LEAVE US NOT COMFORTLESS
We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless;
but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us . . .
In the first verses of Isaiah 40, God declares, “Comfort, yes, comfort My people! / . . . Speak comfort to Jerusalem.” These first verses frame the chapter to follow as an extended meditation on comfort as God understands and offers it to his people.
Many of the following verses are obviously comforting, such as, “The glory of the LORD shall be revealed;” “He will feed His flock like a shepherd;” and, famously,
But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
Much of the chapter, however, is not as obviously comforting. For example, verse six offers a stark poetic reminder of human mortality —
All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
. . . But the word of our God stands forever.
Clearly God does not consider it comforting to shield Israel from difficult truths about their state. Before they can be restored to union with God, the order of Israel’s relational behavior — which, at the time of this prophecy, tends toward a state of violent separation from themselves, others, and God — must be reversed. Israel must learn to see the truth of their state before this will be possible.
God’s words of comfort are therefore intended not to ease the experience of suffering brought on by their iniquities, but to catalyze and invoke a repentant reordering within Israel. The Israelites must be empowered to see themselves accurately, must choose to repent, and must consent to be entirely remade.
The news of comfort in Isaiah 40 is therefore good news, restorative news, hopeful news — but is not, according to our common use of the word, “comfortable.” The comfort God offers is assurance that he is a god of incomparable power — so much so that what he says must come to pass (“the word of our God stands forever”) — who is committed to preserving righteousness, and that out of his power God has spoken a word of promise to Israel. This promise is that God will, in due time, restore Israel to righteousness and union with him, redeeming the peace they have lost by consequence of their iniquities.
We have just finished celebrating Pentecost, in which we heralded the coming of the Holy Spirit among us. When Jesus promises the coming of the Holy Spirit at the institution of the Eucharist, he refers to the Holy Spirit as the “Helper” at least four different times. This word is alternately translated as “Comforter.” The Greek word is “parakletos,” a word that refers to someone who comes to another person’s aid as their helper, advocate, or intercessor.
The Holy Spirit has come to us. He dwells within us and strengthens us to face each day. And the pattern of the comfort he offers, which follows that set forth in Isaiah 40, turns our contemporary understanding of comfort on its head. We tend to think of comfort as the removal of pain, but God offers it as a strengthening of our ability to inhabit the (often uncomfortable) reality of his promises as we face the devastations of our world as it is.
As we enter Trinity, it is perhaps more important than ever to remember the Comforter who dwells within us. Trinity is about the “long haul” of the life of prayer. In Trinity, we practice our calling to become living vessels of the Comforter in the minutiae of daily life — to become a people that are redemptively committed to reality in its devastating fallenness and great beauty. Having entered reality under the guidance of the Spirit, we find ourselves called to administer comfort to the world around us — to be truth tellers, restorers of justice and peace, givers of mercy.
In Trinity, then, may we not forget Pentecost. May we remember, each day, the presence of the Comforter who dwells within us. He will, as he has promised, guide us into truth, uplift us with his promises, and strengthen us to be living vessels of his presence in every circumstance.
In the spirit and strength of this remembrance, we might continue to pray the words of the collect for the Sunday after Ascension:
O God, the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.