What Sort Of Persons?

Sunday, December 4, 2011


Speak tenderly and tell her that she has served her term. Words that make a body sigh.
Valleys lifted up, mountains made low, level ground, a flock fed, gathered, held in arms, and gently led. Words that erase all that was, words of assurance, words to lean back into like your best pillow, words that let a hurting people trust again, rest again, believe again.
We like these words = because as broken and hurting, wondering and wandering as we are – these are word of comfort and they make us believe that no matter how rough it is now or might be in the future – there is one who will carry the burden, there is a purpose for it all, there is a light of hope at the end of a very long dark tunnel.
And when we go to Scripture for comfort – this is a passage that will deliver the goods – and we are grateful that God said these words … glad that we are the inheritors of them. In times of personal distress, it feels that the words are written in this book …for us.
A woman who I think is in her mid to late 30’s came to the office on Wednesday. Her arms were filled with an overstuffed purse, a dog-eared notebook, a devotional, and a calendar/address book. Her 13 year old daughter was with her. Fleeing from an abusive situation, she had been at the Family Refuge Center for a few months. And just in the last week or so, she was out on her own. Problem was she hadn’t found a job yet, had used all her money for apartment rent and utilities. The food stamps she received in the beginning of the month were gone because this month she had to stock a kitchen and a refrigerator as best she could. December’s food stamps wouldn’t arrive until this coming Wednesday…and she needed money to buy food. Clifton could give her money – and we did,,,but she needed more than money. She and her daughter needed to be invited into our parlor, she needed to be treated not like someone begging for a hand out, but like a human being, like a young woman, like a mother. What she needed was to be heard. She said I probably didn’t have the time, probably didn’t want to hear about her and her problems, but I corrected her and told her that I did – and I really did, because she needed to tell her story – again and again until the ugliness of it and the sting of it went away. She needed an opportunity to realize that she mattered, and that she was included and accepted, and that between the two of us women – there was a bond.
She talked to me about her daughter, who is having trouble in her new school – acting out her anger and fears – in less than a few weeks she has already been suspended twice. This 13 year old child is worried about an upcoming court trial, being away from the all she called home, and living from hand to mouth – a whole lot more than a kid needs to be thinking about.
Mother and daughter had been given a mattress, couch, a coffee table and a lamp. When she looked at the money we gave her she said that beyond groceries, she could now buy a light bulb for her lamp, and the excited look on her face for such a ridiculously simple thing, was enough to make my day worthwhile.
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly and tell her that she has served her term.
God’s words as spoken through the prophet Isaiah – originally heard by Israel. But we would argue that these words are for the church to hear as well, and for the oppressed who live in every country around the world. And yes for us in times of personal distress.
But , as disciples of Christ, that cannot be the end of it. These words don’t just belong to Israel or the church – not even to us. We may have been entrusted with them, ..not just for our own edification, but to share them with others, to spread the good news, to go and tell.
But as disciples of Christ, not even that can be the end of it. We are not here to just tell people about Isaiah’s words…we are here to be Isaiah’s words. Read this passage not only as words to Israel or the church or to us – Read this passage as instructions of what we are to do. Comfort, o Comfort my people.
In his second letter, Peter asks an important question. As he calls people to repentance…as he calls believers to live Christ-like lives of patience and peace…Peter asks: What sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness. In the season of Advent – when love and forgiveness, love and acceptance, love and compassion, love and comfort are coming our way in the person of Jesus Christ… this is the question we ask ourselves…what sort of persons ought you to be…