Second Sunday of Advent

Somebody in your room owes somebody an apology, and the family has quietly agreed nothing moves until it shows up. This week's readings run in the opposite order. Here's what each text is doing, the line worth building on, and the traps to step around. These notes come from Week 2 of Relative Peace, our free Advent series.

Old Testament

Isaiah 40:1–11

Chapter 39 ends with Hezekiah told that everything in his treasury will be carried off to Babylon. Turn the page and the people are already there: exiles in the sixth century BC, the temple gone for decades. Verse 27, just past the reading, quotes what they were saying. God doesn't see us, and he has dropped our case.

What to notice

• The commands in verses 1–2 are plural. God is sending a company of messengers, and his first word, said twice, is comfort. The next phrase is literally speak to her heart, the way Joseph talks to the brothers who sold him when they're sure he's about to settle the score (Genesis 50:21).
• Pardon arrives in verse 2, in the past tense, before anyone repents and before one valley is filled. The roadwork in verses 3–5 comes after, and the road is for God. The exiles aren't paving their way back to him. They're getting ready for a visitor who has already said he's coming.
• Verse 10 promises power, and verse 11 says what it's for. The arm that rules is the same Hebrew word as the arms that carry the lambs.

Build on this

God spoke comfort before anybody lifted a shovel. Clear your side of the road because he's already coming down it, and leave the other side to him.

Watch out: Verses 3–4 get preached as self-improvement: level your hills and God can finally reach you. That flips the order. And Isaiah hands nobody a shovel for somebody else's ground.

Psalm

Psalm 85:1–2, 8–13

A temple singers' psalm that opens in the past tense: you restored, you forgave. Then the skipped verses (4–7) turn hard. Restore us again. Will you be angry forever? These are forgiven people, back home, and back in trouble.

What to notice

• Verse 8 is the hinge. One voice steps forward and says, I will listen. What he hears is shalom, things the way they ought to be. Nobody in the psalm produces it. It's spoken to them.
• Love and truth in verse 10 are hesed and emet, the pair God used for himself in Exodus 34:6, right after the golden calf. The psalm turns four of God's qualities into people. Two meet. Two kiss, the way family greets family.
• Truth springs up from the ground and righteousness looks down from heaven, so they meet on the earth where people live. Then righteousness walks ahead of God and clears his road (v. 13). Augustine preached verse 11 on Christmas Day as the birth of Jesus.

Build on this

Before anybody at that table says sorry, God has already spoken peace. Hear him first, and you can walk in without needing them to say it.

Watch out: Nobody in this psalm is told to kiss anybody. Verse 10 gives no order to go hug the person who hurt you. The kiss is between God's righteousness and God's peace.

Epistle

2 Peter 3:8–15a

Written to churches tired of waiting. The first generation was dying, and mockers had a neat line (3:4): everything has stayed the same since creation, so the promise came to nothing. It landed because it matched what people could see. The letter's date and authorship are debated.

What to notice

• Verse 8 leans on Psalm 90:4. Peter doesn't use it as end-times math. He uses it to say God's time doesn't run on ours.
• The mockers said slow, meaning late. Peter denies it flatly. God is patient, and the patience word comes from the family of Exodus 34:6, slow to anger. God is acting like himself, and Peter tells the impatient that the wait is for them.
• The end of verse 10 has troubled translators. Many of the oldest manuscripts say the earth will be found, laid open before God, which reads more like exposure than a bonfire.

Build on this

God isn't late on the people you've stopped praying for. He's giving them time, the same time he gave you.

Watch out: Peter brings up the fire to explain why God waits, so don't use it as a lever. And God's patience toward someone has never obligated anyone to stand within that person's reach.

Gospel

Mark 1:1–8

Mark has no manger. His first line is a title, and good news was a word Roman cities used for announcements about the emperor. Mark hands it to a carpenter from Nazareth and goes straight to the river. John dresses like Elijah (2 Kings 1:8), and crowds walk out of the city with the temple in it to be forgiven at the Jordan, where Israel first crossed into the land.

What to notice

• The opening quotation splices Malachi 3:1 with Isaiah 40:3. Isaiah's road is for our God. In Mark, two verses after Jesus' name, the road is for him.
• Mark keeps John lean. One sermon, two parts: turn around, and someone stronger is coming. The word for repentance is metanoia, a change of mind that turns a person around. Forgiveness here means release, a debt cancelled. Nobody at the river is told to pay anything back first.
• John points away from himself. Water is his, and the Spirit belongs to the one coming. He doesn't chase the crowds either. They go out to him (v. 5).

Build on this

John couldn't make anyone come to the river and couldn't change anyone who did. He cleared his road and pointed at Jesus. The other side belongs to the one who baptizes with the Spirit.

Watch out: Repentance gets heard as a shame ritual: grovel long enough and God might let you in. Mark ties the turn to a forgiveness already on offer. And John never asks anyone to drag a relative to the river.

Into the room

Every reading this week puts God first. He speaks comfort before anyone moves, and he's patient with people the family wrote off years ago. What's left for your people is their own side of the road.

Make it concrete. The brother who hasn't called since the funeral. The mom who has spent four Decembers hunting for the thing that will bring her grown son home. And somebody in your room is the one everyone else is waiting on.

A practice for the week

Name one thing on your side, like the speech you rehearse in the truck, and tell God this week you're setting it down. The next time their name comes up, let it pass once without adding your piece.

One question for your group

What's one thing on your side of the road you could set down this week without telling anybody?