Advent 2 - Walk this Way

The second Sunday in Advent is one of hope, preparation, and a call to action. The stories we hear are familiar and yet mysterious. They are the stories of prophets called by God, the ancient of days, to speak to a covenant people who had gone astray. If one spends any amount of time with prophets cut from the cloth of the Hebrew Scriptures, one comes away unsettled and yet their imaginations run wild with possibility. This is another hallmark of the Advent season.

The lectionary bookends these various aspects of God’s intention and calling with two prophetic voices. The first is Isaiah, who spoke words to a people in the midst of release from exile who longed to return home.

Isaiah proclaims “A voice cries out,” that a way in the wilderness must be prepared for the LORD. A way of change. High places brought level and wild things made tame. A way for return. Across a wilderness from Babylon to Judea. Across the wilderness between brokenness and repentance.

The second is John the baptizer in his camel haired attire, standing at the crossroads of history, inaugurating the unfolding kingdom of God that Jesus would proclaim and embody. John stands at the hinge of time, one foot in the old and one foot in the emerging. He is a prophet that Elijah and Isaiah would recognize.

Mark the Gospel writer attaches this Isaiahic proclamation to the actions of John at the Jordan. A new way must be prepared for the arrival of God’s Messiah. John stands in the wilderness between exile and repentance, bridging the gap between expectation and unfolding reality.

But to whom do these prophets speak? God’s people, yes. But they are not some faceless, nameless lot from ages past. They are not frozen behind the glass of some museum display. These people are those throughout history who have longed for release and new life.

The thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah captures the physical and emotional state of these people. God tells the prophet:

“Strengthen the slackened hands,

bolster the tottering knees.

Say to the fearful of heart:

Be strong, do not fear.”

Isaiah 35:3-4

These people have been broken by injustice, weakened by separation, famished by exile.

And Isaiah gives it a feeling.

In the first line of verse four, English translations give us the phrase “Say to the fearful of heart.” But that does not quite captures what Isaiah is saying. Hebrew is more poetic. It can be difficult to translate at times because sometimes we just do not have the language for a word for word rendering.

Dr. Esther Menn, one of my professors in seminary, had a more poetic idea. I found the note scrawled in the margins of my Bible, it made the story come alive and brought the emotions into sharp focus.

“Say to those whose hearts are racing…”

That phrase says so much with so little. Literally two words in Hebrew. But it captures the human reality in a more dynamic sense that just a mention of fear.

We know what makes our hearts race. And its more than just fear. Longing. Anticipation. Love. Hope. These are the pulses of a racing heart. These are the are words to name what the audience of the prophets felt. Racing hearts for release from exile. Racing hearts with John at the river, the drum beats of a new movement. Our own racing hearts in the worries and anxieties and joys of our own reality.

Advent is a time for racing hearts. Waiting. Watching. Preparing for something to change. Something new to break into our world with hope and renewal. Hearts racing for healing and wholeness. That’s what we are expecting to arrive with Jesus.

These prophetic voices ring across the generations to us this season. They call us to action. The Way is being prepared. We must strike up the courage to follow.