RCL reflection for the Second Sunday of Advent, Year A. December 7, 2025. In the wilderness of our current day, we need not only John’s clear call to repentance, but also his word of hope. The Rev. Matthew O’Rear explores. (Image: Pixabay)
Stewards of Advent hope
RCL reflection for the Second Sunday of Advent, Year A: December 4, 2022
How do we have hope in a world so full of suffering and despair? And where is God? This week’s readings bear witness to the waiting, the long seasons of pain, but also the hope we have in the not-yet-realized promises of God.
Explore Advent’s promise of the Peaceable Kingdom
RCL Reflection, Second Sunday of Advent, Year A: Dec. 4, 2022
John the Baptist proclaimed the coming Kingdom of God, but what was the vision he cast? Isaiah’s prophecy of the Peaceable Kingdom gives us a glimpse of what John saw coming with the arrival of Jesus. (Image: Detail of 1834 painting by Edward Hicks)
blessing & hope
RCL Lectionary Reflection, Second Sunday of Advent, Year A, December 8, 2019
Blessing and hope: These two words weave a unifying thread through the lessons for the Second Sunday of Advent. Yes, there are a couple of discomforting and unusual images, including John’s reference to a human “brood of vipers,” but there’s much more of a spirit of anticipation for a new world, a new way, and a messiah to lead into that promised kin-dom. What a blessing indeed! (Photo: Christi Belcourt, Creative Commons)
An Advent Welcome
Second Sunday of Advent, Year A, December 4, 2016
Life is too short and the gospel too important to let an annual season like Advent get the short shrift or be transformed into a mere prelude to presents. Fling wide the doors of your heart, home, and church to welcome the stranger–and Jesus. (Photo: Simran, Creative Commons)
Here, There, and Everywhere
SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT, Year A, Dec. 5, 2010
This week John calls us to repent, to turn, to do something new. God is on the loose in the world–here, there, and everywhere. Maybe we should get serious about looking for that kingdom of heaven come near. (Photo by Per Ola Wiberg, used under a Creative Commons License. Thanks!)
