Second Sunday of Advent: 2020

Isaiah 40:1-11

 Comfort, comfort my people;

--it is the voice of your God;

speak tenderly to Jerusalem

and tell her this,

that she has fulfilled her terem of bondage,

that her penalty is paid;

she has recieved at the Lord's hand

double measure for her sins.

There is a voice that cries;

Prepare a road for the Lord through the wilderness,

clear a highway across the desert for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up,

every mountain and hill brought down;

rugged places shall be made smooth

and mountain-ranges become a plain.

Thus shall the glory of God be revealed,

and all mankind together shall see it;

for our Lord himself has spoken.

A voice says 'Cry', 

and another asks, 'What shall I cry?'

'That all minakind is grass,

they last no longer than a flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

when the breath of the Lord blows upon them;

the grass withers, the flowers fade,

but the words of our God endures for evermore.

You who bring Zion good news, up with you to the mountain top;

life up your voice and shout,

you who bring good news to Jerusalem,

lift it up fearlessly;

cryt to the cities of Judah, 'Your God is here.'

Here is the Lord God coming in might,

coming to rule with his right arm.

His recompense comes with him,

he carries his reward before him.

He will tend his flock like a shepherd

and gather them together with his arm;

he will carry the lambs in his bosom

and lead the ewes to water.

--REB

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

 Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.

2 Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.

8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

9 Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.

10 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

12 Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.

13 Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.

2 Peter 3:8-15a

And here is one point, my friends, which you must not lose sight of: with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.  It is not that the Lord is slow in fulfilling his promise, as some supposed, but that he is very patient with you, because it is not his will for any to be lost, but for all to come to repentance.

But the Day of the Lord will come; it will come, unexpected as a thief.  On that day the heavens will disappear with a great rushing sound, the elements will disintegrate in flames, and the earth with all that is in it will be laid bare.

Since the whole universe is to break up this way, think what sort of people you ought to be, what devout and dedicated lives you should live!  Look eagerly for the coming of the Day of God and work to hasten it on; that day will set the heavens ablaze until they fall apart, and will melt the elements in flames.  But we have his promise, and look forward to new heavens and a new earth, the home of justice.

With this to look forward to, do your utmost to be found at peach with him, unblemished and above reproach in his sight.  Bear in mind that our Lord's patience with us is our salvation, as Paul, our friend and brother, said when he wrote to you with his inspired wisdom.

---REB

Mark 1:1-8 1:1 The good news of Jesus Christ, the Anointed, begins with something the prophet Isaiah wrote:

Here is my messenger,

whom I send on ahead of you

to prepare your way!

A voice of someone shouting in the wilderness;

'Make ready the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.'

So, John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness calling for baptism and a change of heart that lead to forgiveness of sins.  And everyone from the Judean countryside and all the residents of Jerusalem streamed out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan river, admitting their sins.  And john was dressed in camel hair [and wore a leather belt around his waist] and lived on locusts and raw honey.  And he began his proclamation saying:

"Someone more powerful than I will succeed me, whose sandal straps I am not fit to bend down and untie.  I have been baptizing you with water, but he will baptize you with holy spirit."

--(SV)

Isaiah can't wait. But even when Isaiah is told to speak, Isaiah wants to wait. The most famous line from chapter 40 is probably verse 6: "A voice says, "Cry out!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field." In the middle of this beautiful song of hope, at the beginning of what most call "Second Isaiah," in the period of the Exile, after Babylon has destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and taken everyone in Israel and Judea away, the voice of hope sounds: 

Comfort, comfort my people;

--it is the voice of your God;

speak tenderly to Jerusalem

and tell her this,

that she has fulfilled her terem of bondage,

that her penalty is paid;

she has recieved at the Lord's hand

double measure for her sins.

There is a voice that cries;

Prepare a road for the Lord through the wilderness,

clear a highway across the desert for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up,

every mountain and hill brought down;

rugged places shall be made smooth

and mountain-ranges become a plain.

Thus shall the glory of God be revealed,

and all mankind together shall see it;

for our Lord himself has spoken.

