Prepare: Isaiah 40:2-4

Isaiah 40:1-4(NRSV)

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.

No image is more indelible to the season of Advent than John the Baptist. The prophet is heralded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke by words from the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah: words that are as familiar as John himself.

For the Hebrew people, the passage from Isaiah spoke of hope and promise. After all they have been through - all they have lost - God promises them comfort and a new life.

So as John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness, how much a reminder must it have been that God was active in the world, seeking to comfort and heal and make new.

This Advent season, perhaps more than others in my near memory, the need for God to come into our midst is palpable. The news has been rife with violence - mass shootings, acts of terror, people forced to flee from their homes - and with division, both political and religious.

Yet in the midst of our wilderness, we are called to prepare for God's coming. We are called to prepare despite how dark things may seem.

We are called to prepare because of how dark things may seem.

Violence, anger, division will have their time, but they will not have their way in finality. 

Instead both the prophets Isaiah and John tell us that the Lord is going to be doing something new.

So get ready!

Lord, in the midst of this season of darkness, prepare my heart for your coming. Amen.