2nd Sunday of Advent
Message series: AdventSunday’s message: The beginning
Last Sunday I said that the Bible and our Christian faith do not give us the kind of absolute assurance that Harold Camping and others seems to be seeking. Instead, the Bible and our faith give us Hope.
This Sunday’s readings are all about Hope.
The words from the book of the prophet Isaiah were the opening attempt by a prophet of the Exile to convince God’s people that God still cared for them, and had a plan to get them home again. It’s difficult for us to understand how important “home” was for them, even if there’s a “home place” somewhere in our own experience. For them the land once promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was their physical connection to God. Without the land, away in exile, they had lost that connection. It was like losing God.
The prophet is telling them that they have not lost God. More to the point, God has not lost or forgotten them. There is Hope.
Comfort, comfort my people! says your God.Exile was hard, and maybe it was necessary; but it’s over! God is preparing a way home.
Speak compassionately to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her that her compulsory service has ended,
that her penalty has been paid,
that she has received from the LORD ’s hand double for all her sins!
Clear the LORD’s way in the desert!But: His hearers had been in exile for half a century. Will they now return home? Where is “home”? The hearers will be mostly the children and grandchildren of those who left Jerusalem in 587 BCE. Babylon is their home; some have known no other. Dare they believe this prophet, risk the lives they have built for themselves, and set out, like Abraham, for a place they’ve never seen before? Eventually some of them, a remnant, actually did. We read about their experience in Ezra.
Make a level highway in the wilderness for our God!
Every valley will be raised up, and every mountain and hill will be flattened.
Uneven ground will become level, and rough terrain a valley plain.
The LORD’s glory will appear, and all humanity will see it together;
the LORD’s mouth has commanded it…
Like a shepherd, God will tend the flock;
he will gather lambs in his arms and lift them onto his lap.
He will gently guide the nursing ewes.
Hope also comes at the beginning of the Jesus story as told in Mark (and in Matthew and Luke and John). John the Baptist appears in the wilderness with a wonderful offer from God. “John was in the wilderness calling for people to be baptized to show that they were changing their hearts and lives and wanted God to forgive their sins.” If they would resolve to change their ways and undergo a ritual washing clean, God would give them a fresh start. That’s a very attractive offer. And it’s still available.
John the Baptist “wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; he ate locusts and wild honey.” It is a picture of Elijah the prophet, the one who was to come before the Messiah. Is Messiah just around the corner? Mark tells us that “everyone in Judea and all the people of Jerusalem went out” to see. They were looking for Hope. And John the Baptist gave it to them:
One stronger than I am is coming after me. I’m not even worthy to bend over and loosen the strap of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.We’re looking forward to Christmas. Let us also look forward in Hope to the full coming of God’s kingdom, as well as to what God is about to do in our own day and time.
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