Chapel – Dr. Beth Green
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being with us. For our community chapel this morning. We're grateful to have Dr Beth green, our provost, share with us this morning, and I'm delighted to read the passage that she will be sharing from. If you have her Bibles with you, feel free to open to Isaiah, chapter 40, be reading from the NIV. The words will also be available for you up on the screen.
Comfort, comfort, my people, says your God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand, double for all her sins, a voice of one calling in the wilderness, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up. Every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level, the rugged place is a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will 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 like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely, the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall. But the word of our God endures forever. You who bring good news to Zion go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout. Lift it up, do not be afraid, say to the towns of Judah, here is your God. See the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm. See his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. He tends his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those that have young. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or with the breath of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who can fathom the spirit of the Lord or instruct the Lord as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? Surely, the nations are like a drop in a bucket. They are regarded as dust on the scales. He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings before him all the nations are as nothing. They are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing. With whom then will you compare God? To what image will you liken him? As for an idol or a metal worker casts it and a gold Smith overlays it with gold and fashion silver chains for it. A person too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will rot. They look for a skilled worker to set up an idol that will not topple. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to not and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground. Then he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? Says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these he who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, my cause is disregarded by my god. Do you not know? Have you not heard the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary and as understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. This is the word of the Lord.
So thank you very much Kyle, that was a very long epic reading, probably longer than my talk is going to be just to just to reassure you. I also want to thank Dr Lee and the singers from our student community, because together with Kyle, they've brought their gifts to us this morning. And actually, part of the reason why I wanted the whole chapter read, and you've done this so beautifully with the songs that you chose, is I don't know about you, but I'm getting this sense of the majesty of God, the scale of God, what it means to come into his presence and worship him. And I'm feeling a bit tingly. So I hope you are too. Let me pray, Dear Lord Jesus, I just pray that you will anoint us that the words that I speak and the ways that we all listen and do, will honor you in your presence, we thank You. Amen. So Isaiah 40, signs of hope and comfort. It might feel a bit Christmasy again to return to Isaiah 40, but hope and comfort are not just for Christmas. And the prophets discerned the signs of hope and comfort in the most unlikely of places. If you have the melody of Handel's Messiah echoing in your mind right now, well, good, you are allowed to listen to it whenever you want. You know it's not just for Christmas. As Dr. Kerr reminded us in the opening chapel of this semester, the hope of Christmas lives beyond its 12 days. With the incarnation of the Savior comes the cross and the resurrection of Jesus. So that's our deepest cries of longing met with love by God Himself.
It's Tuesday, January the 28th those of us who live in the northern hemisphere have to be intentional about meeting winter. We might have to be a bit more determined to climb out of our comfortable bed in the morning, wrap ourselves in our comfiest jumper, sorry, sweater, I'm in Canada. And we have to force ourselves out into the light. There is light in winter, less of it, so you have to make the most of it when you find it. Comfort. Comfort my people says Isaiah, and I've been thinking a lot about that word comfort. This isn't hot chocolate, bright sweater, a crackling fire, lovely though those things are, this is the kind of comfort you cleave for in the midst of the wilderness, in the midst of serious danger or uncertainty, pain, sorrow, Isaiah is asking for the kind of comfort that often seems beyond the resources of our family and our friends to give us. On top of that, Isaiah is asking God for that kind of comfort when God is the one wronged, when God is the one we ignored, betrayed, mocked. Isaiah is asking for the kind of comfort that requires the cross. Back to January 28 apparently, the world's first ever parking ticket was issued on January the 28th it's amazing what you can find out on the internet, although I couldn't find out what year that was or to whom it was issued. Henry the Eighth died on this date, 1547, I think our historians will correct me later, Pride and Prejudice was published that one, I know, 1813, it's also the anniversary of the US Space Shuttle Challenger that exploded, sadly and all crew were killed, that was 1986. So when you look at the years past, you see in them these same patterns that Isaiah described. Sin, a longing for justice, tyrannous rulers, then some better rulers, then back to some bad ones again, literature, texts, teaching and experiences, some of which are beautiful and point beyond our humanity, great feats of exploration followed by tragedy and death. One of the reasons that this passage in Isaiah is so enduring is because it feels contemporary. It feels like now, we are indeed people like grass, and all our faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely we the people, are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall. But the word of our God endures forever. You have to hand it to Isaiah, not only does this ring true, its majestic poetry, it took a handle to do it justice. Another great wordsmith, Archbishop Thomas cramner, understood that we needed this kind of comfort that Isaiah describes in Chapter 40, and also that we needed the guidance to look for it in the right places, to look in the right places for the signs of hope. He took a calculated risk himself serving under Henry the Eighth and during a time of great disruption in the church and the land, Cramner is one of the theologians who led the English reformation. Now, I don't know that manufacturing a divorce and a new marriage for the king was necessarily one of his proudest, most faithful moments, but Cramner also composed the first two editions of The Book of Common Prayer, and that's a complete liturgy. That's the words for the service, complete liturgy for the English church, and it was in the language of the people, not in Latin. And Cramner uses the word comfort, comfortable in a beautiful way, in the service of Holy Eucharist, or communion.
