SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to
preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation:
Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins,
that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our
Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Gospel

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, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 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.
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;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” ’ 

(Luke 3:1-6)

SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to
preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation:
Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins,
that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our
Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

(Book of Common Prayer)

Below is one of the most beautiful passages in Scripture and a favorite of mine.

Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.

A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

A voice says, ‘Cry out!’
And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’
All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand for ever.
Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
‘Here is your God!’
See, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep."

(Isaiah 40:1-11)

Here I break the Advent rule and post a Christmas carol: Alison Krauss and Yo-Yo Ma in an exquisite performance of  "Wexford Carol".  My Canadian friend, Tim Chesterton posted the carol, and I couldn't resist.  The carol is in my music collection, but I love to watch the musicians' performance.

SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

Collect of the Day: Second Sunday of Advent

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

(Book of Common Prayer)

The Holy Gospel according to Matthew

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming,  "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."  This is the one of whom the prophet Isai'ah spoke when he said,

"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
"Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"

Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Phar'isees and Sad'ducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance.  Do not presume to say to yourselves, "We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.  Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." (Matthew 3:1-12)

I recommend Penny Nash's fine sermon titled "Fire and Light".

SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

 

A Song for Simeon

Lord, the Roman hyacinths are blooming in bowls and 
The winter sun creeps by the snow hills; 
The stubborn season has made stand. 
My life is light, waiting for the death wind, 
Like a feather on the back of my hand. 
Dust in sunlight and memory in corners 
Wait for the wind that chills towards the dead land.

Grant us thy peace. 
I have walked many years in this city, 
Kept faith and fast, provided for the poor, 
Have taken and given honour and ease. 
There went never any rejected from my door. 
Who shall remember my house, where shall live my children’s children 
When the time of sorrow is come? 
They will take to the goat’s path, and the fox’s home, 
Fleeing from the foreign faces and the foreign swords. 

Before the time of cords and scourges and lamentation 
Grant us thy peace. 
Before the stations of the mountain of desolation, 
Before the certain hour of maternal sorrow, 
Now at this birth season of decease, 
Let the Infant, the still unspeaking and unspoken  Word, 
Grant Israel’s consolation 
To one who has eighty years and no to-morrow. 

According to thy word, 
They shall praise Thee and suffer in every generation 
With glory and derision, 
Light upon light, mounting the saints’ stair. 
Not for me the martyrdom, the ecstasy of thought and prayer, 
Not for me the ultimate vision. 
Grant me thy peace. 
(And a sword shall pierce thy heart, 
Thine also). 
I am tired with my own life and the lives of those after me, 
I am dying in my own death and the deaths of those after me. 
Let thy servant depart, 
Having seen thy salvation.
(T S Eliot)

Am I jumping the gun?  Is publishing the poem today Adventicide?  I don't think so, because the meaning of Eliot's words are Adventish in their own way.  Besides, I like the poem.

Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.