"I Will Call Upon The Lord"
WORDS & MUSIC: Michael O'Shields
(c) 1981 Sound III and All Nations Music
as found in:
CCB : # 9
"Sing Unto The Lord A New Song"
WORDS: Jewish Folk Song; MUSIC: Jewish Folk Song; arr. by J. Michael Bryan
Arr. (c) 1996 Abingdon Press
as found in:
CCB : # 16
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Come and hear a word from God.
People: God will speak peace to us.
Leader: The salvation of God is at hand.
People: May God's glory dwell in our land.
Leader: Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet.
People: Righteousness and peace will kiss.
Leader: God will give what is good.
People: Righteousness shall make a path for God.
COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER
O God who desires the salvation of all your people: Help us in times of distress to remember that our hope and our salvation are grounded in you alone; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
We come to worship you, for you are our salvation and hope. When all around us is in chaos and nothing seems stable, you come to bring us peace and salvation. Hear our songs of praise and fix our hearts on you alone. Amen.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: Come and let us confess to God the state of our lives as we prepare for the Christmas season.
People: We confess to you, O God, that even as we celebrate Advent and prepare for your coming among us that we are fearful. Like Mary and the shepherds in the field, we need your reassurance. Like the people of Israel when all around them seemed lost, we find ourselves wondering if salvation will ever happen. Quivering with fear and afraid that we are all alone, come to us this day and by the power of your Holy Spirit renew in us the faith that conquers all. Help us so to trust in you that nothing will shake our confidence in your loving care. Amen.
Leader: God is our Shepherd and comes to gather us into the safety of the fold. In the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven and invited to rest in the everlasting arms of the Almighty. Amen.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.
We worship you, O God, who is the very foundation upon which all creation rests. It is from your Word that we sprang and it is to your Word that we will be gathered up.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess that we have a faltering faith. We look around at all that is happening to us and to our world and we wonder if you will ever save us. We look to military power and wealth and we find them lacking. We look to family and friends and realize they are as lost as we are. Forgive us for being so foolish as to look anywhere but to you. Refresh us with your Spirit, that we may once again know your peace.
We give you thanks for all the blessings of this world and of this season. We anticipate with joy the celebration of your coming into the world. May we be awake to all the ways you continue to come into our presence to bring us peace.
(Other specific thanksgivings may be offered.)
As you cared for your people Israel, we know you care for us. We offer up to you those who are on our hearts this day. We remember that there are still those who have been driven from their homes; those who have nowhere to live and little or nothing to eat. As you move in love and compassion among them, help us to be your hands of healing.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of Jesus who taught us to pray, saying, "Our Father...."
Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
Renew: Renew! Songs and Hymns for Blended Worship
Children's Sermon
Second Sunday of Advent
Jesus is the real thing!
Object: a stick of margarine, some sugar substitute, a can of decaf coffee, some non-dairy creamer
Based on Mark 1:1-8
Good morning! Did you know that you make me and many other people happy when they know you are in church on Sunday? Turn around and look at all of the grown-ups. How many people are happy today because these children are in church? If you are happy, stand up! (have all of the adults stand up) See how happy you make all of these people? That is good.
I brought along some things with me this morning and I want to see how smart you are by telling me what they are and what kind of things they take the place of. (hold up the margarine) What is this? (wait for an answer) Very good, this is margarine, and it is a substitute for what? (let them answer) Good, for butter. (do the same with the other objects) You are very smart.
A long time ago people were waiting for the Messiah. They just knew that God was going to send into the world a great gift. The prophets had been promising it for years. Everyone wanted this person to arrive. There was a man named John the Baptist who represented God and people thought he was pretty awesome. He preached and baptized and caused a big stir among all of the people. Some of the people started to think that he was the Messiah, the Son of God. They wanted him to be it because they had waited for such a long time.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 4, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
