About the Hymn
Sometimes the streets and stores seem glutted with glaring lights, blaring songs, and ever more overwrought attempts to make Christmas. Our own hearts may be glutted too—fretful over chores to do, foods to prepare, gifts to buy. An Advent worship service is the perfect time to enter the silence, to quiet our hearts, to turn away from the garish lights and superficial songs, to seek the light of the star and the song of the angels.
That’s not to say “Bah, humbug” to Christmas gifts, gatherings, and traditions. They can beautifully celebrate our Savior—especially if accompanied by reflective hearts: Hearts that prepare for Christ through repentance, as the Baptist instructed: “’Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Hearts that search the Scriptures, for only there do we find the true meaning of Christmas: “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.”
God is the God of all things—the sacred and the secular, the natural and the supernatural. Christ was born into this natural world and took on our natural flesh and blood. And though the natural world is still caught in the cycle of death—the hold of winter—something as simple as an evergreen tree, hidden in the snowy forest or brought into our homes and bedecked with lights, reminds us that in Christ, life too is evergreen, for he brings eternity.
The hymn should be performed at a tranquil♩= ca. 66.
Text
1. We enter Advent’s silence now
and still our anxious hearts.
We listen for the angel song,
and we look for Bethl’em’s star.
We turn from garish lights and noise
that mask the world’s despair.
We seek true peace in one true Light:
in the Child the Virgin bears.
2. We journey to the wilderness
to hear the Baptist’s cry:
“Repent of all your loveless ways
and prepare a path for Christ.”
We search Isaiah’s prophecy
for promises of peace:
this Christ will come to comfort us,
to forgive and make us free.
3. We ponder in this quiet hour
the miracle to come:
how nature kneels and time stands still
at the birth of God’s own Son.
And though the world is dying yet
and winter nights are deep,
the Advent tree is ever green
for He brings eternity.
© 2017 Laurie F. Gauger
Lectionary Readings
Year B, Second Sunday of Advent: Isaiah 40:1–11
Comfort for God’s People
Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever.”
You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.
Mark 1:1–8
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah,the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”—
“a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”
And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
