Comfort

Translation of my sermon for 3rd Advent, November 16th, 2012 on Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her,
that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned:
for she hath received of the Lord 's hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, 
Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low:
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough places plain:
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together:
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

The voice said, Cry.
And he said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass,
and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it:
surely the people is grass.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain;
O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength;
lift it up, be not afraid;
say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand,
and his arm shall rule for him:
behold, his reward is with him,
and his work before him.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd:
he shall gather the lambs with his arm,
and carry them in his bosom,
and shall gently lead those that are with young.

(King James Version)

Dear brothers and sisters,

sometimes, one needs comfort.
Sometimes, one must place their head
in the lap of mom or dad,
one must hide their face at the chest of their beloved one
and cry, and hear a familiar voice
ensuring them that everything will be all right again,
that they themselves are good and all right and loved.

Sometimes, one needs comfort.
And this need doesn't comply with the calendar.
Even shortly before Christmas,
which is so little associated with sadness and comfort,
one sometimes needs comfort.
For suffering also doesn't comply with the calendar.
We just saw scenes from Newtown, Connecticut,
where parents, pupils, teachers,
and many, many people outside this circle
who were affected by this tragedy
were looking for comfort
and asked themselves: Why?
Why does a young man shoot down 20 kids and 7 grown-ups?
Why can't 31 rampages since Columbine 
change the US-legislation on weapons,
while a single so-called "shoe-bomber" was enough 
that everybody has to take off their shoes at the airport?

I

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her,
that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned:
for she hath received of the Lord 's hand double for all her sins.

Besides the question Why?, 
besides the question for the motif,
many people also asked themselves 
how God could permit this to happen.
This question is also asked in Newtown.
If something incomprehensible occurs
like this rampage in a primary school,
or if one gets informed about an incurable disease
or the death of a beloved person,
this question arises all by itself:
How can God permit this to happen?

Listening to today's lesson, one nearly freezes:
She hath received of the Lord 's hand double for all her sins.
Could it be, could it be possible,
that God doesn't only permit such horrors,
but that he even provokes them,
as a punishment for - whatever?
Could it be, must it be put that way,
that God lets us suffer
because we made mistakes?

No, it can't be that way. And it isn't that way.
God doesn't punish us for mistakes we made,
God forgives us our mistakes.
The bible shows God is someone who can get very wrathful;
who is so disappointed of his mankind,
of his people Israel, that he regrets that he'd done them good;
who acts unpredictable and has dark and incomprehensible features.
But God's feature is also his forgiveness,
his mercifulness, and his pity.
God is this forgiveness, this pity.
God is love, says Jesus.
God doesn't punish. God forgives.

II

However, it may happen that one has the feeling God punishes them.

A child that is comforted by mom or dad
also experiences that his or her parents can get quite mad,
that they are sometimes moody, short-tempered, irritable.
The child asks herself, if this is her fault,
what it could have done wrong, that her parents are acting this way.
In doing so, the child forgets that her parents love her above anything else 
and that they would get very, very sad if they knew what their child is thinking just now.

It's the same with relationships:
We interpret the behaviour of our partner as a reaction on our behaviour,
we think in categories of guilt and punishment.
But it was just trouble on the job,
or the partner is mad about him- or herself.
One doesn't think of this,
but blames him- or herself - and, doing so, forgets,
that the partner loves him or her above anything else
and that he were ashamed if he knew what the other one was thinking just now.

The people of Israel thought God punished them
because it lost its home,
because Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed,
because it was exiled.
How could God permit this to happen?

God doesn't argue with his people.
God doesn't say: You're wrong,
I haven't got anything to do with this.
God accepts that he's held responsible for Israel's disaster,
that he's blamed for this calamity.
But if God's guilty, he cannot comfort.
A father who scolded his child
cannot hold her in his arms afterwards.
The child runs to her mother and seeks comfort in her arm.
Thus God asks for comfort for his people:
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people!
God looks for somebody to comfort his people,
who bears their desperate tears
and who later, when the greatest sorrow is gone by,
can show that it wasn't God's fault.

III

It isn't God's fault.
But, one could ask meanly:
if God isn't responsible for suffering and terror,
if he hasn't got anything to do with it -
can he then effect anything?
Is that talk about valleys being exalted and hills being made low other than symbolic?

Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand,
and his arm shall rule for him.
It isn't God's fault.
But God doesn't interfere, either.
God doesn't snatch away the weapon from the assassin.
God doesn't vanquish cancer.
God doesn't prevent accident, death.
God, it seems, causes nothing.
He doesn't interfere, he doesn't change anything.

But why does the profet say that God comes with strong hand, then?
Why does Mary sing in the magnificat,
that God put down the mighty from their thrones
and exalts them of low degree?
he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden:
for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
Had her coevals heard those full-bodied words of Mary,
they'd shaken their heads.
Mary was a simple woman until her death.
She made nothing of her life, according to human scales.
And still what she sang got true:
All generations call her blessed,
many, many churches are named after her
and her words are sung daily all over the world.

IV

Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand,
and his arm shall rule for him.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd:
he shall gather the lambs with his arm,
and carry them in his bosom,
and shall gently lead those that are with young.
God's force is entirely different to the force
that comes from guns and semi-automatic weapons.
It's the force of a small, helpless, newborn baby
that's lying in the straw in a manger in a stable.
One can't be more helpless, dependent, powerless.
And still, a force comes from him
that's perceived by everybody who isn't a barbarian:
a small child like this immediately releases protective instincts.
Everybody would want to help him at any rate,
would want to care for him, to comfort him.

A small child like this rouses an incredible joy -
small wonder no grown-up can restrain him- or herself from looking into a buggy 
and is as pleased as Punch if the small one in the buggy reacts, or even smiles.

The force of the child is helpless against the force of rifles.
It's easily defeated, too easily.
Still it's a force that unfolds an irresistible power.
A force that makes mountains low and exalts valleys.
Because it gives us hope and an aim.
It makes us believe in the good that man is able to do,
the good God has assigned his world to.
It gives us power to make that good come true in ever so small steps.

The rampage of Newtown was dreadful and incomprehendable.
But still in all that horror there were people 
who instantly helped, who comforted, 
who revolted against the arms lobby.
There were calls for prayer in the internet
for the victims, for their bereaved, for the teachers.
People shared their bewilderment, their sorrow
and comforted each other.

The force of love is easily conquered by the force of rifles.
It's a helpless force.
But it's stronger than any rifle,
because love touches our hearts,
makes us merciful, gives us hope.

V

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people!
Even in advent one sometimes needs comfort.
And we find it - with mom and dad,
with the beloved one.
And with the child in the manger,
that in its poverty and helplessness changed the world
and became a solace for everyone.
This child gave us power: the power of helpless love,
with which we comfort each other
and give each other hope for Christmas and beyond.
Hope for peace on earth.
Hope that man doesn't bring death to mankind
but comfort.

Amen.