Finding comfort in troubling times
I AM CURRENTLY reading a biography of Pope John Paul the Second by the broadcaster Edward Stourton. The author refers to the historian Dr Francis Fukuyama, who wrote about the end of history in 1991 and the emergence of a new world order. This followed the events of the summer of 1989 onwards, with the rapid end of Communism in Eastern Europe, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the reunification of Germany, the release of Nelson Mandela and the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa. Fukuyama said: “Technology makes possible the accumulation of wealth, and thus the satisfaction of an ever-expanding set of human desires. Societies have become increasingly linked with one another through global markets and the spread of a universal consumer culture”.
The phrase ‘a new world order’ was coined by US President George Bush senior, in an era that was undoubtedly a time of great hope in the world. The UK saw a period of consistent economic growth and falling crime that continued until 2008. However, the story of the 21st century has been quite different, with the September 11 attacks in the US, the Boxing Day Tsunami, the financial crash, years of austerity following Brexit, Covid-19 and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East: troubling times. And now there is concern the Ebola outbreak will spread through the continent of Africa.
In a well-known passage of the Bible, Isaiah Chapter 40, the prophet says to the people of Judah, ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins’. Jesus, speaking in John’s gospel, says, ‘And I will pray to the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever’.
Finally, in his second letter to the church at Corinth, Paul echoes Isaiah 40, reminding us that this ministry of comfort and consolation is at the heart of our calling as Christians and all Christian ministry. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 ‘Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforted us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.’ May each of us know that comfort in the days in which we live by turning to Him in faith and trust, leaning into Him in prayer and reading and lingering in the word of God.
David Steed – Elder, Grace Church Caversham
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