Second Sunday of Advent

The Scripture Readings for the Second Sunday of Advent 2019 are as beautifully poetic and unrelentingly radical today as they were thousands of years ago. The Prophet Isaiah paints a picture of peaceful harmony – one where opposites, once-natural enemies, dwell together. They no longer compete, hurt, kill or devour one another. Rather, they live (even play) together, giving witness to a whole new way of thinking – a way that makes no allowance for harm or ruin in any space that belongs to God, on any of God’s Holy Mountain. Why? Because the earth is full of the knowledge of God, says Isaiah, and when God gets involved, natural differences are no longer permitted to make a destructive difference.

St. Matthew’s Gospel brings Isaiah’s dream home through John the Baptist, challenging hearers to “prepare the way of the Lord.” Referring to some Pharisees and Sadducees as a “brood of vipers,” John minces no words in exhorting all men and women to produce good fruit. What might John call us – not as individuals, but as a people, as a nation, as Christians and partners with God? How would John judge our response to the poor and the lowly around us today? How would John evaluate our national response to international urgencies, to people seeking asylum, for themselves and for their families? What might John call us?

Everything in Scripture was written for our instruction, as we will hear in Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and today’s instruction exhorts us to think in harmony with one another. How are we doing, as a nation, with that call to harmony? How are we doing with letting the scriptures instruct us? How are we doing as living witnesses of God’s living Word? Perhaps, John will have harsh words for us, perhaps, not. Let us hope instead that we will hear the voice of Jesus saying, “well done, good and faithful servants.”