Tag Archives: 2nd Advent

A drop in the ocean

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We get lots of advice all through our lifetime.  For example: advice on the best schools, places to live and vacation, and places to dine. If you buy a book on Amazon, watch a movie on Netflix, or do anything online, they are quick to advise you on other books to purchase, movies to watch, or what’s next in your life. Such advice might change your evening plans, but won’t change your life. John the Baptist has some advice for us all: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Continue reading →

Jesus and John

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This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday of Advent in Lectionary Cycle A. As is the tradition of the Church, this Sunday and next prominently feature John the Baptist. The gospel reading is the scene in which John first appears in Matthew’s gospel with his singular message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Mt 3:2). It is the gospel in which Matthew says of John, “A voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’” (v.3) The former passage sounds as though more Lenten in tone with the latter passage quite suited to Advent. Continue reading →

A map for Advent

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It is now the 2nd millennium of the reign of Christ the King, when Francis was Pope, Michael was bishop, John was pastor, and the people gathered at St. Francis. Again the voice cries out: “Prepare the way of the Lord” – as it did last year; as it will again. What will you remember about this Advent? Other seasons of Advent?

Did you know I used to live in Loudoun County back in the 1980s? I owned a home in the hamlet of Paeonian Springs. After growing up in Florida and always living near the ocean, suddenly I was inland and living on the first ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. After years of competitive swimming, I was now living in a county that did not have a public swimming pool. I needed a new sport. Continue reading →

kosmos and oikoumene

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This coming Sunday is the Second Sunday of Advent in lectionary cycle C, the year when the Gospel of Luke is the primary source of our gospels. Today we continue to look at details of the narrative. In this final post, we look at the verses as Luke’s message pivots from the call of repentance to Israel, to a call of universal salvation for all people. Continue reading →

Baptized

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This coming Sunday is the Second Sunday of Advent in lectionary cycle C, the year when the Gospel of Luke is the primary source of our gospels. Today we continue to look at details of the narrative. The previous post discussed “the word of God” coming to John in the desert. Let us consider John’s mission.

He went throughout (the) whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins

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God’s Design

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This coming Sunday is the Second Sunday of Advent in lectionary cycle C, the year when the Gospel of Luke is the primary source of our gospels. In the two previous posts we covered the historical and scriptural context of our gospel reading. Today we begin to look at details and how they help create Luke’s overarching theme: preparing the way. As Luke promised his patron Theophilus, the gospel will be an orderly presentation (Luke 1:3) – and so he begins with  history. Continue reading →

The Cast of Characters

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This coming Sunday is the Second Sunday of Advent in lectionary cycle C, the year when the Gospel of Luke is the primary source of our gospels for the coming 12 months. The gospel is taken from a section in which Jesus is preparing for public ministry. Luke these six verses of the Sunday gospel, Luke places the story of Jesus in continuity with the biblical history of God’s dealings with humanity found in the Old Testament. As well, he places the story in the context of human history and begins with the familiar “In the fifthteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.”  Verses 1 and 2 need a “playbill” so you  might familiarize yourself with the “actors.” Continue reading →