Second Sunday of Advent
“...the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”
Overview
In Advent, the season of looking forward, the season of hope, we hear of a time when the people of God, like us, were longing for change and the word of the Lord came to them. Our reading, Luke 3:1-6, begins with a list of all those who held power and authority: an emperor, a governor, three tetrarchs and a high priest. But the word of the Lord does not come to any of them. It comes to John in the wilderness. John has left the centres of power behind searching for god knows what. It is here, in the middle of nowhere, in a place of vulnerability and uncertainty, that John hears God’s voice. The voice tells him that God will come, that God is coming, that change is possible, and asks him to prepare the way, to call for change. In a world of vulnerability and uncertainty change is often the last thing we want yet is the one thing we can count on. Are we ready to embrace it?
Readings
GOSPEL
Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
