2 Advent

Advent, with its perennial invitation to wait, reminds us that our experience of God is incomplete, that something is coming that warrants profound attention. What do you hear the Spirit saying this week in Advent?

Icon: St. John the Baptist

Luke 3:1-6

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.'"

Hymn Text for 2 Advent, Suggested Tune: Aus der Tiefe rufe ich

Change sleeps deeply as the child forming in its mother’s womb;
rhythms ancient as the sea soothe today but startle soon.

Change burns slowly as a fire smoored to last the bitter night;
ashes deep and soft as snow cloak but do not quench its light.

Change flies quietly as a hawk soaring in a winter sky;
with an easy tilt of wing miles of fallow ground sweep by.

Change wakes swiftly as a storm boiling in the desert air;
mindful people mark its rise and determine to prepare.