Readings for Advent 2

Isaiah 40:1-11 • Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 • 2 Peter 3:8-15a • Mark 1:1-8

Advent Prayer: God of timeless grace, you fill us with joyful expectation. Make us ready for the message that prepares the way, that with uprightness of heart and holy joy we may eagerly await the kingdom of your Son, Jesus Christ, who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

Isaiah 40:1-11
This is the beginning of the part of Isaiah written from exile in Babylon. In verse 1 and 2, God speaks. The words are spoken “tenderly” (to the heart, the seat of reasoning), to “Jerusalem”; but the city is in ruins, so (this passage being a vision) their audience is an idealized kingdom. Tell them, God says, that their time of sorrow is over, that they have “served” their punishment, that the Exile is about to end. Use of the word “double” in verse 2 assures that their purification from sin is finished, that difficult times are truly ended. So a new era is dawning.
In verses 3 to 5, a heavenly voice (or the prophet) announces, in language reminiscent of the pomp of royal pageantry in Babylon, “prepare the way of the Lord”. (Christianity was later known as The Way, God’s manner of life.) God is coming; God is about to lead a new Exodus (note “wilderness”, “desert”) to a blessed land. (The words translated “all people” mean, literally, all flesh.) Then “a voice from heaven commands the prophet to “Cry out!”, but he asks: what should I tell them? For they are like flowers and “grass”: they fade and wither when God acts. (The word translated “breath” also means spirit, as in Genesis 1:2, where the wind of God sweeps over the primeval waters.) People are fickle, but God’s “word” endures.
Even so), the prophet (on behalf of Jerusalem) is told to tell the “good tidings”, the good news, boldly, to tell all people “Here is your God!”. Jerusalem (“Zion”) and Judah are to be the centre for God’s activity on earth. He comes, says verse 10 as a king (“with might”, “rules”) who really cares: he brings redemption, restoration (“reward”, “recompense”). Finally, verse 11 compares God to a shepherd: one who gathers the weak (“the lambs”), makes people one with him, and compassionately leads. (In the ancient world, a shepherd led, rather than drove, his sheep, to protect them from lurking predators.)

Reflection

Comfort, O comfort my people" - ah, what gorgeous words. This God is a God who longs to comfort us, even when we wander and stray.

This text and our text from Mark both mention the wilderness, or desert. What happens in the Bible in the wilderness? Think Israelites. Think Jesus' temptation. Lots of deep spiritual transformation happens in the wilderness.
Where's your wilderness? What's been a desert place in your life?

"Here is your God!" That's the good news that Isaiah cries in this text: God is here, is present and real in your lives. Where do you see God at work in the world? Where is God in your life?

Psalm 85:1-2,8-13
Verse 1 and 2 tell of God’s restoration of Israel, probably in releasing them from Exile. But times are tough: verses 4 to 7 are a prayer that God may again show favour - in the present s: please, God, “restore us again”; give us life and “salvation”. The people returned to a ravaged land. In verses 8 to 13 the psalmist hears God speaking: he will impart blessings upon the faithful. They will receive “peace”, shalom, godliness, well-being, including “salvation” which is “at hand”. In this process, God’s presence and power will be apparent. Verse 10 says that four of God’s attributes, his gifts to humankind, will come together. Then in verse 11 human “faithfulness”, adherence to God, the ultimate truth, will be reciprocated. God will give prosperity, materially and spiritually. Crops will improve and the people’s righteousness “will make a path” for God’s coming.

Reflection

"[God] will speak peace to his people." What does speaking peace sound like? How would you speak peace to someone? Who in our world speaks for peace?

"for those who fear [God]" - do you fear God? We're instructed over and over again in the scriptures not to be afraid. What does it mean, then, to fear God or to be God-fearing? We are to have an awe of God that is an awe we give only to God.

Some beautiful imagery in v. 10: Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other." Great images. Love and faithfulness bound together.

2 Peter 3:8-15a
Aware that he will soon die, the author leaves his fellow Christians with a testimony of what being Christian demands: how to live up to The Way, so that they may be among the saved when Christ comes again. It was tempting to deny that Christ would come again because early Christians expected the world to end within their lifetimes.
The delay, he argues in v8 is only in human terms, for God does not measure time as we do. God wishes all people to be found worthy at the Last Day so god is waiting patiently for all to repent. The images of the end-times are drawn from popular Jewish and Greek (Stoic) philosophy of the day. (Annihilation of all things by fire was a Stoic belief.) A “loud noise” heralds the Day; the conduct of all people will be made known then. So, he asks rhetorically in, given that the End will come, what should our conduct be as we wait for the End and hasten it (through bringing people to Christ)? But he adds, for us Christians annihilation is not the End, for (per Isaiah 66:22), we look forward to “new heavens and a new earth. In v14 he answers: we should work at being “at peace”, at being ethically and spiritually perfect, prepared for Christ’s (“him”) coming at the End. We should see the apparent delay in his coming as an opportunity for repentance, a last chance to get things right.

Reflection

The author here is writing in response to concerns, it seems, about the slowly-coming day of Christ's return. They are ready and waiting for Christ to come again. So where is he already? The author talks about how God's time and our time is different. Is this helpful?

"regard the patience of our Lord as salvation." The author argues that the longer it takes for Christ to return, the more chance people have of finding salvation - God, he argues, doesn't want anyone to perish, but wants all to come to repentance. God is patient.

How are you at waiting? How do we develop patience?




Mark 1:1-8
Mark begins his telling of the “good news” with quotations from the Old Testament. God had promised the Israelites a “messenger” (to lead them. The prophet Malachi understood this promise as pointing to the end-times, to one who would prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. To him, the “messenger” would be Elijah. While verse 3 originally spoke of return from exile, by Jesus’ time it was seen as an expression of God’s comfort and salvation. To us, John the Baptist comes to prepare for, and announce, Jesus’ coming. Tradition says that John baptised near Jericho, in an arid region. People came to him in large numbers, repenting (changing their mind sets), “confessing their sins”), resolving to sin no more, and dipping themselves in the River. John dressed like a hermit or prophet . (In Palestine, some species of locusts were eaten.) John is so unworthy, compared to “the one who ... is coming” , that he cannot untie his “sandals”, a task normally performed by a slave. His baptism is a sign of purification, of turning to God, of accepting God’s forgiveness and judgement; Jesus’ baptism re-establishes a spiritual link between God and humans.

Reflection

The opening of Mark's gospel wastes no time with those birth-of-Jesus stories we like to hear so much about this time of year. Mark gets to the point: "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."

Here's another wilderness passage - notice the similar language in this text and in Isaiah. John is for Jesus' time a modern-day Isaiah, announcing the same message: "God is here! Right here among you!" Is Advent about waiting for god or about waking up to the presence of God that is already here?

John sees himself as facilitating Jesus' ministry - preparing people for it. His role is so important, isn't it? think of something in the life of our church. Think of those who prepare before the big events.