Today we look to the Second Sunday of Advent and to the Hebrew Bible lesson of Isaiah 40.

Isaiah 40:1-11 – Translation

¹Comfort, comfort, my people
says your God.
²Speak to the heart of Jerusalem,
and call out to her
that her compulsory labor has come to an end,
that her punishment has been paid,
that she has received from the hand of The Living God
double for all her offenses.

³A voice calling out:
“In the wilderness clear the way of The Living God
smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴Every valley will be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill will be brought low,
and the bumpy terrain will become smooth,
and the hilly terrain a plain.
⁵The glory of The Living God will be revealed,
and all flesh will see it together
for the mouth of The Living God has spoken.”
⁶A voice is saying, “Call out”
And he will say, “What shall I call out?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its faithfulness is like flowers of the field.
⁷Grass withers, flowers fade,
because the breath of The Living God blows on it.
Surely, the people are grass.
⁸Grass withers, flowers fade,
but the word of our God will arise forever.”

⁹Ascend to a high mountain, Zion, bearer of good news,
Lift up with strength your voice, bearer of good news, Jerusalem,
lift it up, do not fear,
say to the cities of Judah: “Here is your God!”
¹⁰See, The Living God is coming in might,
and his arm rules for him.
See, his reward is with him; his recompense is before him.
¹¹Like a shepherd, his flock he tends,
in his arms, he will gather the lambs,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.

Handel’s Messiah

Isaiah 40 is a favorite Scripture passage in Handel’s oratorio, Messiah. The first words of the work are “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.” The opening goes on to use Isaiah 40:1–5 as its text. Thus, the tone for the work is set by the words of comfort in Isaiah 40. Later in the work, Isaiah 40:11, with its image of God as a shepherd, will be sung.

The libretto that Handel uses for Messiah is based on the King James Version (and, for the Psalms, the Anglican Prayer Book). The result of this reliance on the King James is the beautiful phrase in Messiah, “Oh thou that tellest glad tidings to Zion” as the text of Isaiah 40:9.

This translation is probably faulty.

It assumes an accusative object in Hebrew (“to Zion”). It is easier to read the Hebrew word as an appositional noun (“Zion, bearer of good news”). Thus, Zion is the bearer of the good news to Judah, not the recipient. The one who "tellest glad tidings" is Zion herself. She is commanded to climb the high mountain and lift her voice. The “glad tidings” are not for her.

Of course, none of these translational concerns take away from the beauty of Handel’s musical interpretation. But they do illustrate well why translational details matter and make a difference in interpretation.

Peace Sunday – The Second Sunday of Advent

The Sunday on which Isaiah 40 is read is often celebrated as Peace Sunday; the Peace candle is lit in the Advent wreath. As we focus on this concept of peace, how do we read this biblical passage about divine transformation and presence?

My church celebrates Peace Sunday with a meaningful and rich ritual. The church has a more-than-25-year tradition of placing white wooden crosses on their front lawn—one cross for every life lost to homicide in our city. In the worship services, we read a list of these victims of violence in our city. Since we are in a relatively large metropolitan area, sometimes the list is sadly over 100 people. At the end of the service, we recess as a church body outside into the chilly winter air and onto the front lawn to hammer white crosses into the frozen ground. It is at that moment that I wonder how Isaiah 40 might be heard alongside the noise of hammers.

The comfort of Isaiah 40 is not a quick bandage to create an easy peace. The original audience of Second Isaiah had experienced incredibly debilitating circumstances. Hope and comfort for them were going to require more than rhetoric. Likewise, our contemporary problem of gun violence is not going away quickly. However, we can hope for a world of peace in which God’s presence transforms the antecedents to violence.

In many ways, I think my church community huddled on the front lawn on Peace Sunday testifies to the feisty hope of Advent. It is just as important, however, that the Church take its message of Advent peace and find ways to enact it in our community in tangible ways to reduce the homicide rate before next Advent comes again.

Let Us Go Now to Bethlehem

We offer here an expanding poem based on the following biblical verse. Each week of Advent, we will add a line to the poem.

"Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place.."

I. Create within your heart a little town of Bethlehem, a shelter for the Christ child. II. Take the journey there, inward. like the shepherds. behold.

A Benediction (Or Miscellaneous Thoughts)

1. If you know someone who might like to read this newsletter, forward this email to them.
2. You can read my earlier reflections on this Sunday in Advent here.
3. You can read an online version of this newsletter here.