A Christmas Comfort

Isaiah 40:1-8

          In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.

          Isaiah 40:1-2  “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” says your God.  “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

          Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…  Charles Dickens’ classic play, “A Christmas Carol,” is probably familiar to most of us.  I will use that play this evening to help us understand the message of our text.

          “A Christmas Carol” tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a wretched old miser who makes life miserable for his overworked, underpaid money-counter, the gentle Bob Cratchit.  One day in particular, Bob Cratchit gets a full dose of Scrooge’s cruelty.  It is Christmas Eve; the children are out caroling, the businessmen’s Christmas aid fund comes calling, Christmas cheer is in full swing, and all of it absolutely sickens Scrooge.

          Later that same night as he was tucking himself into bed, Scrooge receives a most unwelcome and disturbing visit.  A dreadful ghost, dragging terrible chains, bursts into his room.  It is the ghost of Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s former business partner, who had died seven years earlier that very night.  The ghost cries out, “I am doomed to wander through the world – oh, woe is me! – and witness what I cannot share, but might have shared on the earth, and turned to happiness.”

          “You are in chains,” says Scrooge, “Tell me why.”  To which the ghost replies, “I wear the chain I forged in life.  I made it link by link, yard by yard.  I put it on and wore it of my own free will.  Is its pattern strange to you?”  Scrooge trembles in fear.

          “Or would you know,” says the ghost, “the weight and length of the strong coil you yourself bear?  It was full and heavy and long as this seven Christmas Eves ago.  You have labored on it since.  Yours is a ponderous chain.”

          “Jacob,” Scrooge pleads, “Old Jacob Marley, tell me more!  Speak comfort to me, Jacob!”  But the ghost replies, “I have none to give.  Comfort comes from other regions and is conveyed by other ministers to other kinds of men.”  Poor Jacob Marley had no comfort for Scrooge, because for Ebenezer Scrooge the future held nothing but sorrow, separation, and death.

          Remember what Isaiah shouted in our reading for tonight? “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” says your God.  “Speak comfort to Jerusalem…”   Long ago the people of God faced a similar future.  They were in exile; they were imprisoned in a foreign land, a land not their own.  Their lives were filled with sorrow, and they were separated from God by their sins.  The outcome for their future was bleak.  They were destined to die alone and forgotten.

          Who among us has not hungered for comfort at some point?  Who among us has not and does not yearn for tender words of hope, especially at this most interesting time of the year?  The newspapers tell us every year that this is the season when more people get depressed, more people have anxiety and pain than any other time of the year.  We continue to be “haunted” by the seemingly never-ending news about the virus, news about natural disasters, news about global unrest, news about violence… and we are affected whether we want to be or not.  And are we also haunted by “ghosts” of a kind?  Ghosts, perhaps, of Christmas past, Christmas present, and Christmas future?

          Poor old Scrooge endured a most miserable Christmas Eve.  Marley’s ghost showed him how, through the years, he had turned his back on Christmas cheer, and greedily grasped all he could get while paying the price of losing the treasure of love.  In any way at all, are we guilty of seeking pleasures and comforts of our own instead of seeking the ways of God?  Of course, we are.  We’re sinful; it’s what we do.  We serve ourselves, and we all too often neglect our neighbor.

          In the next scene of Scrooge’s nightmare, he is shown how his wicked ways affect his present life.  He is shown the home of Bob Cratchit whose family is eating turkey soup instead of the regular feast.  The ghost points to Cratchit’s son, Tiny Tim, who is crippled and whose life would soon be taken away by poverty.  And we are reminded of how often we do not reach out to others who have less than we, of others around us who could stand to have us share the blessings God has showered upon us.  And we’re called to repent.

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          Then Marley takes Scrooge to the future where several of his business friends are in a circle, laughing.  “It’s likely to be a cheap funeral,” says one of the men, “for I don’t know anybody likely to go to it.”  And another man jokes, “I don’t mind going…if a lunch is provided.”  Next Scrooge sees ragpickers bickering and picking apart the dead man’s home.  Finally, he sees his own name inscribed on a tombstone.

          Christmas past, Christmas present, Christmas future.  Do these haunt any of us?  Are we totally content with our conduct and pleased with our prospects?  Should God be glad with us?  Well, if the truth be known, none of us deserves God’s mercy.  Verses 6-7 of our reading tell us, “All flesh is grass, and all its liveliness is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of Yahweh blows upon it; surely the people are grass.”

          We all, in our own way, have played the part of Scrooge.  We feel the Lord’s holy Law blow hot on our hearts and minds, convicting us of sin.  We are not perfect.  We cannot please God by our own devices or actions.  We cannot save ourselves from His holy wrath which demands perfection. 

So where does our comfort come from?  Who will save us from becoming the withering grass and the fading flowers?  We need Christmas comfort.  But if Christmas is only our words and our deeds, then we, like Scrooge, are miserably haunted.

          Scrooge’s turning point was these words of Marley: “At this time of the rolling year I suffer most!  Why did I walk through the crowds of fellow beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed star which led the Wise Men to the holy Child?”

          And there it is!  That is the only word that can change old Ebenezer Scrooge.  That, and only that, is the word that makes our Christmas truly merry and brings us the comfort we need – the news of the Holy Child of Bethlehem who was born to die and take away our sins.  We need not be downcast, because God’s Gospel Word, like the Christmas star, lights up our dark world with all kinds of hope!

          “Comfort, comfort” says God through the prophet Isaiah.  Let it comfort us three times as it does in the reading.  “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her [first] that her warfare has ended.”  Scrooge worked so hard, but for what?  Prestige?  Power?  Worldly wealth?  All he did was make himself and everyone around him miserable.  But in the end, he was changed.  And he was changed so much that he now gives rather than takes.  He sends the Cratchits a turkey bigger than Tiny Tim.

          We too are changed by this Word – changed by the love and mercy of God who invites us to the manger in Bethlehem.  For there we see God’s work begun; and when it is completed on the cross, there is forgiveness of sins for all who believe.  Our time of warfare is over, for the work has been completed in Christ in His death and resurrection for us!

“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her that her warfare has ended, [and second] that her iniquity is pardoned.”  None of us can turn back the clock on our deeds in life.  But God in Christ invites us to enjoy the eternal blessings and benefits of His love for us and not to dwell on our past.  Instead, we dwell on God who never changes and whose love surrounds us past, present, and future.  As Isaiah says in chapter 53, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…  And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all”

And finally, we hear the prophet saying, “Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her [third] that she has received from Yahweh’s hand double for all her sins.”  Our sins are paid for Christ!  He took them into Himself on Calvary’s cross, and did away with them in His own body.  He took our punishment; He took our damnation.  And that Gospel word shatters all our darkness and gives new life and liberty to all who were captives to sin!

It is done, dear fellow redeemed!  Our comfort comes from heaven above!  God has sent His Son to be our Savior.  Our comfort comes through Him who gave His life as a ransom for all.  Our comfort comes to us as we remember the blessings God has given to us in Holy Baptism, as we hear the word of forgiveness delivered in the Holy Gospel and in Holy Absolution, and as the Lord’s body and blood are placed into our mouths in the Holy Supper.  Our comfort comes from Him whose work for us is finished!

God bless us, everyone!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.