Don’t Get Too Comfortable
A Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent
December 10, 2023 at St. John’s, Church Hill
The Rev. Robin Teasley
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand
double for all her sins.
A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway 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. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever.
Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep. Isaiah 40:1-11
There is a big holiday sale going on at The Lazy Boy furniture store. By the very name, Lazy Boy, comfort is implied, is connected to relaxation, to being lazy even. After forty-four years of marriage, my husband Paul and I are in need of some new chairs, chairs that are comfortable. So off we went and with little discomfort we purchased two new recliners. We had options. Rocking recliners, swivel recliners, gliding recliners, all guaranteed to be the most comfortable chairs we could ever want. The sales staff were good. This Advent we are waiting for comfort to be delivered to our house.
In today’s text from Isaiah the prophet cries out, “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.” Somehow I don’t think God has in mind for Isaiah to find comfortable chairs for God’s people or for himself.
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Comfort. What is that? The word does bring to mind images such as Lazy Boy recliners, cozy quilts, and a warm glow in the fireplace. We might imagine our favorite comfort foods or our comfortable clothes. You know, the ones with the elastic waistbands! We might think of creature comforts; how much we love them and resist giving them up. We are all too aware of our comfort zone, whatever it may be, preferring to remain inside of it at all times.
We all want comfort, we like comfort, and we have this idea that it’s a warm and fuzzy thing. And when things become uncomfortable, we will sometimes ignore or distance ourselves from the uncomfortable things.
It's helpful to know that the word comfort, comes from the Latin word fort, meaning “with strength, strong.” We get our words fort and fortitude from this same root. So, to give comfort to someone quite literally means to lend them your strength, to walk with them until they can walk on their own. This is how God comforts us, by walking with us, giving us strength to walk through the wilderness.
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If we envision ourselves as the flock belonging to the shepherd, then we also are likely to envision ourselves gathered and comfortably carried, like lambs in the arms of the Shepherd. We want to be carried all of the time. But to be carried all the time only makes us weaker, never allowing us to learn to walk. And comfort is not about giving weakness. It’s about giving strength. Strength for walking on rough roads, up high mountains, and through rocky valleys. When the kingdom of God is realized, then we will all be gathered, says the prophet.
Isaiah knew something about wilderness, as did the people of Israel. Their city had been destroyed and they had been carried off into exile and relocated to Babylon by their captors. Isaiah proclaims in today’s text that God wants them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild it, but after living in Babylon for so long, most of the Jewish exiles had settled into the Babylonian lifestyle; they had become quite comfortable in this alien culture.
Why would they ever want to leave such a comfortable lifestyle? It was no easy choice to be sure. It was the voice of the prophet reminding them of God’s glory and might and eternal word, reminding them of who and whose they were, that called them out of their comfort zone. In response, the people of Israel made a choice to leave the creature comforts of Babylon and return to rebuild Jerusalem. Isaiah also reminded them of the power of their own voices, saying “lift up your voice with strength, do not fear, here is your God!” Words of strength, words of comfort.
These prophetic words were so meaningful to Israel that they were known by heart. In the gospel today, John the baptizer repeats these words centuries later in another wilderness time. The Jews living in Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside were waiting for the Messiah, struggling under Roman rule, and in need of comfort. They needed to know that God was still with them, strengthening them. Just as the people had to choose to leave their comfortable chairs in Babylon to return to Jerusalem, now they had to choose again. Could they hear the words of hope from John the baptizer, and would they respond?
Most of us have some idea of what it feels like to be in a wilderness, to have a desert between ourselves and God. Life is full of wilderness, and we don’t have to journey very far to find it. We don’t even have to leave our comfortable chairs to find ourselves in a wilderness, lost, and wondering if God is there. We sit and allow fear or anger to consume us, we hold onto old hurts and resentment. We go down into the valley of selfishness, or up the rocky mountainside of pride.
It is in this wilderness that we feel separated from God, distracted by our own creature comforts and desires. And it is all too easy to blame others for our wilderness, or to simply sit down and lament our wilderness. We can even convince ourselves that we don’t have a wilderness and don’t need to go there. We tell ourselves that we are not responsible for the mess in the world and don’t have to leave our comfort zone. But if we pay attention, we will begin to see that God has been with us all along in our wilderness. God is waiting for us to hear the prophet’s voice and respond; God is waiting to comfort and strengthen us for the construction work of the kingdom.
As the faithful who have gone before us, we are being called to leave our perceived comfort to prepare the way of the Lord, not only in our personal wilderness, in our own lives, but also in the lives of those around us. We make paths straight when we notice and respond to the needs of others in our families, in our church, and in our community. We make uneven ground level when we work for justice, freedom and peace. We make the rough places a plain when we respect the dignity of every human being. In order to do this, we’re going to need to get up out of our comfortable chairs. We’re going to need to risk stepping out of our comfort zones, to lift up our voices of strength and our words of comfort in a world that is very much a wilderness right now for so many people.
There is no better time than Advent to begin to prepare the way. Perhaps we start within ourselves, taking some time each day to be still and listen for the voice of God. We can light a candle, read scripture, pray, and ask God to show us where there is a need for some roadwork. There will always be rough places, from the events of our own busy lives and complicated relationships to the global concerns of a world in need.
So, don’t get too comfortable, because God’s voice will surely call us to life up our voices with strength in someone else’s wilderness saying, “do not fear, here is your God!”
“Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people shall see it together!”
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