Advent II 2020

• Isaiah 40:1-11  • 
• Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13  • 
• 2 Peter 3:8-15a   • 
• Mark 1:1-8

A A Ivanov -- John Baptist

The readings for the second Sunday in Advent in this year of the lectionary are unusually well integrated. The Gospel passage depicting John the Baptist expressly quotes the Old Testament passage from Isaiah, with its reference to ‘a voice, crying in the wilderness’, while the tone of Psalm 85 and the message of Peter’s second Epistle resonate with a similar theme -- the kind of faithfulness that looks to 'a new earth, where righteousness is at home'. In one way or another, then, all these readings point to two interconnected concepts -- repentance and restoration.
    The interconnection is crucial. Modern Christians widely, easily, and for the most part correctly, proclaim that the steadfast love of God to which the Psalmist refers is not conditional. God does not love the things he has made because of their merit, but simply because they are his. Still, this steadfast love on the creator’s part is not always matched by faithfulness on the part of the created. Sin is a reality. It is easy to see that human pride, cruelty, foolishness and self-centredness erect barriers between human beings that are hard to overcome. But they erect no less of a barrier between humanity and divinity. We live in a world where it is evident that righteousness is not at home. Yet, the central message of the Gospel – as of many religions – is that despite appearances, this can change. The barrier between the human and the divine is surmountable. We have not shut ourselves off from God for ever, and one day, in the Psalmist’s compelling image, ‘righteousness and peace will kiss each other’.

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David Burliuk -- Love and Peace

Surmounting the barrier of sin, though, is a two sided affair. God’s love offers us forgiveness, however vile or despicable or foolish we may have been. In this sense divine love, unlike human love, is indeed unconditional. But God's forgiveness is not unconditional. It has a precondition -- sincere repentance. Without honest acknowledgement and true remorse for the many ways in which we have fallen short of our God-given potential, we remain 'tied and bound by the chain of our sins', as the Book of Common Prayer puts it.
      Peter’s Epistle expresses just this thought when it declares that God’s love is shown by his patience, ‘not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance’, while Mark's Gospel in a similar spirit offers ‘a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’. Repentance, however, also brings into play a deeper dimension. It is key to lifting us beyond the level of material beings created and nurtured out of love – which is what plants and other animals are. It draws us up into the realm of beings who uniquely in all Creation have the potential to participate in divine life.

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