Comfort And Communion Series

Good morning! I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 40.

How many of you know what I am talking about when I say “comfort food?” Is there a dish or food that comes to mind?

Usually when I think of comfort food, I’m really thinking about binge food—like a carton of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream or a box of Girl Scout cookies (admit it: you have eaten an entire sleeve of Thin Mints in one sitting, haven’t you?)

But comfort food, at least as Wikipedia defines it, is food that provides a nostalgic or sentimental value to someone,[1] The nostalgia may be specific to an individual, or it may apply to a specific culture.[3]

The term comfort food first started showing up in popular culture around fifty years ago (Ok, it was 1966, which is closer to 60 years ago, but that’s the year I was born, so we are going to stick with “fifty”). The Palm Beach Gazette wrote that "Adults, when under severe emotional stress, turn to what could be called 'comfort food'—food associated with the security of childhood, like mother's poached egg or famous chicken soup."[

I don’t know about poached eggs, but I can definitely relate to chicken soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, gumbo, and fried chicken. Any one of these immediately takes me back to my mom’s kitchen.

The wiki article I read went pretty deep into describing what people of different cultures think of as comfort food. At the top of the list for the United States, for example, is apple pie, Beef stew, and biscuits and gravy. But in Ireland its bangers and mash and shepherds pie. In Russia, its borscht and layered herring salad.

But the point is that true comfort food isn’t bingeing while you’re watching Netflix by yourself. True comfort food connects you with a place and a people. True comfort food reminds you of the family you belong to.

This morning as we celebrate communion, I invite you to think of the bread and the cup the way we think about comfort food. And there’s no better place to start than Isaiah chapter 40. If you are physically able, please stand to honor the reading of God’s Word:

40 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that her warfare[a] is ended,

that her iniquity is pardoned,

that she has received from the Lord's hand

double for all her sins.

3 A voice cries:[b]

“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;

make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be lifted up,

and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,

and the rough places a plain.

5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

and all flesh shall see it together,

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

May God bless the reading of His word. Let’s pray.

[pray]

If you’ve been following the reading plan, we’ve been in Isaiah now for what seems like ever. This is typically the point in the plan where people ask me (like someone did this week), when do we get to the New Testament? You’re reading Isaiah and you are thinking, “there’s only so much judgment and woe I can take. Just get me to Jesus!”

Well, believe it or not, Isaiah gets us to Jesus. Just to review, Isaiah is the first book of the major prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Lamentations. We talked last week about the difference between major and minor prophets, that the minor prophets aren’t less important, they are just less long winded.

Isaiah had a 40 year long ministry, focused on the Southern kingdom of Judah. spanning the reigns of four kings of Judah—Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. You remember that over its 350 years, Judah only had eight good kings. Isaiah was fortunate enough to live under three of them—Uzziah, Jotham, and Hezekiah (Ahaz, not so much).

Look at the teaching picture in your notes. You have a big letter I. What is it saying? Right. So this is the book of I Say Ah. And you see two men in front of the house of I Say Ah. One is weeping, one is rejoicing. And you see the house has two sections—one labeled 1-39 and one labeled 40-66. What does that mean?

Well, Isaiah has been called The Bible in Miniature. How many books of the Bible are there? Right. 66. You remember how to remember how many books are in the Old Testament? Three letters in Old, nine letters in Testament, 39. How many books in the New Testament? Three letters in New, Nine letters in Testament, but there is a cross in the middle of the New Testament, so 3 X 9, 27.