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SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT


cappie

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Our readings this second Sunday of Advent bring both comfort and challenge into our daily agenda. Our first reading from the Book of Isaiah tells us of the Lord's compassion and future promise: God's got this! The Gospel reading according to Mark reminds us to repent before the future is upon us, however!

The Babylonians used their power to enact laws that undermined the foundations of the Jewish people, their culture, and their faith. They used their power to proclaim again and again that they were the winners. Despite all of this, feeling forgotten and alone, strangers in a strange land, God was with God’s people. God did not abandon them.

The prophet Isiah gives many commands in this passage, but the first was to console. To be human is to be vulnerable.  Yet, what is especially interesting to notice is that God does not call for consolation alone. Specifically, we are not meant to get consoled, but to be consoled so we can then be moved into action. The way of the Lord is prepared amid our mutual suffering. In our compassion for one another, the way of the Lord is made clear. The Good News breaks through with the promise of new life and a new way of being together.

Shout with a loud voice. From comfort, God’s people are called into action. Not just any action, but an action of proclamation and gathering together, centred on the unwavering promises of God. This call to action is for the whole body. What would it mean for us to take this call to lift our voices seriously? What keeps us as a community from proclaiming the Good News of God for us? Too often, we allow our individualism and busyness to distract us from the call of God. Our individual calendars and task lists put the proclamation of Good News low on the priority list. Yet again, we use our individuality to shield us from the very real call to gather and proclaim. Perhaps this is why following closely after the call to lift up our voices (with strength!) the prophet adds, “Shout without fear.”

 God’s word, God’s promises, will stand forever. Here, as we rise to the call to action, we are given a vision of God arriving to fulfil God’s promises. These promises come by way of God’s might, but God’s might is not what we would think. God’s might is not wielded in the same manner of the winners of this world. Yet, in today’s word from Isaiah, we hear clearly that God promises a world reliant on God. It is God who will gather us, care for us, and lead us home.

 Here is the Lord coming with power, we rely on God’s power, under the rule of God’s arm. This rule is powerful but does not warp power in the same ways we are used to. Instead, the rule and power of God are about restoration.   One can imagine that this is an especially powerful word for a community in exile.  One thing is certain: our world needs a God of comfort and justice. That is Good News for which we are to hope. That is Good News to proclaim.

God’s rule for us. God’s rule is a promise. This is a promise to a scattered community, that is not dependent on winners and losers, but dependent on the very being – the essence – of our God. The reward is our reliance on a trustworthy God who never leaves God’s people, no matter how bad things may get. This truth is where we find our comfort and hope. This truth is what we are called to proclaim to all because it is a truth for all.  Our scripture today closes with the beautiful image of the new way of life under God’s rule, where we are gathered, held close, fed, and led gently.   It is this promise that we await in this Advent season, preparing for the Saviour to come, born a loser in this world, to hang out with losers of this world, named Emmanuel, God with us, so that we may find home in God, with us, for us.

So, let our holy communion with Jesus Christ today be a prayer, a heart-felt prayer for that day of days when he will come fully and finally into our lives, a prayer that echoes the one we are praying together today in our Responsorial Psalm: ‘Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.’
 

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