Thursday, July 17, 2014

Comfort on call

The prophet Isaiah, who has some of the most wonderful writing in the scriptures, wrote this: "I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, that you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction?"

Can you not picture the Lord, in the throne room saying, "I, even I, am he who comforts you?"

This morning I'm fried. Late night game (last of the wonderful 10-year-old season for Gabe whose last at bat was a solid triple down the first base line), has me whipped. We've spent long, long days and even a night meeting and talking and compiling contacts and such. I have a meeting with some Tulane ticket sales people in two hours, and I'm fried. My head is a ball of confusion, as someone once sang.

But I turn in these hours to the one who comforts me, the great I am.

Here's the message today, and we all need to get it. Isaiah is told by a loving, powerful God that when we are at our worst, we forget the Lord our maker, whose power literally rolled out the heavens and made the earth like He was rolling out new carpet from a box. God will literally comfort us. That's the idea. That's the notion.

Power in a fist, lightning and thunder on a whim. That is our God. He comforts because if we listen, we will understand that to coin a phrase, "He has this."

Whatever this is.

He came, he saw, he delivered. How? Well, that's the special part of this comforting idea.

He goes on to talk of a servant, does the prophet. A servant who will suffer for us all. "See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him -- his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness -- so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand."

He comforts because he knows us. He comforts because he became one of us. This idea that he is too powerful and too other to grasp when we are hurting, well, that's nonsense. He was one of us, and he most certainly hurt. Jesus took it all, all for us.

This morning, I know he took the rough mornings and the sweet ones. He took cool fronts and warm fronts and he swirled them around and made them all the more pleasant for us.

He comforts because he loves. He serves because he loves. He endured because he loves. Whatever is the problem for you this morning, he's ready to absorb the pain, absorb the hurt, absorb the worry, absorb the woe. He is there for you, for me, for the world.

This very moment.

I, even I, EVEN I he says.

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