“Hear what comfortable words our Savior Christ saith unto all who turn to him: Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the perfect offering for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.”
In
every Communion liturgy in the Prayer Book tradition, except for Rite II in our
current book, those words are read after the Confession and Absolution of Sin.
They are known as the “Comfortable Word.” In the first Prayer Book, which was
published in 1549, there had been no previous practice of what we would call “general
Confession.” That’s the Confession that we all say together before Communion. Prior
to this, Confession was always done individually with a priest. However, there
was at the time a good and godly sense that we ought not to approach the Lord’s
Table if have not taken seriously the call to repentance and reconciliation. So
for many of the faithful, there was some concern – is that prayer that we all
said together sufficient preparation for receiving Communion? The answer is “of
course.” But the people needed to be assured of this, and so the Comfortable
Words were added to comfort and assure us of our forgiven and redeemed status
before God.
For
centuries, our Anglican heritage has been shaped by these Comfortable Words. This
is what good liturgy does – it forms and bolsters us in the faith. It might not
seem like much, but the faith we have inherited has trained us to find comfort
in God. This is why, in part, the Episcopal Church is so insistent on
proclaiming that God is love and that the way of faith is the way of love. This
is why, every time we gather for Evensong, or a wedding, or a funeral, people
who are not a part of our tradition always say some version of “That was
beautiful, moving, and exactly what we needed.” We are clear that God’s love
and mercy ought to be communicated through our liturgy and the result is that people
find comfort here.
I
mention all of this because today is the Feast of Pentecost, when we celebrate the
gifting of the Holy Spirit. This is not the creation of the Holy Spirit or the
first time the Spirit moved in the world; the Spirit has been active from the
beginning. What is unique on this day is that the Holy Spirit is no longer like
a wind that blows around us, but for those who are in Christ, the Spirit now
resides within us. The result of this intimacy of having the Spirit within us
is where ourcomfort comes from.
In
the reading from John, Jesus says “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all
that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” In
other translations, instead of “Advocate” that word is translated “Comforter”
and the Holy Spirit has been called the Holy Comforter in the same way that
Jesus is sometimes call the Prince of Peace.
But
it’s important that we understand what comfort means. CS Lewis has been called “the
world’s most reluctant convert,” as he really did not want to move from atheism
to faith, but he had no choice once he knew the grace of God. And he wrote, “I didn’t
go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of port would do that.
If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t
recommend Christianity.” By comfort, if we mean leisure, being care-free, and
easy, then the Holy Spirit is no comforter at all. Rather, the Spirit is
something more like an instigator. The word “comfort” in the time it was used to
introduce the Comfortable Words had a meaning closer to strengthening. “Com” is
Latin for “with” and “fortis” is Latin for strength, that’s where our word “fortress”
comes from. So comfort is about being strengthened with the presence of Holy
Spirit. And with God as our strength, then we find that peace which passes all
understanding, even in the midst of disturbances and suffering.
It’s
worth recognizing that the Holy Spirit comforts us not with platitudes or warm
fuzzies, but with truth. We heard Jesus say that the Holy Spirit is the “Spirit
of truth.” Again, turning to Lewis, he wrote that “if you look for truth, you
may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort, you will not get either
comfort or truth, only wishful thinking, and, eventually, despair.” The Holy
Spirit comforts us by confronting us with the truth of God in Christ.
Now,
sometimes the truth can be hard to hear. But as we heard in Romans, St. Paul
writes that “you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you have received a spirit of adoption.” We have been adopted by God,
brought into God’s family and given the comforting truth of the Gospel. From
the very beginning, God has intended to bless the world. Whether or not it’s the
same plan that we would come up with is irrelevant, for God’s ways are higher
than our ways. Starting with Abraham, and then through Israel, and perfected in
Jesus, God has blessed the world. And the Holy Spirit is how God has chosen to further
spread this blessing in our own day. Being steeped in the comfort of God’s
truth is how God blesses us so that we might bless the world in God’s name. And
what are these truths?
The
first is, “Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh
you.” Goodness, we are carrying heavy burdens. We’re dealing with a pandemic
that just won’t end. Because I was on vacation this past week, I wrote this sermon
before I left – the day after the school shooting in Texas, and let me tell you
that my heart was and still is heavy. There is a war raging in Ukraine with horrendous
stories coming from there. Our economy is volatile. And we all have personal burdens
like cancer, anxiety, addiction, aging parents, raising children.
