2nd Sunday of Advent – Year C
December 8, 2024
Gospel Lectionary Text
Luke 3:1-6
3:1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene,
3:2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
3:3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
3:4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
3:5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth;
3:6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"
Context
Coming soon.
Question
Coming soon.
Reflections
Prepare the Way
By Rev. Sarah Wiles |
Anytime we read something like, the word of the God came to so-and-so, I’m tempted to imagine this happened in some alternate spiritual universe—one where there are prophets and visions and miracles—not my ordinary everyday world. But the author of Luke is at pains to tell us that this happened here, in the real world,...
The Waiting Rooms of Christmas: The Wilderness
By Ojii BaBa Madi |
A smartly dressed, well-heeled crowd pressed their way through a cold December evening in 1851, seeking to find comfortable seats within the warm confines of New York’s Metropolitan Hall. The hype for this event was incredible. It would become part of an annual phenomenon, featuring big and plenteous voices, gathered to sing out the scriptures,...
Praying Eucharistically - Weekly Homily by James Alison:
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Poetry
Voice in the Wilderness
by Steve Garnaas-Holmes
How arresting
that God intends to upend the empires of men,
promises cosmic upheaval,
and to bring it about sends
lonely prophets out in the wilderness,
who themselves will soon be arrested.
God touches a loner praying in the desert.
Kneels and says to a peasant girl,
“Your willingness is enough.”
Appears in a small, helpless child.
Holds the sagging flesh of one crucified.
Amazing, how for God so little is enough.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness
is enough.
Your voice is enough
if you lift it up.
It is not alone.
It is not empty.
Your voice,
and its millions,
is the Way of God.
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, wild and free. Do as you please. Shine your light on me that I might see things as they are, not as I am. Free me to act in your name with courage, creativity, and compassion.
