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Second Sunday of Advent
December 4, 2022
Isaish 11:1-10
On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,
and from his roots a bud shall blossom.
The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:
a spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
a spirit of counsel and of strength,
a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,
and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.
Not by appearance shall he judge,
nor by hearsay shall he decide,
but he shall judge the poor with justice,
and decide aright for the land's afflicted.
He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
Justice shall be the band around his waist,
and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.
Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the young lion shall browse together,
with a little child to guide them.
The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
together their young shall rest;
the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
The baby shall play by the cobra's den,
and the child lay his hand on the adder's lair.
There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,
as water covers the sea.
On that day, the root of Jesse,
set up as a signal for the nations,
the Gentiles shall seek out,
for his dwelling shall be glorious.
Psalm 72
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king's son;
he shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
May his name be blessed forever;
as long as the sun his name shall remain.
In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;
all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
Romans 15:4-9
Brothers and sisters:
Whatever was written previously was written for our instruction,
that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures
we might have hope.
May the God of endurance and encouragement
grant you to think in harmony with one another,
in keeping with Christ Jesus,
that with one accord you may with one voice
glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you,
for the glory of God.
For I say that Christ became a minister of the circumcised
to show God's truthfulness,
to confirm the promises to the patriarchs,
but so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.
As it is written:
Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles
and sing praises to your name.
Matthew 3:1-12
John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea
and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"
It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said:
A voice of one crying out in the desert,
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
John wore clothing made of camel's hair
and had a leather belt around his waist.
His food was locusts and wild honey.
At that time Jerusalem, all Judea,
and the whole region around the Jordan
were going out to him
and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River
as they acknowledged their sins.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees
coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers!
Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.
And do not presume to say to yourselves,
'We have Abraham as our father.'
For I tell you,
God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees.
Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit
will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
I am baptizing you with water, for repentance,
but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I.
I am not worthy to carry his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand.
He will clear his threshing floor
and gather his wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
May your faith see you through the unknowns in your life, calling you to trust the unseen presence of God in them. May your faith serve as a beacon to light the way for other pilgrims on the way. -Maxine Shonk, OP
May the Advent God be with you, inviting you to an eager expectation of new life within you. May you know hope, may you know peace as you await the birth of what is yet to be in you. May the life you embrace be a sharing in the God of life and incarnation among us. May the Advent God bless you.- --Maxine Shonk, OP
Whatever was written previously was written for our instruction,
that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures
we might have hope.
How badly does our world need hope!
'Hope' is like stretching out our hands, either to be rewarded for our efforts or to be saved because someone else wants to put us back on our feet. The first is good and motivates virtually everything we do. The second is the hope we are offered in the Christos.
Paul often refers to both of these. In this reading from Romans he says that what is written is intended to educate us in endurance, with history's encouragement, that we might have hope.
We are given instruction so that we might have hope. So in Paul's mind hope is something we have to learn, as we have to learn to be all the qualities of a good life. We grow in understanding of what's involved in hope especially when in our darkness it seems madness to hope. For hope to grow strong it must not only have solid foundations; we have to exercise it daily.
Without hope we are paralysed, we get depressed, then desperate and then reckless. I can lie awake at night thinking of leaders of nations teetering on the edge of desperation. The odds are one or other will risk everything to win and we'll all end up destroyed. On what grounds can we hope for peace between empires competing to be top dog? In what way can the Writings lumped together between the covers of our bible give us en-courage-ment, i.e., the courage to endure?
The great thread running through all the Bible Writings is that God cares, sees us as precious, loves us all and will not let us sink. If there's fear of failure it's in our hearts, not in God. That is the ground of my hope. The birth of the Anointed One is confirmation of this promise.
Not everyone can relate to the idea of a God who is like a father, who values us as his precious children, and loves us. For some hope is grounded in progress, the unstoppable progress of evolution which is moving ever forward towards greater complexity, with closer links of interdependance in every living being. A complex of mutual influence already exists between rocks, planets and galaxies of this amazing cosmos. No doubt this is a solid ground for hope. But what goes into a hope that will not be weakened no matter how severe the setback or how deep the trough we find ourselves sliding into?
Two elements are listed by Paul: endurance and courage. Protesters against oppressive regimes have amazing courage. How much hope does it take to go out again on streets stained with the blood of hundreds already gunned down by the military? Remember the peace movements of the '60s when we dared to hope we could change the course of history by marching in the street, chanting and wearing slogans on our T-shirts. We're still prepared to march but has our hope endured through the years?
It takes enormous courage to keep on hoping as things go steadily downhill. Have we secretly surrendered to the inevitable like residents of a town flooded out for the fourth time in a year. We can clean out the mud but there's no point in trying to regain our once clean and fresh environment for it will only be inundated again and again.
To be without hope is to despair. It leads to suicide. On the other hand, as the newly re-elected Premier of Victoria said, hope will always win over hate!
O come, O come Emmnuel. It's one thing to wait in joyful hope for one to come who will redeem our captive world. It's something else to still hope that the transformation is actually underway, for the signs of transformation are very weak. Easier to throw it all away and settle for a reasoned view that says there is no beyond, nothing more to believe in than what we can see and test.
In the letter to the Romans 4:18 Paul holds Abraham as the model of hope. Rather than throw in the towel we too can hope, no matter how illogical it might seem. Like Abraham we can hope against hope. Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, “That’s how many descendants you will have!” (NLT)
Hope is trust confidently placed in a promise for which there is no visible guarantee. Again in Romans 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
May we be so strong in hope that we can support those who doubt, and those who have given up all hope.