Advent 2...Pastor Phil Strong

12-4-11

Text: Isaiah 40:1-11; 2 Corinthians 1:1-11

I suggested last week that…

Advent reminds us that ours is a “salvation” story.

Sometimes in the salvation story, we are given specific instructions: to “move”… to “act”… ‘build a boat’, ‘blow a trumpet’.

At other times, you get the unique sense that God is saying, “This would be so much easier if you would just stand still!”

Admittedly, so much of salvation is simply unavailable to us; it cannot be contained in creeds and doctrines.

Romans 11:33  “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God… how unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out…”

            You get the feeling that the story is “choosing you”!

While we celebrate our faith, our story, as primarily a “salvation story”, it is true that we go through long stretches when nothing resembling salvation seems to be happening.

                In those seasons, the definitive lament is, “How long?” Sometimes the tone is “inquisitive”; sometimes it’s “exasperated and accusatory”. But, it’s the inquiry of one who waits; who has no capacity to alter their present circumstance. 

You ask, “How long?”, because you are somehow hopeful, based also on the story, that it won’t go on forever.

In the meantime, we could use some comfort.

“speak tenderly”: literally, “speak to the heart of my people” (Isaiah 40:2).

                The heart is that place in us that is never satisfied with explanations; that place that realizes the limits of understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6). It’s the place of “comfort”.

“comfort”- Paul uses the word, in one form or another, (10) times in (5) verses.

Comfort always seems like such a sappy, naïve patronization which is often both dismissive and disrespectful.

● The word is many-faceted: ‘to call someone to come near to you, especially for help’; ‘to make a strong appeal’; ‘to treat in an inviting or friendly way’; ‘advocacy’.

If “standing still” is often what is required for salvation, comfort says, “I’ll stand here with you”.

Comfort’s first and most significant work is “waiting with another”. Comfort doesn’t nonchalantly say, “Just wait on God”, or, “Just stand still”; it says, “I’ll wait here with you; I’ll stand here with you.”

Comfort does nothing to alter the present circumstance, but strangely, everything’s changed.

Comfort binds us to others in ways that hobbies, and interests, and successes never can. Your relationship is never the same based on the vulnerable exchange of wounds.

Being welcomed “below the surface” (so to speak) is a sacred gift/trust.

● In Lamentations, within the span of just (22) verses of chapter 1, Jeremiah rehearses not simply the tragedy of human suffering, but the tragedy of suffering without comfort.

If we are honest, one of the reasons that we hesitate to cry out is that our biggest fear is that someone will either try to fix us, or worse, tell us to “count our blessings”.

Although comfort requires no special training or giftedness, not everyone is good at it.

            One thing continues to become clear from our

experience of reality: when you cry out from the place of pain and isolation, the quality of community is always revealed.

● The way that God most often comforts us is to place us within the context of a group of people who are learning to allow their lives to intersect in such a way that, together, they are finding their way toward wholeness. Healing companionship [Notice how many times Paul uses the plural personal pronouns in reference to comfort?--- “we”, “us”, “our”. But, the ‘we’ is not dismissive of the ‘you’].

            In “community”, people utilize their presence as a means of validating us; they utilize their words as a means of accepting us where we are, while creating a vision of who we could become--- with God’s help and ours.

Comfort simply requires…

                … that you are present with them.

Know that simply being in the presence of someone else does not equate to comfort. Being present with someone does.

            … that you have been comforted.

They share just enough of their story to establish relevance and trust. Broken people are overwhelmed by their weakness and radical dependency upon God--- which causes them to exude strength. You can feel it.

Paul now speaks not from his expertise, but from his experience. He now speaks as one divorced who can better understand the pain and loneliness involved. He now speaks as one who has experienced the death of someone close whose comfort is saturated in his own pain and experience of loss. Your tone changes. Your perception is transformed. You are permanently altered.

You discover that even as you struggle to explain, they just nod their head in an affirming way.

            … a vulnerability which is pre-occupied with a vision of hope.

Know that vision hurts. It creates anguish in the heart of the visionary. To comfort another is to always willingly celebrate how far they’ve come and grieve over all of the ways that they sabotage their own wholeness on the journey.

                … you willingly acknowledge and honor ‘place’.

In Isaiah 40, the voice crying, “make a path/way in the desert” is not for us to make our escape, but for God to come to us.

God, for whatever reason, has allowed you to be, to remain, in this “place”. To resist “place” is to dismiss the only context for interaction with God; to dismiss the “shalom” that God wants to offer you there.

                … that you are learning to attend “The Presence”.

Comforters help others discern presence; they mediate grace. They affirm the presence, but encourage you not to confine it; to be willing to find it in unexpected places.

            The worst thing you can introduce into a situation is more “sympathetic chaos”.

“The tongue is a small thing… but a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire” (James 3:5).

            Sometimes, something big breaks out of our seemingly small words. Sometimes our words arouse what God has already been whispering all along but that that they were finding difficult to receive.

“Here is your God!” (Isaiah 40:9b)

● At the center of all of the ways that God interacts with humanity--- of all the ways that he attempts to transform us, is his desire to reveal himself to us and offer us a glimpse of what he is really like.

So, whatever happens in our lives (sovereign or self-inflicted), God uses those moments to more fully reveal himself; not to fix us or pressure us into change, but to continue to provide a more compelling vision of who he is--- which will transform us.

Comfort always expands our capacity for grace, which prepares us for greater levels of adversity (and success), which results in a healthy and life-giving inter-dependence, which fosters hope.

Comfort comes “full circle” and only realizes its fullest benefit once it has been received and, in turn, imparted to others.

● Be cautioned about an expression of grace which is ‘non-transferable’.

There will always be those in your life who will never let you forget what you have done; but, there will also be those who will never let you forget who you are! That’s comforting.

If in any “place” your identity becomes too associated with your sin and failure, you will likely be unable to find any reason for hope or the will to pursue transformation.