Advent II

Advent II 2017 – Cycle B Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; Psalm 85; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8

Do you sometimes just want to be told that everything will be OK?

I think of the images of devastation we continue to see among the people of Puerto Rico.  No homes, no clean water, no electricity – how many months has it been?  We don’t remember Houston, Louisiana or Florida anymore, do we?  The evacuees of California who are enveloped by a maelstrom of fire.  What a season to find yourself homeless?  I think of the people of Las Vegas and the various places where other mass shootings throughout our country have taken place.  Here arise the questions of the presence of evil mingled with the deep pain of needless loss of life.  The daily revelations of sexual harassment in Hollywood, the media, Congress, and the arts.  When will the litany stop?  When will the dignity of women be recognized and respected rather than treated as toys and objects by men in power?

It seems like nature is working actively against us; that violence is arising from within us as a society destroying lives of the innocent, of black people, of children; that a divide continues to grow between women and men.

Do you just want to be told sometimes that everything will be OK?

There was a time when God spoke to an Israel who were numb, afraid and hopeless having watched the devastation of their nation by Babylon, the deportation of their monarchy and the destruction of their one Temple.  God came to Israel as a lover, a parent, a friend and spoke tenderly to her: “Be comforted. Everything will be OK.”  Caressed her in the gentle, careful embrace of a God who like us picks up a crying child, an injured dog, a broken blossom.

This is another time, today, when God again is speaking, speaking to us:

To the parent with a child in jail.  “Be comforted. Everything will be OK.”

To the emptiness within the wife or husband whose spouse has died.  “Everything will be OK.  Look, your God comes with strength.”

To the people who are unable to accept their past life choices that heavily weigh on them today.  “Be comforted.”

To a couple whose unsure marriage is tottering on the brink of…of what?  “Look, your God with arms outreached is coming with gifts for you.”

To people gathered here who are aged, infirm and sick.  “Everything will be OK.  Look, your God comes with strength.”

To those among us who are unable to live beyond a past that shackles us with old burdensome images that we cannot seem to let go of.  “Be comforted. Everything will be OK.”

To the person who cannot get beyond their sinfulness, maybe does not admit to their sinfulness, so as to move to a deeper spiritual plane.  “Here is your God!”

To people, young and old, who are afraid and unable to move forward in life.  “Everything will be OK.  Look, your God comes with strength.”

To the person who feels numb or is hopeless…the mentally ill, the homeless, the lonely.  “Here is your God!”

As so much advertising proclaims today; this is NOT the season of giving.  Advent – Christmas is the season of opening ourselves up to receiving.  For we believe in a God who comes to us.  A God who gathers us up and caresses us.  We believe in a God who hastens to bind up our wounds and save us.