Second Sunday of Advent

This Sunday’s readings from Isaiah and Mark are a study in contrasts. Isaiah focuses on the comfort of God’s promise to the people in Exile.

“Comfort, O comfort my people,

says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that she has served her term,

that her penalty is paid,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

double for all her sins.”

Isaiah 40:1-2 (NRSV)

After roughly fifty years in exile following the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Babylonian forces under King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE, they would be allowed to return and rebuild under the Persian King Cyrus. Words of comfort and hope were offered to the exiles by the prophet Isaiah.

The verse which tie together the Isaiah reading and the Mark reading is Isaiah 40:3

“A voice cries out:

‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,

make straight in the desert a highway for our God.'”

After a time of exile and loss, the people were going to be restored. The people who had fallen away from following God would be given another chance to live as God’s chosen ones. And the wilderness wandering which they had endured like their fore-bearers had in the Exodus from Egypt would come to an end.

The picture above was taken by me on one of the local beaches in South Walton County. If you look closely at the footprints (of at least two separate creatures), they appear to wander about. If you take a close look at the paths which the creatures take on the beach, there are some straight lines. But in reality are more weaving meanderings than straight lines.

That is what the people had done in exile and what we do today when we lose our way. I know in my own spiritual journey, there rarely has been a straight path, let alone a highway. The prophet promised the people in Exile and promises us today that our wanderings will not keep us lost. The promise is for each of us, God will guide our steps if we but open the eyes of our heart and listen for the Spirit’s voice. Isaiah’s highway (and John’s highway) will bring us out of the desert and wilderness of wandering about lost.

As Advent calls us to prepare for the Lord’s coming while also remembering his birth, it calls us to reflect on our lives and on the paths we walk. John’s message was simple: Repent!

So while I am spending some time reflecting on my own pathways which I have wandered, I also need to quiet my own spirit to hear the voice of the one who calls me to walk in the way of the Lord. How are you going to “prepare the way of the Lord”? How will you make room for Him in your heart this Advent season and every day?

I take heart in the fact that even though my wanderings look more like the webbed footprints on the beach, God promises to take my wanderings and transform them. God will lead me in the direction which God has planned for me to go.

The way is prepared, Lord help me to repent, listen, and follow in your pathways.