Advent II

The Second Sunday of Advent

_{Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; Psalm 85; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8}

Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.

When was the last time you felt comforted? What was happening in your life that you needed to be comforted? Who offered you comfort?

After 45 years, I still recall the image of an Orthodox priest standing with a penitent before an icon of Christ as they confessed their sins, an arm around the shoulders. A simple gesture yet one deeply imbued with support and a quiet strength.

Our humanity can convey strength to painful, betrayed, numbing, and fearful experiences of life and allow others to go forward; an arm around a shoulder, a deep look into another person’s eyes, the firm holding of hands, a full bodily embrace, or simply a quiet presence.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end.

Attentive and focused words can make all the difference and direct a person on a path into the future. In season 2 of The Chosen, Mary Magdalene, brought back to the community of disciples after returning to her former way of life hears Jesus gently speak to her: I just want your heart, which you already have given. The rest will come in time. Did you really think you would never struggle again? Look up. Look at me. It’s over. Then Jesus embraces her.

Comfort means strong together. None of us can find comfort and strength in isolation. It must be together in community. That is why in the imaginative retelling of The Chosen the community goes looking for Mary Magdalene. The disciples make sure Thomas, missing Easter Sunday morning, is present in the upper room when Jesus appears a second time. It is why we need each other in our very isolated and lonely culture.

The comfort of Advent may not be what we expect. The comfort offered by our God is a person, Jesus. Jesus is our strength as Psalm 20 reminds us, “Some rely on chariots, others on horses; but we on the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we stand strong and firm”.

Too many of us rely on our own power and determination. If challenged, we say, “no” but that is not true. The fundamental sin of the garden is that we deeply believe we can live, control our lives, and even gain salvation by our own means. Israel could not extricate itself from exile in Babylon and we cannot disentangle ourselves from life’s situations alone. That is why we mark the coming of our God to us in the Advent season. This is the good news to be shouted: we are not alone.

Go up on to a high mountain, cry out at the top of your voice, Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord GOD. This is comfort.

Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. To whom is God speaking?

Assuredly, the prophet. Isaiah is to speak to the exiled people of Israel. However, Isaiah is also speaking to us. In what part of our lives do each of need to be comforted, to be strengthened in this Advent of life? From whom have we been distanced and need to return?

As in all things in related with our God, what we have received we are also to share.

Listen to the words of Psalm 69: I am weary with crying out. Rescue me and do not let me sink.Rescue me from those who hate me and from the watery depths. Insult has broken my heart, and I despair; I looked for compassion, but there was none, for comforters, but found none. The Christian community has seen in this psalm the passion of Jesus.

They also mark the lives of many people today.

The parents of a 37-year-old son who unexpectedly died days ago. Moreover, the members of the Albany Police Department of whom this son was a brother.

The Jewish community of our area after gunshots were fired at the entrance of Temple Israel Thursday, as anti-Semitism rises over the Israeli–Hamas war.

Two parishioners, seniors, facing surgery this week and next.

Who in your circles needs comfort?

How might you offer comfort to them and fulfill the Advent prophecy?