Comfort food

Isaiah 40:1

Comfort, comfort my people!   says your God.

Some mornings I just don’t see anything in the readings for the day that I feel like writing about - not in the daily lectionary, not in any of the daily devotions I get via email, not even in the Bible Gateway verse of the day.  None of them seem to strike a chord or send my mind on a journey.  Or they do, but it’s not the kind of journey I would want to drag anyone else on with me.  Then something happens, and a verse pops into my mind.

I heard someone at the door, so I grabbed the mask I keep by my desk and went to see who it was.  It was a church member with a bag full of cherry tomatoes and a summer salad her mother had made.  I don’t know what it is about Karen’s mother Corena, but she just seems to know which foods bring me the most comfort.  Last week it was fried chicken and mashed potatoes.  This week it is a cucumber & tomato salad.    

As I walked toward the refrigerator with my salad, I heard a song in my head. “Comfort, comfort you my people.  Tell of peace, thus says our God.  Comfort those who sit in darkness.”   

We usually sing this during Advent, in the days leading up to the birth of the Child, and the triumphant return of the Christ.  We sing it during the darkest days of winter, when it may seem like Spring is never going to come again.  I think maybe this would be a good time to sing those Advent hymns and other songs that bring hope into our hearts.   James Baldwin said, “Hope is invented every day,” and it seems to me that this would be a very good time to invent some hope.  We can do that with songs that uplift and speak to hope, songs like “There is a balm in Gilead”.

Sometimes I feel discouraged and think my work’s in vain, 

but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again.  

There is a balm in Gilead that makes the wounded whole, 

there is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.

It is a dark time, an uncertain time, and we don’t know when it is going to end.  New changes come every day, new scientific break throughs, new understandings of what the coronavirus is and how it is transmitted, new orders from our governments.  

So we seek comfort in Advent hymns and summer salads.  And we invent hope.

Compassionate God, we seek comfort and healing, we seek that balm that brings wholeness.  May your Holy Spirit revive our souls and show us where hope lives.  Amen.