Father Thomas Welbers' Homily	Jump back to Homily Index
Second Sunday of Advent, December 8, 2002 Mark 1:1-8	Listen to Audio

The words of today’s first reading, from the book of the prophet Isaiah, are familiar to anyone who is a acquainted with Handel’s famous oratorio, “The Messiah.”  In fact, if you’re like me, you may have found yourself humming along the tunes of “Every valley shall be exalted” or “Get thee up on to a high mountain.”

This wonderful reading begins the second part of book of Isaiah, chapters 40 to 55, which were written during the Babylonian exile more than 500 years before Christ. This second part of Isaiah is often called the “Book of Consolation,” because it was intended to encourage the exiles, hoping for a return to their homeland.  “Comfort, give comfort to my people” – strong and encouraging words indeed.

The word “comfort” means more than we realize.  We are too accustomed to thinking “comfortable” means soft or easy, pleasant or nice.  Yet the origin of the word, from Latin, means to make very strong, to build up in strength, just as “encourage” obviously means, not just to give hope but to give courage.  Both words move towards action, not to passivity.

The people who first heard these words had experienced their whole lives falling apart.  Jerusalem, their homeland, had been invaded by the Assyrians, and the Temple – God’s own house among them, and the center of their religious spirit – had been destroyed.  They were forcibly transported in bondage to a foreign land, Babylon in Mesopotamia – actually present day Iraq.  Baghdad is only a few miles north of the ancient site of Babylon.  They felt that God had betrayed and abandoned them, that God was no longer faithful to the covenant he made with them, and perhaps even powerless to save them.

With that in mind, let’s listen again to the words of the prophet:

Comfort, give comfort to my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.

A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low;
the rugged land shall be made a plain,
the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Go up on to a high mountain,
Zion, herald of glad tidings;
cry out at the top of your voice,
Jerusalem, herald of good news!
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Judah:
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong arm;
here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.

God assures them of his fidelity, that his strong arm will save.  God assures them that they are his people, and he will care for them like a shepherd cares for his sheep.  God also assures them that they will be restored to Jerusalem, and that Jerusalem, broken and desolate, would be the source of good news for all people.  An impossible dream!

But the prophet also announces in this “Book of Consolation,” a chapter or two later, something those people in exile found very, very hard to swallow: their savior, the one who would bring them back to Jerusalem, the one who would help them to rebuild the city, the one who would even help them to rebuild the temple, would be the pagan king next door, Cyrus, the Persian, who were soon to conquer the Assyrians.   Persia is present-day Iran.  Salvation, rescue, coming from “those people.”

The Jews found that very hard to swallow.  They wanted God to work directly to exalt them, raise them up the prominence, power and prosperity they felt they deserved as his chosen people.  But even in saving them, God humbled them, because God chose as his instrument someone who was "way off their radar screen."  And many of them simply said, “No!  That’s not acceptable.  That’s not the way God ought to work.”  And yet it turned out that was the way God worked.  That was the comfort; that was the salvation for his people.  Unexpected, and even unwelcome.

Now, fast forward a bit to the time of Jesus.  Jesus was equally unacceptable as the expected savior.  That’s why they didn’t believe in him.  The savior was going to be a strong man of God with a sword in his hand, conquering the enemies.  Instead God gave them the one rejected, and nailed to a cross like a common criminal.

We hear John the Baptist taking the part of Isaiah, proclaiming God’s saving presence, that the savior, the Messiah, was going to come who would free his people.  And everybody heard that with great joy.  Oh boy, we’re going to rebuild our military might, we’re going to drive out those Romans, we’re again going to be great a people.  John the Baptist, like Isaiah here, says, “I am only pointing to the one whom God will send.”  They will say, “Who’s he?”  They will say, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  They will say, “Physician, heal yourself.”  They will say, “If you are the Son of God, come down from that cross.”  History does repeat itself.  The ways that God worked in the Old Testament, were not what people expected – or found acceptable.  Sending Jesus his Son – that really wasn’t what everybody expected either.  Now, are we also sometimes blinded by our expectations of “what God ought to be,” that we fail to see where God really is?

The following website is worth a visit to continue exploring today’s readings:

http://www.ambs.edu/php/friends/fri_advent_2.php

© 2002 Thomas Welbers