As we move from the first to the second week of Advent, our readings are still pointing us forward (together with Peter’s reminder not to get hung up over timescales (2 Pet 3:8-14)). But the framework shifts. Last week Isaiah was speaking to us from a place of difficulty, almost overwhelmed by the challenges of life, burdened by a sense of inadequacy and frustration: “Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?” His tone this week (Is 40:1-5, 9-11) couldn’t be more different: “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem”.
In both cases the prophet is looking forward to the coming of a better time, when God will be with his people. But the focus is no longer on our failure and neediness. There is now confidence in the expectation. No longer a desperate cry for help, but an assurance that God is coming. “Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord GOD”. The messenger has been seen: “A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!”
Mark starts his Gospel at exactly this point (Mk 1:1-8). He identifies John the Baptist explicitly with the messenger of Isaiah. The first part of John’s message (and Mark’s) is the call to change, to turn away from the habits that brought us to a place of failure. The baptism of John was a symbol of that cleansing and renewal. But he notes that is only the beginning of the process, a prelude for what is to come. That is a baptism by the Spirit. This baptism is not a turning away from the past, a cleaning of what has been, a repair job, if you will. This baptism creates something new, it brings with it a capability that we didn’t have previously. John is completely aware he is the warm up act. What matters is to get on with the show. Then life will be different. Truly different.