Week One
December 3, 2022
Hope
Isaiah 40:1–11
“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem…” Isaiah 40:1-2 (NRSVUE)
When it comes to Isaiah’s chapter 40, there’s a tendency to jump into the drama of preparing a way in the wilderness, straightening out twisting highways, leveling mountains, lifting the tilted slabs of the desert. Big drama. God stuff, on a cosmic or at least geological scale.
Which means we rush past the quiet introduction, as we so often can end up doing. Hear it almost whispered, not in the trumpet refrain announcing the usual Way of the Lord:
“Comfort… oh, comfort…”
Can you hear it? Can you hear God calming and reassuring us, the people of God?
In fact, the prophet, who has already had red hot coals pushed toward his face and seen the dust of earthquakes in the Temple chambers, is told very specifically: speak tenderly.
Rev. Jeff Gill
Adjunct Faculty, Center for Ministry and Lay Training
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