{"id":1504,"date":"2014-12-08T08:12:48","date_gmt":"2014-12-08T13:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1504"},"modified":"2014-12-08T08:12:48","modified_gmt":"2014-12-08T13:12:48","slug":"2nd-sunday-in-advent-year-b-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/2nd-sunday-in-advent-year-b-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"2nd Sunday in Advent, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

2nd<\/sup> Sunday in Advent, Year B<\/a>
\nIsaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
\n2 Peter 3:8-14
\nMark 1:1-8
\nDecember 7, 2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

During Advent many of our first readings come from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.\u00a0 The book can be divided into three sections.\u00a0 The first includes chapters 1-39 and is written around the 8th<\/sup> century B.C.\u00a0 God\u2019s message is offered to the people that if they continue to sin, God will allow them to be defeated by their enemies.\u00a0 As such, it can be a message causing fear and despair.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage comes from the second section and have a very different tone to it.\u00a0 The Israelites had been defeated by their enemies and many taken into exile in Babylon.\u00a0 It is a time of despair but it is also a time of repentance.\u00a0 The Israelites have come to realize the gravity of their sins so God is about to see them free from the Babylonians.<\/p>\n

We see the different tone in the very first word of the passage, \u201ccomfort.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d\u00a0 God now wants Isaiah to give comfort to his people<\/em>.\u00a0 Speak tenderly<\/em> God directs.\u00a0 Give them my message that I am about to restore things to what they are meant to me.<\/p>\n

God gives us a gentle image of his love, describing a shepherd who truly feeds his flock and holding them in his arms.<\/p>\n

Which type of message do we respond to better?\u00a0 The image of a God who judges us and punishes for our sins or a God of compassion and mercy?<\/p>\n

Guilt can be a powerful motivator but it can be good and bad.\u00a0 Guilt can be a normal thing for us to realize, \u201cHey, I screwed up.\u00a0 That isn\u2019t what I meant to do or it had effects I didn\u2019t think about.\u00a0 I need to say I\u2019m sorry.\u00a0 I need to change.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s all good.<\/p>\n

Too much guilt or guilt in depression can make us feel like we are no good.\u00a0 No one will ever love us. We can come to fear that there is no hope for us.\u00a0 This guilt hurts us and is never what God intends.\u00a0 Even when we sin, God loves us and wants to forgive us.\u00a0 God wants to hold us in his arms.<\/p>\n

So do we see God as judge and punisher or as love and compassion?\u00a0 I think we probably need to see a little bit of both.\u00a0 We need to see more of the love and compassion but sometimes that can leave us complacent.\u00a0 We need a healthy dose of fear to keep us aware of what we are doing and our need for God\u2019s help to do better.<\/p>\n

If you read the Bible you can see a cycle that repeats itself over and over in the Old Testament.\u00a0 God rescues the people and they praise help.\u00a0 Then, over time they get used to having everything good and they become complacent in their relationship with God, and eventually wander away from God, often with no idea they are.\u00a0 When they fall away, God allows them to be defeated by their enemies.\u00a0 Some are led to repentance and God rescues them.\u00a0 Then the cycle starts over again.<\/p>\n

So where are we at?\u00a0 As a society, many people think we don\u2019t need God and so turn away.\u00a0 As a people here in church, we come because we want God in our lives but how deep does our desire for God go?\u00a0 Do we see places we need to change?\u00a0 Do we seek to change now?<\/p>\n

As a people we have been waiting 2,000 years for the Second Coming of Jesus.\u00a0 Have we become complacent?\u00a0 It can be so easy to say there\u2019s always tomorrow.<\/p>\n

God is patient in waiting for us.\u00a0 God gives us lots of time but we don\u2019t have forever.\u00a0 Sooner or later the end will come.<\/p>\n

The Israelites had been waiting for a thousand years for a messiah.\u00a0 Some had given up the faith while others kept the faith but became set in the ways.\u00a0 The time came for Jesus\u2019 introduction into the world and God knew the people needed a wakeup call.\u00a0 God loves us and always wants to give us another chance so He sent John the Baptism to cry out to the people, Prepare ye the way of the Lord!\u00a0 Repent!<\/em><\/p>\n

Christmas is coming.\u00a0 Are you ready?\u00a0 I\u2019m not talking about presents and baking.\u00a0 Are you ready to stand before Jesus?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2nd Sunday in Advent, Year B Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11 2 Peter 3:8-14 Mark 1:1-8 December 7, 2014     During Advent many of our first readings come from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.\u00a0 The book can be divided into three sections.\u00a0 The first includes chapters 1-39 and is written around the 8th century B.C.\u00a0 …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘2nd Sunday in Advent, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-og","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1510,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504\/revisions\/1510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}