Comfort ye, my people

This coming Sunday those churches that follow the lectionary will hear a reading from Isaiah 40. I can't read this passage without thinking of Handel's Messiah and, of course, Christmas. This passage also reminds us of what we used to call "the social gospel." This Advent season we are not just looking forward to Christmas morning and the goodies under the tree with our names written on the tags. We look forward to the salvation, the liberation, which God intends to bring to all God's people.

"He will feed his flock like a shepherd." We are used to applying the image of the shepherd to God. We especially remember the picture of Jesus as "The Good Shepherd." But the shepherd image was also applied to Kings in the Hebrew Scriptures, and God is depicted as the ideal and true king of Israel. Kings and governments have a responsibility to all the people they govern. Who is a shepherd to the people who are now exiled from their homes in New Orleans? How about all those who are left behind and left out of the affluence our economy generates for the few? Our government has a democratic form and we have no king, but the principle remains the same. This Advent season lets remember our responsibility as a government (and as the people of God) for those who suffer under the bondage of poverty.