What can we say December 10? Advent 2

    I’ll still refer you to my general post on preaching during this peculiar season: God Became Small: Preaching Advent – which has loads of thoughts on what preaching in busy December is/can be like, and lots and lots of illustrative stuff.

   My previous go-round’s post on this year’s texts for Advent 2 also have plenty – from Dolly Parton, Elie Wiesel, Anne Tyler and Frederick Buechner.

   I am compelled here in 2023 to ponder 2 items I discovered this year on the whole notion of comfort. I’ve asked my church people what they most want from church – and they overwhelmingly reply “comfort” – which is not my strong suit! It’s a big thing in many situations – but do we seek comfort when we’d best be looking to be made uncomfortable?

   Two quotes have had a seismic impact on me. First, from Mother Maria Skobtsova (now St. Maria of Paris – a Latvian nun who rescued Jewish children in Paris during the Nazi occupation) – who suggested this (before being executed by the Nazis in 1945!): “It would be a great lie to tell those who are searching: ‘Go to church, because there you will find peace.’ The opposite is true. The Church tells those who are at peace and asleep: ‘Go to church, because there you will feel real anguish for your sin and the world’s sin. There you will feel an insatiable hunger for Christ’s truth. There, instead of becoming lukewarm, you’ll be set on fire; instead of being pacified, you’ll become alarmed; instead of learning the wisdom of this world, you will become fools for Christ.”

   And then Karl Barth, preaching yet one more Christmas Day sermon at the prison in Basel – so remarkable, given his large family and his impeccable reputation! “Comfort is not the equivalent of hope in God. Rather, we seek comfort as long as we fail to realize we may hope in God. To seek comfort is a substitute. I need more than comfort. I need help. I need redemption.” Isaiah’s yearning for and announcement of comfort – so crucial to those exiles: what does it mean for us?

   And I’m struck this year pondering little phrases from 2 Peter 3:8-15a. “The Lord wants all to come!” – All? And then v. 10: “Everything will be disclosed,” fitting into Gerhard Lohfink’s idea that at the end of time, we will finally see the full truth of all we have done and been. Blind spots, missed opportunities, hurtful actions and word, failures to do God’s thing. Only then will we understand the immensity of God’s mercy, and only then will we find healing and forgiveness, not just for the little peccadilloes we recall, but all of it…

   Verse 13’s idea of righteousness “feeling at home.” Rich stuff. Righteousness feels out of place, a weird in my home, our culture just now – but can we create an environment where righteousness feels at home?

   And finally verse 15: patience of the Lord as salvation! Not letting bygones be bygones, or sheer grace – but patience with us, with the world. This is salvation. Oh my.