The Second Sunday of Advent has traditionally borne the theme of Divine Love, yet in the Christian mythos of the birth of Jesus this Love comes to earth in the name Emanuel, which means "God with us," or "God in us," the God within. It represents the love of God that he has shared with us in the person of his Son, and which Jesus Christ showed us through his sacrifice and death. This love, the pure love of Christ, we are enjoined to share with each other.

This candle also represents God’s covenant with Abraham, promising him an eternal glory and seed as numerous as the sands of the sea. The Lord further promised Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed, a promise that received its ultimate fulfillment in the coming of Jesus Christ through Abraham’s line.

It is strikingly appropriate that Isaiah 40 and Mark 1:1-8 should be paired together in Advent. Isaiah 40 deals with a new journey with the exiles in Babylonia striving to get back to their home land in Judea. The exiles were told that their liberation from enemy captivity was at hand. God would bring them back to Judea, to end their earthly days in freedom, but not without much struggle and strife.

Mark also understands that a new journey is beginning for God’s people. It is being announced from the wilderness through John the Baptist. God again proclaims comfort to the people of Israel who cry out from their spiritual wilderness and from the dominance of yet another empire. God again promises to act for the salvation of Israel, and more

For us this has a meaning which goes beyond the confines of this world and of this limited life. The liberation from Babylon was but a shadow of the messianic redemption brought to all men by the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ.

The second week of advent forces us to confront our own wilderness. There in the wilderness God will visit us through Christ, forgiving us of our sins and washing us with his eternal presence - a peace that passes all understanding.

Otherwise, why would we need deliverance or salvation? We all have some idea of what it is like to feel a desert between ourselves and God. We long for some kind of on ramp, a map of the highway that will take us back to the heart of God.

We all need the Voice of God speaking to our lives. We need a person or people who would call out to us to get ready for Christ to enter into us. We all need a voice to confront us with our sinfulness and crooked lives.

The Christmas season involves us in expending tremendous amounts of energy, time, and resources for the task of preparation. There are gifts to be bought, wrapped, and placed under the tree. We have to find a new outfit for the company party, memorize our lines for the Christmas program, and organize the latest gift-exchange scheme for the extended family. There is baking to be done for the school Christmas party, cleaning to be done before the Sunday School class celebration in our home, and Christmas cards to be composed and mailed before it is too late.

Could it be that we miss the coming of Christ and the gifts He brings to our lives, because we fail to prepare properly? If so, what is the biblical pattern for readiness to accept the Christ who comes to us?

Prepare the way. That is the call of Advent. Go to your wilderness. Prepare an “on ramp” so that God may find you and comfort you. Let us meditate and think often during these weeks of Advent on what the Christmas event means to us.

Icon Moscow School, 1560s.

Mark 1:1-8

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

"See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way;

the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

`Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,'"

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

John the Baptist leads us in this Advent season to the one who is our Lord, whose birth we await and whose reign in eternity will never end. This is "the beginning of the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (1:1).

The Second Sunday of Advent in Year B focuses on the person of John. John the Baptist marks the transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament In our text from the gospel of Mark, we hear an extensive description of John's identity. He lives in the wilderness near the river Jordan where Jesus is baptized. The baptism he offers is for his people from the Judean countryside as "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (1:4).

The Jews at that time were expecting the Messiah to come, Elijah to return, and another prophet (unnamed) to return. The belief that Elijah would come before the Messiah arrived is derived from Malachi 4:5. Also in Deuteronomy 18:15, the Bible states that God “will raise up a prophet like Moses… I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak all that I have commanded him.”

The description of John stretches our imagination. He is identified as a wilderness man: "John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey" (1:6). However, the primary intention of John was not to draw attention to himself, but to the one of whom he is the forerunner: "'The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me, I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals'" (1:7). John's role is that of a servant to the one he is called to serve. John preached a change of spirit and lifestyle, a metanoia, to straighten the way of the Lord. His words had an effect, for many from far and near went to hear his message. Those he baptized confessed their faults, in the hope that their repentance would lead to a forgiveness of their sins. [1:4-5]

The baptism of this one who is to come is radically different from that of John's baptism: "'I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit'" (1:8). This is the role that John plays out in a significant way, calling attention to the one who ushers in God's kingdom.

Jesus is the Messiah whose ministry is empowered by God's Spirit. In the title "Christ," Mark saw Jesus as God's chosen, the one who had a unique relationship with God, the one would lead his people (and all peoples) back to God John baptized as a promise of liberation in the face of judgment. The Messiah's baptism would be liberation and judgment. Those who received the Messiah would be freed from sin, sickness, and death.

This is the one who has come, who is present, and who is to come again. We too are called to announce and make known God's Son in this season of Advent. Like the witness of John, we too are witnesses to the one who incarnates "the beginning of the good news, the gospel"

Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort, O comfort my people,

says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that she has served her term,

that her penalty is paid,

that she has received from the LORD's hand

double for all her sins.

A voice cries out:

"In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,

make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up,

and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,

and the rough places a plain.

Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,

and all people shall see it together,

for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

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.

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.

Get you up to a high mountain,

O Zion, herald of good tidings;

lift up your voice with strength,

O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,

lift it up, do not fear;

say to the cities of Judah,

"Here is your God!"

See, the Lord GOD comes with might,

and his arm rules for him;

his reward is with him,

and his recompense before him.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd;

he will gather the lambs in his arms,

and carry them in his bosom,

and gently lead the mother sheep.

