Year B: Second Sunday of Advent
Repentance Prepares the Way
There are four Sundays of advent every year, and these four Sundays focus on the arrival of Jesus in three different ways: (1) his second coming, (2) his presence in the life of the believer, and (3) his incarnation.1
The second Sunday of advent, along with the third, focus in on the ministry of John the Baptist since he is a key figure in preparing the way of the Lord (Isaiah 40:3).2
Year B, Second Sunday of Advent, December 10, 2023
First Reading: Isaiah 40:1–11
Psalm: Psalm 85:1–2, 8–13
Second Reading: 2 Peter 3:8–15a
Gospel: Mark 1:1–8
Sermon - Repentance Prepares the Way
This sermon text is not a transcription of the video at the bottom of the page. Instead, it functions as extra reading to supplement the sermon.
One key figure in preparing the arrival of the Messiah was John the Baptist. There are two major prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures which anticipated the arrival of John. One is Malachi 3-4 and the other is Isaiah 40:1-11. It is this latter passage that will be our focus today.
Isaiah 40 begins with God offering a word of comfort to Israel: her exile is over, and her time for restoration is near. But how is this restoration achieved?
That’s where John comes in.
This voice in the wilderness calls for national repentance. This language of the valleys being lifted up and the mountains being lowered is symbolic of the people preparing themselves for the arrival of the Messiah. It is then, after this preparation, that the glory of the Lord is revealed to all flesh, not just one nation or one tribe.
This glory that appears before all the people is everlasting. Unlike the grass and the flowers which fade away, the glory of the Lord endures forever. And the arrival of this glory means the arrival of God with the rewards he intends to give to the people. Like a shepherd, God feeds the flock and gently leads the people.
But what comes before all of this?
Repentance.
When I think of repentance, I typically think of turning my life around. I was doing bad stuff, but I repented, and now I do good stuff.
But as others have noted before me, repentance means “a change of mind.”3
Change our minds? About what?
Perhaps we our to change our minds about who God is. The old pictures of God which have been ultimately harmful, even though they may have once been helpful in our younger years, may need some revising.
The way we view others may also need to change. Do other humans (or perhaps animals and even the planet we inhabit) exist so that we may exploit them in order to grow rich or secure power? Is the exploitation of other humans made in God’s image, the planet we were created to take care of, and the animals in our care justified if it means the most powerful, crafty, or privileged among us make a few extra dollars to afford modern luxuries?
Or perhaps we need to change how we view ourselves? Does the world revolve around us? Should we let our passions, desires, and preferences dominate those of others? It could be that repentance means emptying ourself and putting others’ needs before our own.
Or we may think about repentance in terms of our personal or corporate sins? Do we view sin as harming our personal relationship with God, or do we see sin as also affecting our neighbors, our community, and our world? Have we considered the seriousness of sin, or do we treat it like that pain in our tooth we put off acknowledging to avoid any temporary discomfort that may be required by actually dealing with it?
A call to repentance is a call to change our minds about lots of things, and changing our minds is never comfortable. But being a Christian, including going to church, isn’t about being comfortable. It’s about sacrifice, radical love, and giving our lives to God. Yes, God gives us rest, but he gives us eternal rest so that we will know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord. This rest gives us the strength and the courage to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world.
But how do we accomplish this work set out before us? John promised in Mark 1:1-8 that God would not leave us to work alone:
…so John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And the whole Judean region 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 strap of his sandals. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Mark 1:4–8
Repentance prepares us for the Spirit. Repentance helps us to let our guard down and let God do what God does best: show mercy, transform, and bless. It is through the Holy Spirit that God accomplishes his purpose, and it is by submitting to this Spirit that we participate with God in the raising of valleys, the lowering of mountains, and the spread of the glory and reward of God to the whole creation.
Second Reading - God’s Patience in Judgment
When you think of judgement, do you think of patience? In Peter’s day, he had to deal with some people who were saying that Jesus hadn’t kept his word. On several occasions in both the gospel accounts and in the epistles written by Jesus’s disciples, both Jesus and his followers claimed that the coming of the Lord would happen quickly (Matthew 10:23; James 5:8-9). Those folks in Peter’s day scoffed at that promise.
Peter responded by appealing to the nature of God. He wrote, "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” (2 Peter 3:9).
God’s apparent “slowness” wasn’t an indicator that God had shirked responsibility; instead, it was a sign of God’s patience. While we have a tendency to want justice now, God would rather give space for repentance. Sometimes our hunger for immediate gratification when it comes to justice and judgement cuts off the opportunity for forgiveness and reconciliation.
In many occasions, our natural instinct is to cheer for retributive justice. If someone hits you, hit back. If someone attacks your people, return fire 100 times more than what they did to you. In the justice system, we talk about throwing the book at someone. But these responses, while they may sometimes seem like the only option, hardly ever bring about reconciliation.
But what about God’s chosen path of patience? Might we exercise that? Sure, we may not get the sweet taste of revenge, but we may get something even more precious: restored relationship.
Doesn’t our world have too much violence and hatred already? I think we can model God’s justice by learning to exercise patience, tolerance, and, dare I say, love for our enemies. This is the Way of the Cross.
Reflections
I like the idea of preaching about John the Baptist during Advent. Too many people skip over this key character in the gospel story. I’m excited to talk about him more next week. I think next week I will discuss how joy is related to our identity and being authentic to ourselves. There is this neat line in John 1 where John the Baptist is asked who he is, and he confessed, not denied but confessed, that he was not the Messiah.
Thanks so much for keeping up with this blog. If you have any suggestions, reccomendations, or critiques, you can always comment here or reach out through my website: https://danielr.net.
“Advent is the celebration of the three comings of Christ: his coming in the flesh, which is the primary focus of the feast of Christmas; his coming at the end of time, which is one of the underlying themes of Advent; and his coming in grace, which is his spiritual coming in our hearts through the Eucharistic celebration of the Christmas-Epiphany mystery.”
Keating, Thomas. The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience. New York: Continuum, 2008. Print.
Fuller, Reginald and Daniel Westberg. Preaching the Lectionary: The Word of God for the Church Today. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2006. Print. page 223.
Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.