Second Sunday of Advent, December 8, 2024: Baruch 5:1-9 or Malachi 3:1-4; Philippians 1:3-11; Luke 3:1-6; Canticle 16
“Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.” So begins the passage from Baruch we read today. As Baruch continues with his prophecy, he echoes Isaiah 40 in promising that “God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.” But what moved me particularly was the promise that “The woods and every fragrant tree have shaded Israel at God’s command”. Living in the San Joaquin Valley, we learn to value shade. Shade protects us.
Baruch also asks us to “Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting”. What is a robe of righteousness? I’m not sure I know, but a robe is visible. How is righteousness seen? For the people of Israel, righteousness would have been faithfulness to the law, but how do you see that?
Baruch was offering another version of the promises made in Isaiah 40; this is an important set of ideas in the Jewish tradition. So when John quotes Isaiah, he is quoting a familiar text, and a familiar promise. Isaiah begins the prophecy with “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God” (Isa. 40:1): this is a message of reassurance. Later in the passage he promises that the Lord “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”. The God of Isaiah is loving and kind, and cares for everyone: when the glory of the Lord is revealed, “all flesh shall see it together”.
So when John repeats the words of Isaiah, he is conjuring a web of associations. These are of a caring and loving God, not a vengeful one; and a God of a community, not an individual. The Lord is not here to save just one person, but “all flesh”. John is emphasizing community. Salvation is for everyone.
John is also offering a “baptism of repentance”. Like salvation, repentance is not private: as a prophet, John could offer it. You could not get the baptism of repentance on your own. You needed someone else.
In his scriptural references and his preaching, John is focused on community and relationship. Salvation is not limited, both Isaiah and John say: it is for everyone. If we accept that, then we have to accept that we cannot bet saved in isolation from others. And we cannot think that some other people, not like us in whatever way, are damned. We need them.
It is easy to think of church as a private club, to which we have special keys. But we are called to be visible. We each have to figure out how we wear the “robe of righteousness”. But John calls us to a universal vision of salvation, to remembering all the rest of those who will, with us, “see the salvation of the world”.