Second Sunday of Advent
Today’s
readings all address the Advent theme of expectant waiting. They also fit together in a puzzling
way. Reflecting on this puzzle can help
us see something important about God and ourselves.
The gospel
reading from Mark quotes the reading from Isaiah. Mark presents John the Baptist as Isaiah’s
“voice crying in the wilderness.” Once
this voice appears crying “Make straight in the wasteland a
highway for our God,” then “the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all
people shall see it together.” Mark’s
point: Jesus is the Glory of the LORD revealed.
But
if Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy, then why are we still waiting, over two
millennia later, for every valley to be filled in, and every mountain and hill
to be made low? Those are apocalyptic
images, just like Peter’s image of the heavens passing away with a mighty roar
and the elements being “dissolved by fire.”
Such images point to a day when all things will be set right, to a “new heavens
and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
If Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy, then why do we still live in a
world full of injustice? Was the
prophecy false? Does God not keep
promises?
The
reading from 2 Peter addresses this concern. God has not yet brought all things
to completion so that we have a chance to turn away from our deadening small
concerns and begin to truly live. God is
merciful, “not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to
repentance.”
The
gospel reading also suggests an answer.
Recall what John the Baptist proclaimed:
“One mightier than I is coming after
me.
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;
he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;
he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus did usher in a new age, in which the Holy Spirit fills and enlivens
the body of Christ. Jesus has ascended,
but is also present with us in the Spirit.
Jesus defeated evil and injustice once and for all, but through us is
still fighting it. We have already won,
but not yet claimed the victory. We can
live in hope because in Jesus God surpasses our easy dichotomies. God is not “either/or,” but “both/and”:
transcendent and immanent, divine and human, omnipotent and vulnerable
(what is more vulnerable than a babe in a feeding trough?).
Jesus was the sunrise of a new day, but that
day is not yet over. We are waiting for
God, and God is waiting for us. Waiting
for us to think again about what really matters. Waiting for us to join the struggle against
every system that refuses to honor God’s image in every person. Since it is day, let us keep awake and join
the fight, confident that the enemy has already been dealt the decisive blow. Even as we struggle, we have already won.
Holy
Spirit, give us a hunger for justice and the courage to pursue it, not only in
our political systems, but also in our closest relationships and in our very
selves.
Scott Ragland is a professor in the Department of Philosophy.
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