Tuesday 6 December 2022

Today is Tuesday the 6th of December, in the second week of Advent.

Maldwyn Davies sings Comfort Ye My People, from Handel’s Messiah.

Comfort ye
Comfort ye my people
Comfort ye
Comfort ye my people
Saith your God
Saith your God
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
And cry unto her
That her warfare
Her warfare is accomplished
That her iniquity is pardoned
That her iniquity is pardoned
The voice of Him
That crieth in the wilderness
Prepare ye the way of the Lord
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God

Today’s reading is from the prophet Isaiah.


Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her
that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
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.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’
A voice says, ‘Cry out!’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’
All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever.
Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Here is your God!’
See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

Isaiah presents us with ‘the God of all consolation’ – a God who speaks tenderly to a sinful people whose faith wavers and fades. How do you feel when you hear this prophecy? What does it say to you?

Isaiah’s God is a straight talker whose assessment of our weak and inconstant faith is uncomfortably honest. Yet the same God is tender and compassionate, bidding us be without fear and offering to feed and lead us forward. Do you have a sense of where God is leading you right now?

We listen again to the reading, noticing what strikes us and why. How do you feel when you hear God’s good tidings?

Whatever the weakness of our faith, God promises always to be with us as a nurturing and reassuring presence. How do you want to respond to this promise?

O Wisdom
Lord and Ruler
Root of Jesse
Key of David
Rising Sun
King of the Nations
Emmanuel
Come, Lord Jesus