For the second Sunday in Advent, Rev. Cari reflects with the congregation on Isaiah 40:1-11, with its comforting opening message, and Mark 1:1-8, with its more abrupt beginning. Both texts take us into the wilderness, that place of danger, wildness, and uncertainty.

We find ourselves in the wilderness with John the Baptist, even before we quite know we’ve begun, in Mark’s Gospel. That is a familiar place to us in these COVID-19 days of sheltering at home. The “comfort” we long for is related to the freedom that is generated by a new beginning.

It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but what if John’s “repentance for the forgiveness of sin” is the way to comfort and freedom? To make a new beginning, we must slow down, listen, wait and ponder the ways we cooperate with systems of oppression (“Sin”). Our souls are longing for comfort, freedom and peace.