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2nd SUNDAY IN ADVENT
The repetition of the biblical metaphor of the wilderness suggests that good news
begins out and away from the normal concourse and business as usual. To reach the promised
land, for instance, the people traveled by way of the wilderness. To return home from
exile the people passed through the wilderness. John lived and preaches in the wilderness.
Those who were willing to confess their sins and submit to his baptism of repentance left
to seek the voice in the wilderness. And Jesus too, following his baptism by John, will
begin in the wilderness: "At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness"
(1:12).
Isaiah 40:1-11-A Voice in the Wilderness
We have set before us in hymnic tones the majestic words that have inspired artists,
composers, proclaimers, and listeners throughout the ages. Israel may have suffered double
for their iniquities, but here they are receiving double comfort. Exile is soon to end,
the penalty has been paid and now a voice comes from the council of heaven. Though
humanity is fragile and life brief, God’s word of comfort and promise through the
prophet(s) endures forever. Good News is to be proclaimed in double forte: God is coming
as a shepherd with the lambs.
2 Peter 3:8-15a-Day of the Lord
The writer clarifies the Parousia timeline by comparing human and divine reckoning of
time. If a millennium on our calendars equals but a day on God’s, then the Day of
Lord may be considered imminent. But we probably shouldn’t hold our breath. But come
it will, the Day of the Lord will bring great devastation that will result in a new heaven
and earth. So while we await this colossal day of judgment and recreation, "do your
best to be pure and faultless" (v. 14).
Mark 1:1-8-The Voice in the Wilderness
We hear a one-way conversation going on across the aisles and across the centuries
between the prophet Isaiah and the marcan writer. Mark identifies the voice in the
wilderness as none other than John the Baptist who functions as a harbinger of the Good
News that is embodied in Jesus. Mark doesn’t really let us listen in on a sampling of
the Baptist’s preaching, but he is instead interested in showing us the results of
John’s preaching as well as conjuring up the strangeness of apparel and diet of this
desert prophet. He is an outsider, a wilderness figure. As the harbinger, John announces
that the one coming behind him is the one more powerful than he. Clearly, a new power is
here in the person of Jesus.
