Advent 1 Midweek Service 2013

Isaiah 40:1-8

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and cry to her
that her warfare^[a] is ended,
    that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord's hand
    double for all her sins.

³ A voice cries:^[b]
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴ 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.
⁵ And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

⁶ A voice says, “Cry!”
    And I said,^[c] “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
    and all its beauty^[d] is like the flower of the field.
⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades
    when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
    surely the people are grass.
⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades,
    but the word of our God will stand forever.

Matthew 5 

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

² And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴ “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

⁵ “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

⁶ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

⁷ “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

⁸ “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

⁹ “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons^[a] of God.

¹⁰ “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today is the words from Isaiah, especially as they appear in our sermon hymn, “Comfort, comfort Ye My People.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ, God’s word proclaims a great promise tonight.  Comfort, comfort you my people.  Comfort from sorrow, from pain, from suffering, from sadness… comfort from sin.  Comfort that comes from God. 

And it’s a comfort we greatly need.  For this world is not a comfort to us so many times.  Instead it is a place of discontent and woe.  A place of sin and hurt.  It invades our own lives.  We hurt as we prepare for Christmas because there are ones we know won’t be there this year, due to family fights, illnesses and deaths.  We weep, as we consider our own lives, and the sin the pervades our days.  We’ve done wrong.  Our loved ones have done wrong, and every day we reap the consequences from that sin. 

Yes, we try and hide our sin.  Yes we try to keep it locked away inside where no one will know about it, not even our pastor.  We act outwardly like everything in our lives is fine, even as we fall apart inside.  We act like we can handle our own problems, even as they overwhelm us so much that at times we don’t even want to get out of bed in the morning. 

God knows your sin, dear friends.  He knows your perils, your wants, you faults, and your evil desires.  And because of that, you deserve God’s anger.  Because or your sin, you’ve deserved the challenges you’ve faced in your lives.  You’ve deserved the wrath of God, wrath that is the very opposite of comfort. 

And yet, it is to us, in our sinful lives, that God makes this promise:  Comfort, dear friends, comfort to you God’s People.  Comfort to you who sit in darkness, mourning beneath your sorrows load.  Speak to God’s people of the peace that awaits them.  Tell them that their sins are covered, and her warfare now is over. 

Jesus has done this all through his own life, death and glorious resurrection.  That is why he came to this world, to bring comfort purchased with his blood.  By the cross, our sins were pardoned.  Each of our dark deeds, God has blotted out.  He invades our world, to defeat the terrors of sin death and the devil, to destroy discontentment, to swallow whole God’s eternal wrath, and to bring the turmoil of our world to its end. 

And in the Christmas stable, we see the first stage of that invasion.  A little baby, born in the natural way, contains the complete fullness of the eternal God.  That God baby is wrapped in cloths to keep him warm, so that one day he can be wrapped in cloths of purple before he is mocked and beaten.  He is laid in a manger to sleep, so that one day he can be laid upon a cross to be nailed.  And shepherds gather to see him, just as one day crowds will gather to watch him die.  And in that death, the Christ will bring comfort to you and to me.  In that death, death is swallowed up forever. 

Comfort, dear friends, is yours, in Christ.  Comfort is yours, as a free gift given to you by God.  Comfort is yours, even forevermore, something that nothing in this world, not even death itself can take away. 

Comfort, comfort ye my people, speak ye peace thus saith our God.  Comfort those who sit in darkness, mourning neath their sorrows load.  Speak ye to Jerusalem, of the peace that waits for them.  Tell her that her sins are covered.  And her warfare, now is over.  Amen.