“Comfort, comfort, ye my people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.”
As we near the end of 2020, the need for comfort may be at the top of our Christmas lists—our deep needs both to give and to receive comfort this year have been upended and some days, comfort seems to be in short supply.
And yet, here is God, telling Isaiah to comfort the people.
God says, “Comfort the people by telling them to look for me, because I am their shepherd, and I am about to show up for them! I am on the way!”
Mark begins his gospel by quoting Isaiah.
God is on the way, and a messenger goes ahead of him.
Mark reveals that the messenger is John the Baptist, who is in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
We are used to hearing this call to repentance during the season of Lent. We’re used to the idea of fasting, examination, maybe giving up a particular favorite food as a discipline during Lent.
But in Advent? If I were at a party, with beautiful foods laid out for those attending, my inclination would be to head over to the table loaded with comfort and joy, bypassing that table holding the servings of repentance. I doubt that there would be a crowd at that table!
And yet, John, who is God’s messenger, is proclaiming a baptism of repentance to those who have come out to hear him.
John reminds us that repentance is a prerequisite if we wish to receive the comfort that God wants to give us.
Repentance is a prerequisite for being able to open our eyes and to fully see the glory of the Lord.
Repentance on our parts helps to make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Dr. Laura Schlessinger says that repentance has four qualities, all of which begin with the letter R.
Responsibility: We must recognize that we have done wrong.
Regret: We must have true remorse for doing wrong and remorse for the pain and problems we’ve caused.
Resolve: We must be committed never to repeat the act regardless of the temptations of the situation.
Repair: And this one is probably the most difficult, to repair the damage we’ve done, or at least do what we can to apologize directly to the injured party.
Repentance is a prerequisite for being able to receive the comfort that God wants to give us.
Repentance powerfully frees us to receive God’s comfort, to rejoin the flock and to rest in the knowledge that God is truly our shepherd, who will carry us, feed us, gather us, lead us and comfort us.
Here are two examples of how repentance makes receiving God’s comfort possible: one personal example, and one from scripture.
One of the great areas of discomfort in our nation revolves around how we get along together over issues of race. As Christians, we’ve been called on this year to struggle over ideas like “the sin of racism” and “repentance for the sins of racism.”
Here’s my own story about repentance over the sin of racism.
For me, the sin of racism, which I had hesitated to claim fully for myself before this year, became too obvious for me to ignore when George Floyd was murdered.
Watching his death unfold on a video that someone made of the tragedy, I suddenly had this clarity of vision that how I personally respond to systemic racism in our nation is truly a life and death matter. My response to racism in the past, which has been basically to do nothing, has helped to sustain a society in which a death like George Floyd’s death can happen and has happened, over and over again, with no changes other than perhaps a meaningless bemoaning here and there. And then life goes on and nothing changes. Black people already know this, but this way of seeing things was a revelation to me.
I felt more than a passing sorrow over this death. I felt a need to repent. Going back to the four R’s: I took responsibility for my lack of action regarding racism, I felt and still feel true remorse, I’ve resolved to do all in my power to fight against racism, and the hard part is still out there—to figure out how to do my part in repairing the damage that has been done.
Those of us who went through the Sacred Ground work learned about the depth of racism in our country, and how we got to be where we are today. Many of us felt remorse over what we had learned. Many of us have come to a resolve to engage in the work of ending racism. And now, we meet this Tuesday night to figure out some first steps that we can take to repair the damage that has been done—and yes, that is the hard part.
I bring all of this up as an example of how repentance precedes opening our hearts to receive God’s comfort. Imagine if we could repent of our hardheartedness and love our neighbors as ourselves, regardless of color, political viewpoints, economic standing and all of the other areas in life that separate us. By loving and comforting one another, we’d all be much more open to God’s comfort for us.
The scriptural example that applies here is one I’ve mentioned many times, the story of the prodigal son in Luke. We know the story. The younger son asks his father for his inheritance, which the father gives, and then the son goes off and squanders it all and at last ends up in a squalid pig pen, eating the pods that the pigs are eating.
Talk about discomfort!
So the boy decides to repent. “I will go to my father and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you: I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”
The son takes responsibility by going to his father. The son shows remorse by saying that he is no longer worthy to be called his father’s son, and he resolves to repair the situation by offering to work for his father as a hired hand would work—to work out his salvation, so to speak.
The father, when he sees the son coming, runs out to meet the son and throws his arms around his son and kisses him and wraps him in a robe and puts a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet and kills the fatted calf and throws a party.
Talk about comfort!
The discomfort that comes with doing the work of repentance leads to a new openness on our parts to the comfort that God longs to give to each one of us.
Last Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, I talked about Advent is a season of waiting, the Advent red light as we wait on God.
So this week I’d like to end this sermon with another driving analogy.
This second Sunday of Advent makes me think of driving down Rt 17 to get to St Peter’s. Frequently, and usually I’m in a hurry, I’ll see a sign warning me that there’s a one lane road ahead.
Prepare to stop! Flagman ahead! So I slow up and watch for the line of stopped cars, which I finally reach.
I wait with everyone else for the roadworker to turn the sign from STOP to SLOW so that I can proceed on my way.
John the Baptist is that worker holding the stop sign. Repent!
STOP. One lane road ahead.
And then the prophet turns the stop sign to SLOW and waves us on through.
SLOW. Proceed with care down the one lane road of repentance, a process that cannot be rushed.
That one lane road of repentance that we travel will carry us safely around the messes in the construction zone of our lives toward God, our shepherd.
In today’s collect we pray for God to give us grace to heed the warnings of the prophets and to forsake our sins, so that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer.
So repent! Remember the four R’s: Responsibility, Regret, Resolve, Repair.
When we turn to God through repentance, we will see God on the way to us, running down the road to meet us,
to gather us in and to hold us close—
to comfort us.
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