Like many people, it's one of my favorite portions from the Book of Common Prayer. And it goes like this, hear what comfortable words our Savior Christ sayeth unto all that truly turn to him, Come unto me all that labor and are weary and heavy laden, and I will refresh you. That's Matthew 11 28, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to the end that all that believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3 16. Hear also what St Paul sayeth. This is a true saying and worthy of all men to be received, that Christ, Jesus, came into the world to save sinners. Timothy, 1 15. Hear also what St John sayeth, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins. John two, verses one and two, so the comfortable words, the comfortable words, are the gospel. But don't miss the unprecedented signs of hope for the people of the Tudor age and for us in our age that are proclaimed in here, just as they are proclaimed in Isaiah. Isaiah writes and the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. I won't reread it, but in the passage that Kyle read to us in that chapter, Isaiah spends quite a bit of time pointing out who God is, how awesome, majestic. Isaiah is underlining God's power and God's perspective as utterly apart, separate holy, all that glory and awesomeness, but God wants us to see it, and God wants us to see it together. For the reformers, like Cramner, God's breath was synonymous with his words. So God speaks and all creation is breathed into being. God speaks.this is my son whom I love at Jesus's baptism, and Jesus speaks and commands the waves of Lake Galilee to be still and for the wind to cease. When Archbishop Cramner wrote the Book of Common Prayer, this was the first time that people in England went to their parish church, that's their local church, and heard the gospel in their own language. God meeting us to reveal God's glory in our own language and time. It's one of the most comforting and hopeful truths ever. And I know that mostly, I completely take it for granted. I also know that it doesn't stop with English, despite Shakespeare and the King James Bible, English is not the language of Heaven. This means that whilst I would not mess with the words of Cramner. It is important to also have modern translations, inclusive language versions of Holy Scripture, so that God's word keeps going forth, that it continues to be translated and proclaimed, so that all people will see it together.
Our namesake, William Tyndale, was convinced of this throughout Isaiah and throughout all of the prophetic Scriptures, we see that God's comfort and the signs of hope that are given crop up in unlikely places, ordinary folk being faithful with little kings and rulers who are unwittingly doing God's bidding, even though they do not believe that they serve him. Often, the prophets themselves are called to inhabit really weird signs, like Ezekiel, he had to lie on his left side for 390 days, and then on his right side for 40 even then, this was considered unusual behavior. These are not the auspicious portents that usually herald the coming of greatness. They're more likely to get you laughed at or thrown in the bottom of a system. Indeed, it's often not human beings at all who seem to most consistently foreshadow the true reign of God. It's creation that proclaims who God is and shouts praise every single morning when the sun rises. God stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in the breath of God, the comfortable words that proclaim the hope of the gospel, the good news. Did you notice the order in which Cramner moves us through the scriptures. And here I am indebted to a Cramner scholar, Dr Ashley Null always, always cite your sources. He gave the church society Peter Thun lecture in 2014 and it was called on Cramner's Comfortable Words. And I owe him a lot. I learned a lot from that lecture, and it's online if you want to check it out. He points to the fact that in Matthew, which is the first scripture that Cramner quoted, we hear our own cry. Come unto me all that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you next from the Gospel of John, we hear God's own heart of love that none should perish. Okay, so I want to pause for a moment and invite you to join me in some time travel. If we were in a late medieval parish church in England. What would we be looking at right now? Well, this is before Oliver Cromwell. So actually, you need to imagine color and bright pictures and objects and ornament everywhere. This art tells the stories of the Bible to people who cannot read and write thanks to the preoccupation of late medieval piety, a lot of this art is scary stuff, designed to point out just how far away you are from all that majesty and holiness of God the front piece of the altar is the bit that you focus on. It's designed to be the focus of your attention while the male priest drones away in Latin, a language you don't speak, and it was likely to have been a picture of Jesus as Judge, deciding who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. The starting point of the gospel narrative commonly heard in the late Middle Ages was the wrath of God, not the love of God or our need. Now don't miss hear me Cramner And the reformers were not denying the grave reality of sin and separation or God's righteous anger, but they were convinced that this wasn't where the Gospel story started. In the words of Martin Luther, Jesus woos sinners back, allures us as a lover does with comfortable words in the court of Henry the Eighth, falconry was a favorite pastime. Cramner was a good falconer. He knew how to use allure to tame a wild spirit in late Middle English, allure meant to attract this is an important use of language in times when the powerful didn't bother much with attracting ordinary people. Ordinary people were their possessions, chattels to be used as the lord of the manor saw fit. No kings and princes were only bothered about attracting the kind of people who could afford them advantage and power. They ruled with fear and through intimidation. What huge comfort that the God of the universe does not rule with fear, does not seek the allegiance of the powerful and wealthy. God's heart is with the terrified and tyrannized, responding to the cries of the desperate, the stranger, the oppressed, with deep love, as Paul reminds Timothy, sin is real. It separates. But Cramner points to the truth about how God breaches that separation of sin. In Jesus, God is himself our advocate. In late English, that word propitiation was an action word. It comes from a Latin stem, and it means to appease with an action that is favorable, gracious, kind, well disposed. How hugely comforting and mega hopeful is this? These comfortable words are Cramners answer to bring hope in stormy times, friends, I'm going to use some further words from isaiah 40 as a benediction over you. I don't know whether you're sitting in particular need of comfort and hope, but you only need to look around you to a world that does need this comfort and hope, that needs to hear about who Jesus is. And I want to pray these verses from Isaiah over you before we pray, sorry, before we close. The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, God will not grow tired or weary, and God's understanding no one can fathom. God gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak, Even youths grow tired and weary and young women and men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. Amen. And friends, blessing on the rest of your day.