That's the good news in the middle of deepest despair. Israel has lost literally everything: not just their homes, not just their jobs, they've lost their place. They've been taken away from the Promised Land, and here God promises all the land is God's, and God will come in a triumph, in an adventus, a grand march, and the valleys will be filled up and the mountains leveled so no one can miss the parade! It's the promise of Advent, it's the scene Isaiah wanted to see last week, and here God says it is coming, and Isaiah says:

"What shall I cry? That all mankind is grass,"

And the celebration, the hope, stops dead. The valleys deepen, the mountains rise back up, the parade is canceled. All because Isaiah doesn't think people are worth it. Not only are they not worth it, but the word of God just passes them by: The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.What bright, fresh hope is this? What comfort is this to the people? Peter doesn't really make it any better:

But the Day of the Lord will come; it will come, unexpected as a thief. On that day the heavens will disappear with a great rushing sound, the elements will disintegrate in flames, and the earth with all that is in it will be laid bare. Since the whole universe is to break up this way, think what sort of people you ought to be, what devout and dedicated lives you should live! Look eagerly for the coming of the Day of God and work to hasten it on; that day will set the heavens ablaze until they fall apart, and will melt the elements in flames.

What adventus is this? If this is what we are waiting for, if this is what we are staying awake for, maybe we should get a little sleep. Ours is an age of anticipation. We are anxious for the next thing to happen, for the future to get here now. When I was young, it was flying cars, and we couldn't wait for them to show up. When I was young, it was Christmas, and waiting for Christmas morning and Santa Claus to come was sweet agony, because we knew the day of Santa Claus was a day that would fulfill all of our expectations, and we couldn't wait to see our expectations fulfilled. We learned young to live in the future, to ignore the present and look forward to living in that sparkling morning when all our dreams of material joys would be at last fulfilled, and for one shining moment we would have all we ever dreamed of within our reach. We still live that way. People come to this website starting in November, looking for information about Advent, about St. Nicholas, about Christmas trees. They can't come soon enough, they can't know early enough about what is coming, so that by the time it comes it's already old and stale and they're looking forward again, to the next new thing, to the coming novelty, to what will be different after this different has become familiar. We are always looking forward so rapidly we look past Advent and, on the day after giving thanks, go directly to Christmas morning without stopping at "Go," without collecting $200, which we'd spend immediately, anyway. Ours is an age of anticipation. We feel like, unless we already know what is coming, we won't recognize when it has passed. But we've forgotten what we're waiting for, and our hopes wither as we race past today in anticipation of tomorrow. All flesh is grass; here today, thrown on the fire tomorrow.

The good news of Jesus Christ, the Anointed, begins with something the prophet Isaiah wrote:

Here is my messenger,

whom I send on ahead of you

to prepare your way!

A voice of someone shouting in the wilderness;

'Make ready the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.'

So, John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness calling for baptism and a change of heart that lead to forgiveness of sins. 

Mark tells us what we are waiting for; tells us it has already come. That the messenger of the Lord will come and prepare the Lord's way, will make his paths straight. And what did that mean? Landscaping and civil engineering on a massive scale? A fire that would melt the elements and burn the heavens? Might as well; because John comes preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. This we did not anticipate, because this requires we do something besides simply give and receive gifts on Christmas morning. This requires we take stock of ourselves. This requires we prepare ourselves to be the way of the Lord. This requires the advent, the preparation for the Adventus. This requires we go to the wilderness. John is in the wilderness because God is there first. Isaiah is told the way will be prepared in the wilderness because God is there first. God is in the city, too, but who can see God for all the man-made splendor of the place? Who can see God in the glare of the Christmas lights, in the shine that pours off the plastic Marys and Josephs and Baby Jesuses? Who can see God for the dazzle of the tinsel and the glitter of the glass ornaments and the bright array of packages we hope will be piled there? Where is God when the trees go up just after Thanksgiving, and the light strings appear, and the stores are thick with Christmas music? God is still there; but who can hear God, who can see God, in all that visual clutter? So we have to go to the wilderness. We have to prepare ourselves to find the stable again, the manger, the hay trough with the baby in it who is otherwise unremarkable except the angels said so, except that new star in the heavens said so. We have to go the wilderness to hear John, and what we hear is a call to repentance. What? We have to be prepared for this? Yes. We have to be prepared.

8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

9 Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.

10 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

12 Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.

Surely God will give us salvation, surely God will speak peace to God's people; but we have to be ready to hear. After all, Isaiah is right: all flesh is grass. It withers, it fades, it dies; but the word of God endures forever. We have to be ready to hear the voice of eternity, to see the Eternal in a baby in swaddling clothes lying among animals, born to dirt-poor peasants. "[W]e wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home," but if we are not ready, we will not see that righteousness is at home with us. We will not be prepared to receive the guest who changes everything. For he is coming, and he will not be delayed. Let us not rush by this, anxious for the next thing. Let us give our attention to the here and now, to the ones the child came for. Speak comfort to the people. Show them the love God has shown you. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, for that is in your hands. Amen.