“Comfort, comfort now my people;
tell of peace!” So says our God.
Comfort those who sit in darkness
mourning under sorrow’s load.
To God’s people now proclaim
that God’s pardon waits for them!
Tell them that their war is over;
God will reign in peace forever.
- Johann G. Olearius, tr. Catherine Winkworth, “Comfort,
Comfort Now My People,” ELW 256
The words that begin the beautiful
Advent carol quoted above come from Isaiah, and open our first reading on the
second Sunday of this new church year. The prophet was writing to a people who
for nearly sixty years had toiled in Babylon under their imperial captors, a
people who had nearly forgotten their God and despaired that they would be
slaves forever. Trudging through endless days of servitude, stripped of power
and choice, God’s chosen people had little reason to hope that tomorrow would
be a brighter day for them or for their children.
Into this bleakness the voice of
God spoke these words of balm to the heavenly host: Comfort my people!