In 598 BCE, 587 BCE, 582 BCE (Jeremiah 52:28-30), the Babylonians deported significant numbers of Israelites from Israel to Babylon, especially the leaders and highly educated people. It appears that the Babylonians allowed the exiles to own land (Jeremiah 29:5) and gave them much freedom. They could continue to worship (Ezekiel 8:1, 14:1,3, 20:1,29, Jeremiah 29:1), to participate in trade (Marashu business texts), to remain in tribal groups with their leaders (Jeremiah 29:5-7) and to serve on royal projects and in the military forces. The evidence of the Jeremiah, Deutero-Isaiah, Ezekiel and Priestly material shows that writing continued in the exile. An awareness of both the written and oral traditions of the past is seen in these books.

However, the Babylonian Empire would not last long. By 540 BC Cyrus the Persian (44:24; 45:1) had unified the scattered Persian tribes, subdued the Medes and had begun to build the Persian Empire. By 538, he had taken over Babylon peacefully and emerged as master of the Near Eastern world (41:2-4). These events provide the background for Isaiah 40-55.

At the beginning of Isaiah 40, the people of Judah are in captivity in Babylon One question loomed large for the exiles. Since they had clearly failed to be God's people, did they have a future? Would God again work in their midst, or would He simply abandon them? In this crisis of faith, God again speaks to the community through the messages of Isaiah 40-55

The passage addresses two important issues for this people who lack hope: the sovereignty of Yahweh and the grace of Yahweh.

A dispirited people, who have suffered the hardship of exile with its subtle and not so subtle discriminations, needs to be convinced that the one who calls for their trust and hope is able to deliver. So the prophet sets out to convince them that Yahweh who calls them is sovereign over all creation and over their destiny.

There are 3 messages here:

1. Be prepared, the Lord indeed will come in glory. It is often assumed that a believer prepares for the coming of the Lord through their obedience, or better, their faithfulness.e messenger calls for the building of a ceremonial highway in preparation of the imminent coming of the king. Being ready for Jesus means being ready to welcome him. "Come into my heart Lord Jesus." We are ready to meet our Lord, not because we are worthy to meet him, but because we want to meet him.

2. Rest on the Word. We are the most unreliable of creatures. The Lord acts rightly, and above all, sticks with his word. What he says, he will do.

3. Our God is a tender loving God. There is a sense where we are like scattered sheep, far from the shepherd's hand. We can often sense this loneliness, particularly when things are going wrong. Yet, we can shout from the mountain top that on Calvary the Lord Jesus secured a mighty victory. He rolled up his sleeves and worked out our salvation. So now and for eternity, we are a blessed flock. Jesus tends us, identifies with each one of us in all our needs; he covers us with tender loving care

We are called by the prophet of Isaiah to remember the sovereignty, grace and compassion of the one who comes, that in him our sins have been forgiven, that we are called constantly to see what new thing God is doing in our midst through him.

We are also called to note the surprise of his coming. The one who is sovereign comes in weakness as an infant. The one who is comes in graciousness will, in due time, see the high cost for that grace.

We focus on these things in Advent, not to forget them after Christmas, but to realize that our very hope is waiting for the one who in the past, present and future comes to us constantly.

2 Peter 3:8-15a

Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.

Aware that he will soon die, Peter 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 godly 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.

Its twofold purpose is to warn against false teachers (ch. 2), and to dispel some anxiety the Christians of that day felt because of the apparent delay of Christ's second coming as judge (ch. 3). There were those (non-Christians) who scoffed at the Christian idea that the world would one day come to an end.

Clearly many expected divine intervention, the day of the Lord, within their lifetime or soon thereafter. This was the case with Peter. It hasn't happened; and it hadn't happened by the early second century when this letter was probably penned. Such intense hope has lapsed

The idea of a future day of the Lord remains. It was after all fundamental, had its roots in Old Testament hope (although Amos warned that unless things changed people should not really look forward to it at all!), and appears to have been central in Jesus' message, despite the attempts from time to time to rescue Jesus from such an embarrassment. It was part of their world. It is as little part of ours as belief in a flat world or a demon based cosmology is. What do we then do?

Peter muses about why God may be taking so long: "with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (3:8). We are on human time which is different from God's time. Peter also suggests that God is waiting because in fact God does not want to enact a judgment. God's preferred option is that everyone would repent so that there would be nothing to judge (3:9).

He focuses not on the event but on God and God's time. While at one level this will have been a rationalisation for the delay, it also shifts attention to what we can know - or at least trust. This return then leads to an assertion about God's being: God does not want people to perish. This is a move - not taken very far - but a step which has the potential to unravel some of the speculation and the notion, crudely put, that God will finally want to destroy all who do not repent or punish them eternally. The author does not go that far, but it is significant that this catches his attention.

The best way to understand Peter's exhortation is to remind ourselves of the purpose of our Christian walk. The purpose of our discipleship is to prepare us for our reign with Christ in eternity. Through the work of the indwelling Spirit we begin to live "holy and Godly lives" and are therefore daily moulded into the image of Christ, made holy. So, we strive toward the day by living as disciples of Christ and in that striving we are prepared for the day.

Discipleship expresses itself in three particular ways: We strive toward the day as we seek to walk uprightly in the presence of the Lord - to touch him in prayer, devotion and worship, to live by faith rather than sight. We strive toward the day as we seek to build up the Christian fellowship - equipping and encouraging. We strive toward the day as we reach out into the world, seeking the lost in the power of the gospel, both in word and sign.