A long time ago, when I started in ministry, I recall an older pastor telling me that one of the jobs of a pastor is to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."  I don't know if I am going to do that today, but Isaiah's words brought that conversation to mind.  I spoke to that pastor not long ago.  Pastor Lee Wendland was my internship supervisor and today is closing in on 80.  A few years back he had open heart surgery and today he's still preaching at vacant congregations.  He could preach a fine sermon and is probably still trying to do what he told me, to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

          Back in the late 1960's there was a teenager, age 15; Doug was his name.  He had been feeling poorly for several days.  His temp shot up to 103, then to 105 degrees, and he suffered severe flu-like symptoms.  His mother took him to a hospital in St. Louis where he got the bad news - he had leukemia.  The doctors didn't sugar coat his future.  They said for the next three years he would have to undergo severe chemotherapy.  He would go bald and gain lots of weight.  I worked at Lutheran Hospital at that time and watched Doug go into a deep depression.  People tried all kinds of things to shake off his black attitude, but nothing seemed to work.  One day his Aunt called a florist to send Doug some flowers.  When they were delivered, he said, "Flowers?  For a guy?"  But he didn't know that his Aunt had told the clerk that they were for her teenage nephew who had leukemia.  When the flowers arrived at the hospital, they were beautiful.  The florist put in some little "guy" things - a football and a funny card from his Aunt.  And there was a second card.  It said:  "Hi Doug, I took your order.  I'm the florist.  I had leukemia when I was 7 years old.  I'm 22 now, so good luck.  My heart goes out to you.  I hope you make it.  Sincerely, Laura Bradley."  Doug's face lit up when he read those words.  In the coming months Doug spent day after day in a hospital filled with the most sophisticated and modern medical equipment at the time.  He would be treated by expert doctors and nurses whose combined training totaled hundreds of years and millions of dollars.  But it was a young florist, a woman making barely $200 a week, who took the time to care, who spoke to him from her heart.  She was the one who gave him the hope and the will to continue.

          In today's text Isaiah proclaimed a word of comfort for His people, and it was a word from God.  "Comfort, comfort my people..."  God told him.  Isaiah related three things that God told Him to speak to Jerusalem: (1) Her hard service has been completed, (2) Her sin has been paid for, and (3) she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.  Some days we may feel that way, too - that we've received double for our sins.  But God's people of old knew all too well what that meant.

          What is troubling you right now?  A guilty conscience?  Loneliness?  A friend's death?  Illness?  Is it a messed-up life?  Too many debts?  Family problems?  How do you need to be comforted?  Sometimes we just want to crawl under the covers and hide our heads, hoping the loneliness or fears or trouble will just go away.  In fact, we even call that big quilt on our bed a "comforter."  It feels really good under there and some days we don't want to get out from under it.

          We may be troubled and need comfort, but we are not alone.  All manner of trouble, adversity, illness, guilt, and distress have been with humanity from the beginning.  Ever since the day Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden, "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned." (Romans 5:12)   Moses wrote Psalm 90 in his final years of life, and in it he said, "The length of our days is seventy years -- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away." (Psalm 90:10)

          Only One is our real comforter, the One who helps our troubled mind and soul, and He is the Lord God who made heaven and earth.  He alone can comfort us through Christ Jesus.  As Moses said, He is "The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, showing love to thousands, and forgiving their wickedness." (Exodus 34:6-7)   He comforts us through the Good News that we're not alone and we're still God's children, despite our sinfulness.  Jesus Christ still forgives us, and still shows us His love, grace and mercy.  That's why the apostle Paul could say, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18)   He knew this life would not last forever.

