Comfort, O Comfort My People

Isaiah 40:1-11

One of the defining events of the Old Testament is exile. Somewhere around 580 BCE, the Israelites were taken captive by Babylon. I can only imagine the trauma of seeing your home and city destroyed. I can only imagine the trauma of losing everything and having to start over…

And so it is to this particular people, with this collective experience, that God speaks through Isaiah, “Comfort, O comfort my people…” And then, in what is one of the most famous passages of scripture, and one that is read or sung almost every Advent, there is a promise of homecoming, a promise of God himself leading his people home like a shepherd through the wilderness, “A voice cries out: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

I really can only imagine that particular community hearing these words for the first time. I wonder if they were able to believe it. I wonder if they were able to trust…

I think about this past couple of years that we’ve had, and I wonder if there have been moments when you’ve found it hard to trust. Our collective experience has been heavy enough. But on top of everything else, I know for some of you there have been cancer diagnoses, some of you have lost family members. Some of you are worried about loved ones and jobs and marriages. I’m sure there have been moments when many have asked… Is there any light in this? Is there hope…

And so Isaiah’s words come to us as well… “Comfort, O comfort my people…”

Perhaps it’s symbolic that the season of Advent, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, falls at a time when the days are growing shorter. There is less and less light. And yet we know that right before Christmas, things will begin to shift. And even though we head into the dead of winter, the days will begin to lengthen again, and the light will become more prevalent.

This time of year is always a reminder to me that while darkness is a part of life, it doesn’t have the last word. And so as we come into this Advent season with our longings for healing, for a better world, for peace, I pray that you would know the comfort of the God who meets us in the wilderness, and who has promised to carry us through.

Let us pray: Be near, O God, to those who need you near. Grant us courage and healing and hope. May we catch even a glimpse of your light breaking through the darkness this day. We ask in Jesus’s name. Amen.