A reading from the prophet Baruch (5:1-9)
Jerusalem, take off your garb of sorrow and distress,
put on for evermore the beauty of God’s glory,
wrap around you the cloak of God’s righteousness;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Eternal,
for God will show your splendour to every nation under heaven
and the name God gives you for evermore will be,
“Peace-through-Righteousness”, and “Glory-through-Devotion”.
Arise, Jerusalem, stand on the heights
and turn your eyes to the east:
see your children reassembled
from the setting of the sun to its rising
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing because God has remembered them.
Though they left you on foot, dragged off by enemies,
now God brings them back to you,
carried gloriously like a royal throne.
For God has decreed that each high mountain
should be brought low,
the everlasting hills and valleys
should be filled and the ground levelled
so that Israel can walk safely in the glory of God.
The glades and every fragrant tree
will provide shade for Israel at God’s command;
for God will lead Israel with joy in the light of his glory,
with the mercy and righteousness which come from him.’
The book of Baruch, written in post-exilic times, and preserved in the Greek Bible, takes up the themes of the second Isaiah. The whole passage is addressed to Jerusalem. She is called upon to dress herself with God’s ‘glory’ (doxa) and God’s ‘righteousness’ (dikaiosune). The time of mourning is over. She will be displayed by God to the nations, and receive new names. Her children are returning from exile, from east and west (Isaiah 49). They rejoice ‘because God has remembered them’. As announced in Isaiah 40, the mountains will be levelled and the valleys filled. Trees will provide shade for the travelling people ‘at God’s command’. God’s final gifts are ‘the light of his glory’, ‘mercy’ (eleemosune) and ‘righteousness’. The themes of Advent are beautifully presented in this text.
Psalm 126(125) celebrates the return from exile, and the marvels worked by God. Tears are replaced by laughter and song.
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Philippians (1:3-6,8-11)
I thank my God every time I remember you, and in every prayer of mine for you all. I pray with joy at your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, confident that the One who began good work in you will bring it to completion by the Day of Christ Jesus. For God is my witness how much I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus; and this I pray, that your love for one another may overflow more and more with knowledge and complete understanding that will enable you to discern what is best, so that you may be innocent and blameless for the Day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness through Jesus Christ, for the glory and praise of God.
Paul had a particular affection for the Christians of Philippi. He tells them that when he prays for them he prays always ‘with joy’. They have been constant in their faith right from the start, and God will bring to perfection the good work begun in them for the ‘day’ (hemera) of Christ Jesus. Paul’s commitment to them reflects the depth of feeling of Christ Jesus, and he prays that their love (agape) will grow stronger with greater knowledge and understanding. On the ‘day’ of Christ they will be ‘innocent and blameless’, filled with the ‘fruit of righteousness (dikaiosune)’, that gift of God, which they receive ‘through Jesus Christ’, ‘to the glory and praise of God’.
A reading from the holy gospel according to Luke (3:1-6)
In the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the territories of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the desert. He went into the whole Jordan area proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the sayings of Isaiah the prophet:
A voice of one crying in the desert:
Prepare a way for the Lord,
make his paths straight!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill be levelled,
the crooked shall be straightened
and rough places made into smooth roads,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Luke’s introduction of John the Baptist goes to great lengths to place him in the context of contemporary rulers, both secular and religious. Luke also has the ‘word of God’ coming to John as to a prophet. In the words of Jesus, John is a prophet, and ‘more than a prophet’ (Luke 7:26). He proclaims ‘a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’. John also fulfils the prophecy of Isaiah 40, and Luke extends the quotation, already used from that chapter by Mark and Matthew, to include the levelling of hills and mountains and the filling in of the valleys, all in preparation for the coming of the Lord. This allows him to reach Isaiah’s words ‘and all flesh shall see the salvation of God’. Luke is concerned to point out that the Messiah will come for the salvation of all nations.
What is special in Luke’s presentation of John the Baptist?
God works amid the complex events of human history.