For December 7, the Second Sunday of Advent

Scriptures:
Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8

Theme: Messengers of Hope
Sermon Title: Peace
Hymns: #120 There's a Voice in the Wilderness
#101 Comfort, Comfort, O My People
#345 Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
#117 Lift Up Your Heads, O Mighty Gates

The news starts automatically when I start my car in the morning, and lately I have been snapping the volume dial to off quickly. More for my daughter than for me: middle school is hard enough, I don't think she needs to take in the gloomy news about the economy too. As for me, I've heard it before. There is nothing new under the sun, as the Preacher said, thousands of years ago.
In the 1980's I watched the agriculture-based economy of my hometown dissolve. Grass began to grow in the cracks of the employee parking lot at the I-H plant. Real estate agency signs seemed to be popping up like tulips in the spring, blooming on every block. One third of the city seemed to be for sale. Out in the counties, the call of the auctioneer echoed off the barn doors.
A voice says "Cry!" and I say, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and the faith of the people wilts like hothouse flowers when times are tough (to paraphrase Isaiah). "So what?" God seems to reply to the hesitant prophet. Get up and preach anyway, and say to the people Here Is Your God! God will feed and care for us in the future as God has in the past.
What is it about our past experience that gives us hope for the future? How can we comfort one another with that word of hope?
I remember the heartache of seeing a family's belongings set out on the farmhouse lawn-- the newish sofa from Leath's in Dubuque, and grandma's treadle sewing machine, and the pie-safe granddad made out of salvaged pallet wood, and boxes of assorted candlesticks and knick-knacks.
But, I also remember how the ladies of the church served the auction-day lunch, and how the old men of the community took the farmer out for coffee and commisseration, and I remember how families managed to pull through, with the help of many small kindnesses. That is what gives me hope. Here is your God, who comes to you in the loving kindness of your neighbor, and leads you to pots of coffee, and platters of gooey butter cake, and lays a hand gently but surely on your shoulder, and comforts you.