New And Marvelous Things

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. (Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11)

Today is the Second Sunday of Advent.  Today’s first reading was written by Second Isaiah.  This “Isaiah” lived about 550 B.C. and was a prophet to the exiled in Babylon.  Jerusalem was conquered in 586 B.C.  The Temple was destroyed.  Second Isaiah offered comfort and hope.  He assured the exiled they were God’s people, and they would be saved because God could do new and marvelous things, even in Babylon. 

The way back from exile and captivity was part of Isaiah’s prophecy.  Obstacles such as deep valleys and high mountains would be removed by God acting as a loving shepherd to God’s people.  Our Church considers this text with its message as the same for its people.  

Jesus has come and will come again to shepherd his people – to give hope for the future to those of us in exile meaning those of us who have lost hope and feel the obstacles in our lives are too hard to overcome, and we have received double for all our sins.  Such are the feelings of the lost in need of a caring shepherd.

This Advent and during this COVID-19 crisis with unemployment being so terribly high, let us find those in need of hope and food, especially for their children.  Let us feed them and comfort them as a reminder that God can do new and marvelous things through the body of Christ – that’s all of us.  We bring light to people's darkness.

Deacon David Pierce