          I have a nephew in Kennewick, Washington.  He works at a nuclear disposal facility there in that arid and sparsely populated area.  When Dan moved there, his marriage was in trouble and his life was unraveling.  He was making a good living but had no life.  He had a wife and kids but barely a marriage.  Carol and I visited him and he used to call me and send me e-mails about his struggles.  I encouraged him and prayed for him.  One day after living there several years, he went to a Lutheran church there.  Now Dan had been raised in a Christian home.  His father was a fulltime church worker, an organist and choir director, and his mother, my sister, is as godly a woman as our mother was.  Dan went to church that Sunday and after the service sat down at the church piano, and the music just flowed out of him.  He had a natural gift from his father, and there in that little church it came alive.  In time he became their choir director, organist, soloist, and organized a praise band.  And one day a few months back, he met Pastor Wendland, who had become their vacancy pastor.  Sunday after worship he told Dan that he reminded him of a student pastor he'd once supervised.  After describing the young pastor, Dan said, "That's my Uncle Bob."  And Pastor Wendland recalled Pastor Bob's ordination and the wonderful organist that day.  And Dan said, "That was my Dad.  I was there that day.  I was nine years old."  Then they laughed at how God brings people together after so many years.  God comforts us by small reunions like that.  I think we'll have more of those in the coming years.

          Through Christ Jesus you and I have eternal life and we will have a life of blessedness in heaven that will far overshadow the troubles that plague us now.  Then we will know His real comfort.  Then we will know the Good News firsthand.  Then we will experience in person the presence of Jesus forgives us.  Christ frees us from the chains that bind us.  Through Christ we are comforted with the assurance that heaven is ours, no matter what troubles we may suffer here on earth.  For this reason, the Lord has always wanted his servants, whether prophets or apostles, pastors or teachers, mothers or fathers, friends or family, to comfort each other with His Word of hope in Christ.

          We give each other hope by what we say and by what we do.  In Matthew 11:19, Jesus told the hypocritical church leaders, "Wisdom is proved right by her actions."  You can talk a good talk, but unless you walk the walk, all that talk is just wind.  And we have a lot of wind blowing around these days, in politics, in churches, in high places and low places.  But we have to walk the walk, or it does us no good.

          Oswald Golter was a missionary in northern China during the 1940's.  After ten years service he was returning home.  His ship stopped in India, and while waiting for a boat home he found a group of refugees living in a warehouse on the pier.  Unwanted by anyone else the refugees were stranded there.  Golter went to visit them and as it was Christmastime wished them a Merry Christmas and asked them what they would like for Christmas.  "We're not Christians," they said.  "We don't believe in Christmas."  "I know," said the missionary, "but what do you want for Christmas?"  They described some food, some German pastries they were particularly fond of, and so Oswald Golter cashed in his return ticket home, bought baskets of the pastries, took them to the refugees, and wished them a merry Christmas.  When he later told the story in the US, a student of his said, "But sir, why did you do that for them?  They weren't Christians.  They don't even believe in Jesus."  "I know," he replied, "but I do!"

          You and I may try finding comfort in things, or in pleasure, or in possessions, or in mind-altering substances.  But all that will turn to dust in our mouths.  We need the comfort of God, and we need to share that comfort with others.

          Albert Schweitzer was one of the most famous missionaries of the modern era.  He held PhDs in both theology and physics and was a concert pianist.  But he left it all behind and set up a medical clinic in French Equatorial Africa.  He was 85 years old when Andrew Davison visited him.  Davison tells how one morning, at around 11:00, he, Schweitzer and some others were walking up a hill.  It was very hot, and suddenly, the venerated old doctor walked away from the group.  He made his way toward an African woman struggling up the hill with a large load of wood for the cookfires.  85 year-old Schweitzer took the entire load of wood from the woman's shoulders and carried it up the hill for her.  When he rejoined the group one of them asked why he did things like that, and said people of his age could hurt themselves.  Dr. Schweitzer looked at the group, then pointed to the woman and said, "No one should ever have to carry a burden like that alone."  That's the voice of God.  We comfort others when we share their load.

          Jesus once referred to the Holy Spirit as the Comforter.  He told His disciples, "But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things." (John 14:26)   The Spirit teaches us of Christ, and He teaches us how to live.  The comfort of God's Word is that it is God Himself speaking to us.  He speaks of His mercy and love for the weary and troubled.  He comforts with the knowledge we are forgiven.  And He sends His servants here and there to comfort the afflicted, even as they also afflict the comfortable.

          I pray that you all will be comforted this Advent season, as we await the great reunion in heaven.  There we will see those missing today.  We may be surprised who is there, and who is not.  May the Lord Christ give us all joy as we celebrate His first coming, and as we await His second, amen.

Copyright © 2005 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.