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COMMENT FOR ADVENT 11 – 04/12/05
Isaiah 40: 1-11. This beautiful passage begins the second half of this great work. It is written in Babylon towards the end of the sixth century B.C. The small remnant of the Hebrew people had been driven there to augment the work force. Now the second generation were prospering and getting comfortable. But if the whole Abraham dream was to survive they had to get back to Jerusalem and begin the reconstruction. Isaiah argues that unexpected spiritual resources for young and old would carry them through once they began the process.
Psalm 85: 1-2; 8-15 The elegant poetry of this Psalm gives heart and soul to the Abraham dream. If it is to be reinvented it will draw on such depths as “Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; Righteousness and peace will kiss each other.”
11 Peter 3: 8-15 St.Peter, friend and disciple of Jesus, now apostle for the gospel, is writing about 85 A.D.He once believed that the Abraham dream having been reinvented to become the good news of Jesus would reach a dramatic and glorious conclusion in his own life time. Now he is saying that this spiritual power – God – has all the future and does not need to be proved in some dramatic conclusion. We only guess about the future from our understanding of the past.
Mark 1: 1-8 Mark’s gospel story is really Peter’s story and was written some forty years after the Pentecost event. There was a growing need for some outline of the earthly life of Jesus. Mark’s story begins with the dramatic appearance of John the Baptist who speaks with all the authority of a person whose life is one of spiritual simplicity. His call gets a ready response because people feel that this is the authentic voice of their history. So the Jesus story begins
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