Advent 2 – Isaiah 40:1-11, Mark 1:1-8

“Comfort and keep comforting my people!” says your God. (Isaiah 40:1, CJB)

If you take the modest time to look through both the Old Testament (Isaiah) the Gospel (Mark) from the Revised Common Lectionary for this day, you will see some striking similarities.

Many people who worship in Advent wonder if it really is a time of comfort… it sometimes feels flat, doesn’t it? We sing all the Christmas songs… and they make us happy, for a moment… but, we know we are missing something.

We keep seeking comfort: comfort in parties, comfort in food, comfort in gatherings, comfort in songs, comfort in presents, comfort in shopping… but, it keeps slipping through our grasp.

The problem is that, when we look for our comfort in those things of “Christmas-time” we are looking in the wrong places.

The comfort this season brings is the Promise: The Promise that our Incarnate (lit: in flesh) God shall return; the Promise that our God has taken on our flesh in the first place. So, even if just for a second, put down the shopping list, turn off the “Holiday Tunes” and live into our real comfort: The Promise of Advent, the Promise of our Lord’s return!

Stir up our hearts, Lord God, to prepare the way of your only Son. By his coming strengthen us to serve you with purified lives; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

– The Editors