Day: February 27, 2018

Sermons

Lenten Programme 2: The Comfortable Words and the Literature of Consolation II

“To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven”

“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, says your God.” So begins the fortieth chapter of The Book of the Prophet Isaiah. It marks the beginning of what has come to be called The Book of Consolation comprising chapters forty through fifty-five of The Book of Isaiah. From the outset we may note the connection between comfort and consolation. In short, this section of The Book of Isaiah, also sometimes called Deutero-Isaiah, belongs to our consideration of the Comfortable Words and the literature of consolation.

The literature of consolation is a great collection of writings that deal in one way or another with the question of how we face loss and suffering. There are many examples ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Homer – one thinks of Achilles consoling Priam on the loss of his son, Hector, in The Iliad – from Sophocles’ Chorus in Electra to the letters of Seneca, Plutarch and Cicero, from some of The Psalms of David to Augustine, not to mention one of the great classics of consolation, Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy. All of these contribute in one way or another to later works of consolation, particularly in terms of mystical theology.

The Book of Consolation in Isaiah appears to deal with the fortunes of the people of Israel close to the time of the ending of their exile in Babylon. In the Jewish perspective, any political change of fortune is really about God’s power and grace. Thus The Book of Consolation highlights the idea of God restoring his people, comforting them in terms of strengthening them theologically, we might say, with respect to the majesty of God, on the one hand, and the compassion of God towards Israel, on the other hand. The last chapter of this section of Isaiah, for instance, emphasizes the distance between God and man. “For my thoughts and not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” This strong sense of the difference between God and man is a critical theme and is the condition for the grounding of our lives in the will of God. For immediately before that passage, Isaiah exhorts us in ways that anticipate the Comfortable Words of our liturgy.

Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near,
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon (Isaiah 55.5-9).

Such words anticipate the Comfortable Words and underscore the point that consolation is found in our being returned to truth, to God, to a principle which greater than our experiences and our suffering.

(more…)

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

George Herbert, Priest and Poet

The collect for today, the commemoration of George Herbert (1593-1633), Priest, Poet (source):

George HerbertKing of glory, king of peace,
who didst call thy servant George Herbert
from the pursuit of worldly honours
to be a priest in the temple of his God and king:
grant us also the grace to offer ourselves
with singleness of heart in humble obedience to thy service;
through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 5:1-4
The Gospel: St. Matthew 5:1-10

The hymn, “Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing”, was originally a poem by George Herbert, published in The Temple.

Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing,
My God and King.

The heavens are not too high,
His praise may thither fly:
The earth is not too low,
His praises there may grow.

Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing,
My God and King.

The church with psalms must shout,
No door can keep them out:
But above all, the heart
Must bear the longest part.

Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing,
My God and King.

George Herbert was born to a wealthy family in Montgomery, Wales. Educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, he appeared headed for a prominent public career, but the deaths of King James I and two patrons ended that possibility.

He chose to pursue holy orders in the Church of England and became rector at Bemerton, near Salisbury, in 1629, where he died four years later of tuberculosis. His preaching and service to church and parishioners contributed to his reputation as an exemplary pastor. He did not become known as a poet until shortly after he died, when his poetry collection The Temple was published.

He is buried in Saint Andrew Bemerton Churchyard.

Print this entry