Speaking
directly to us, Jesus calls us to him for refreshment. And you’ll notice there
are no prerequisites on this coming to Jesus other than our neediness. The uncertain,
the guilty, the sinful, the struggling, the full of ourselves, the hungry – Jesus
calls us to all to come to him and find refreshment. This is what we call
abundant grace.
The
next comforting truth is that “God so loved the world, that he gave his
only-begotten Son, to the end that all believe in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.” Yes, this verse has been taken out of context to exclude,
but it remains a passage full of comfort. It assures us that that God was not
so disappointed with the world or so angry with the world, but rather that God
so loved the world. And it’s not that God so loved this group of people or that
group, but God so loved the world, meaning all of us. We are comforted in
knowing God’s disposition towards us is one of love. There’s a lovely poem by
the English priest George Herbert that says, “Love bade me welcome.” This is the
comfortable word of the Gospel, that God’s love is for us all, no matter what.
Again,
as we heard in Romans, we are made heirs of God. The riches of God’s blessing
have been given to us in Christ. We are God’s beloved children and nothing can
change this. We might think “But I’m not good enough,” but elsewhere in Romans
St. Paul writes “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners
Christ died for us.” God did not send the Son into the world because we
deserved it or asked for it, but because we were helpless, sick, and in need of
God’s love coming in the flesh. This love is our comfort, our strength, to know
and live as if all shall be well.
Next,
we are comforted in hearing that “This is a true saying, and worthy of all to
be received, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” As I’ve
just mentioned, God’s love comes to us because we need it, not because we
earned it. Our neediness is met by God’s love in Jesus. This is the truth we
heard in Peter’s preaching in Acts – that all who call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved. God knows us better than we know ourselves and has given us the
greatest gift in Jesus. And this gift of Jesus remains ours through the Holy
Spirit that lives within us. The peace, mercy, wisdom, and love of Jesus are
ours, and truly, that is all we need.
The
“all” is also a great comfort and strength of this particular word. In the reading
from Acts, we heard of that great crowd that was present. St. Luke, the author
of Acts, includes such a great diversity of people representing the known
world. I also love that he mentions that some Medes were there. That’s what you
call “literacy license.” Luke is making a point because the Medes had been extinct
for hundreds of years at this point in history. It would be like me telling you
that I had lunch with George Washington while I was in DC last week. The point
is that the Holy Spirit transcends space and time just as God’s love has no
boundaries. And this is why our Pentecost icon is so accurate in its portrayal.
It captures exactly the point that Luke is making – that boundaries of space,
time, gender, socioeconomics, race, and politics are bridged by the Holy
Spirit. This comforts us in knowing that we will never be excluded from the family
of God and it strengthens us to always pursue an ever-widening and deepening
beloved community.
The
final Comfortable Word is “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate (or Comforter)
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the perfect offering for
our sins, and not for ours only, but the sins of the whole world.” In other words,
because of Jesus, there is nothing that stands between us and God – not our
sins, not our doubts, not our mistakes, not our deaths. And this reconciling
love is not abstract, but is seen through the perfect offering of Jesus on the
Cross. Our ultimate comfort is the cross of Christ which shows us just how
deeply and truly God loves us and God is for us. Because of the cross, there is
no question regarding our status before God – we are loved, redeemed, and set
free to love and serve the Lord.
The
way of the cross is the way of life. The cross shows us the grain of the
universe: the all-surpassing and comforting love of God. With this Comfortable
Word we are reminded that God’s blessing does not mean that we will not suffer
or encounter challenges. Rather, we are assured that difficulties are not God’s
wrath upon us but instances to rely on the Holy Spirit as our guide. Sometimes
our suffering is self-inflicted and it is the Spirit’s call for us to repent. Sometimes
our suffering is accidental and is an occasion to rely on God’s grace more than
our strength. Regardless of the type or cause of our suffering, we are never
left as orphans, but always remain the children of God to whom God is present by
the Holy Spirit. What comfort this is, that through the cross of Jesus all that
needs to be done has been done and we are given the gift of enjoying our
forgiveness.
The
Comfortable Words come in the liturgy as a transition point from the Liturgy of
the Word to the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and the next significant thing that
the Celebrant says comes at the Altar when we are told to “Lift up your hearts.”
This is what the Holy Spirit, as our comforter, enables us to do. When we are
discouraged, we have the Holy Spirit to give us hope and strength to be assured
of our salvation and to proclaim this message of peace to all the world in
Jesus’ name. This is what we need and what our world needs – Christians who do
not sink into despair or to the lowest common denominator, but rather who have
our hearts firmly fixed in the love of God. Being comforted by the Holy Spirit,
let us now lift up our hearts.
