Advent 2                           Isaiah 40:1-11, Mark 1:1-18                                    12/4/05

                                       “Held In A Comforter of Love”

 

I’d like to take a moment for a short lesson in Biblical scholarship that should make some comments I make later in the sermon more understandable.  The Gospel of Mark was the first gospel written.  Earliest manuscripts indicate it ended at Ch. 16 vs 8, with the angels’ announcement of the resurrection to the women and the promise that Jesus would await his disciples back in Gallilee.  The final comment is that the women were too disturbed by this experience to tell anyone, but in time they must have told or we wouldn’t have the gospel even to this point.

 

Thus, the church of the time immediately following the crucifiction was still waiting for their victorious Lord.  They believed in the resurrection, but had not seen its fulfillment.  Theirs was a comfort of promise, much like that of Israel in exile, and much like the comfort we must seek in the promise of Christ’s final return in glory.

 

And now, some thoughts on being “Held In A Comforter of Love”:

 

One of my favorite childhood memories was of a comforter my mother had received and allowed me to use.  This wasn’t a patchwork quilt, treasured as they can be.  This was a covering made of a green satin-like material, stuffed with feathers.

 

I loved that comforter and used it till it literally disintegrated.  It gave me warmth on cold nights.  It made me feel protected when the tree limbs scratched the window and I imagined monsters trying to get in.  The satin was cool to the fevered skin of a sick child.   It made me feel wrapped in love when hurtful relationships made me believe I was otherwise unlovable.  It was a source of protection, pleasure and comfort.  And years later I think of it as I read of God’s desire to comfort His people and carry them in His bosom.  How warm, secure and content we can feel when we open ourselves to this experience.

 

This was a promise first spoken to the people of Israel .  Because of their sin, God had allowed His people to be conquered by the Babylonians and taken into exile.  After years of warnings, God had taken drastic action to bring them to their senses.  Their homes and, more importantly, their temple had been destroyed. 

 

Years of captivity had gone by and though many Israelites had adapted to life in Babylon , true believers still yearned for their homeland and for their temple.  A faithful Israelite could only feel truly close to God in His temple, and the worst effect of exile was the sense that God had become unbearably distant.

 

Our first reading for today is God’s declaration that He has forgiven His people and that He is in the process of restoring them.  Just a little further on, we learn that Cyrus, king of Persia will defeat the Babylonian king and allow the Israelites to repopulate their country.  This will make it possible for them to rebuild the temple and their life with God.  There is also reason to hope for future greatness in the allusion to King David through the image of the shepherd.

 

God was about to do a great and wondrous thing that would make the return seem like He has leveled the ground, removed all obstacles and created a super-highway back to Him.  This made it possible for the faithful of Israel to feel “Held In A Comforter of Love” even as they had to wait for their freedom.

 

Centuries later, those who had heard Jesus promises, but saw Him die on the cross must have felt exiled as well.  They lived under an oppressive foreign ruler.  Though they were still Jews, they were also different because they had been shown a new way to a relationship with God.  There were the stories passed down perhaps finally of angel messengers, telling of the resurrection.  But, we can imagine that Jesus followers yearned to be held in a comforter of love that only Jesus presence could supply.

 

The disciples had to cling to that promise and must have received the comfort and strength they needed to go on, because the church not only survived, it grew, and continues into our day.

 

There is something oddly comforting, I think, about having the Gospel of Mark end with only a promise of Jesus return.  It says to us today that just as the first Christians could live in a world of uncertainty, struggle and pain on just a promise, so can we.

 

As wars continue, as weather phenomena turn lives upsidedown, as decent paying jobs seem to be disappearing, as morals and social institutions are under constant attack, as our personal lives are at times overshadowed by troubles and as we may even feel that God has become distant and uncaring, we need to experience the old, old story come alive for us.  We need to be helped to believe in those same promises made to Israel and to the early Church.  We need to know ourselves “Held In A Comforter of Love”.

 

We can wrap those promises God made through the prophets and through the Gospel writers around us, just as I wrapped myself in that old feather comforter.  By not just reading the words, but rather by putting ourselves into the story and then bringing it into our lives, we can be reminded that ultimately God is in control of our world and will prevail.  By praying for the faith of our ancestors, we can find not just the strength to survive, but also transcend the storms that seem bent on destroying our lives.  By imaging ourselves as lambs held gently by a Shepherd Lord or held in a comforter of Love, we can know without doubt that God is as near as our own hearts – that He is in us, around us and ever with us.  Know that you are also “Held In A Comforter Of Love.”  Amen