SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

December 7, 2025

Saints Matthew and Mark, Barrington, R. I.

 

Isaiah 11:1-10

Psalm 72:1-8

Romans 1:4-13

Matthew 3: 1-12

 

Over the past few decades, a conversation has taken place in the wider Church about the true nature and meaning of Advent. Those of more traditional leanings emphasize the season’s penitential character, treating it as a kind of “mini-Lent”—a time of fasting and repentance kept in preparation for Christmas just as we keep Lent in preparation for Easter. The traditional color of the vestments during Advent was violet or purple, just as in Lent.

 

In many places, however, the tendency nowadays is to downplay Advent’s penitential character and emphasize themes of joyful hope and expectation. Instead of violet or purple, many churches use “Advent blue,” which is said to derive from the medieval English Sarum Use. I’m happy to wear either—especially such a lovely set of blue vestments as we have here at Saints Matthew and Mark. 

 

So, which is it? Is Advent a penitential season, a mini-Lent, or a joyful season of hopeful expectation? Well, in this as in so many other such questions, the best answer takes the form not of “either/or” but of “both/and.”

 

We can begin by looking again at today’s Collect. Its opening address, “Merciful God,” reminds us that, before all else, our God is a God of mercy. Then, after recalling that God sent the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation, we ask for the grace to “heed their warnings and forsake our sins”—there’s the penitential note—so that we may “greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer”—there’s the note of joyful hope. 

 

We encounter these two dimensions of Advent—the call to repentance and the proclamation of joyful hope—running throughout today’s readings. A bit surprisingly, perhaps, the call to repentance sounds out most loudly and clearly not in the Old Testament readings but in the wonderful Gospel account of John the Baptist preaching at the River Jordan: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!” Seeing Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, John exclaims: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance … Even now the ax is at the root of the tree; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire!” 

 

The next time someone repeats to you the false cliché that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath while the God of the New Testament is a God of love, you can quote this text from Matthew 3 to them. Some wags have even suggested that an appropriate holiday greeting card at this time of year would feature the image of John the Baptist declaiming the words, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

 

But when we turn from John the Baptist to the Prophet Isaiah, we encounter God’s wonderful promise of a kingdom of love and peace. The reading begins: “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” The Jesse named here is Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David. Isaiah is proclaiming that even though the tree of David’s royal lineage has been cut down and the Davidic monarchy destroyed, nonetheless, a descendant of King David will arise in the future to usher in the fullness of God’s reign on earth. As Christians, we believe that this prophecy finds its fulfillment in none other than Jesus Christ.

 

The prophet continues: “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” Again, as Christians, we discern this prophecy’s fulfillment in the Holy Spirit’s descent upon Jesus at his baptism in the River Jordan.

 

Isaiah proceeds to describe the Lord’s future reign as miraculously transforming and making new the natural creation itself: “The wolf shall live with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” Obviously, this vision of natural predators and prey coexisting in peace hasn’t been realized yet. But again, this imagery beautifully symbolizes the Christian hope in a new heaven and a new earth following Christ’s Second Coming as King and Judge. “In that day,” Isaiah concludes, “the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples … and his dwelling shall be glorious.”

 

In the reading from Romans, Saint Paul alludes to this same passage, writing: “and again Isaiah says, ‘The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope.” In Paul’s Greek, the word "hope" has the sense of “joyful expectation.” In this reading, Paul uses the word "hope" no fewer than four times, beginning with the reminder that the scriptures were written for our instruction, so that, by their encouragement, we might have hope.

 

Taken together, then, today’s readings present us with a summons to repentance and a call to hope, as two sides of the same coin. On one hand, bear fruit that befits repentance; on the other hand, place your hope in him whose coming we await. One of my seminary professors described the difference between faith and hope by saying that faith is the conviction that God’s promises are true, while hope is the conviction that God’s promises are true for me. So, a good question to ask ourselves during this Advent season is how far we genuinely believe that God’s promises hold true for us.

 

The key point, however, is that we cannot manufacture either this repentance or this hope by our own unaided human effort. We can’t force ourselves into a posture of either repentance or hope by sheer willpower. That’s not how it works. Repentance and hope are both gifts of God’s grace. We need to pray for them above all else. John the Baptist concludes his discourse in today’s Gospel with the promise: “I baptize you with water for repentance … he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” The fire of the Holy Spirit alone can give us true repentance and true hope.

 

And here it seems appropriate to give the last word to Saint Paul, who concludes today’s reading from Romans with a wonderful blessing, which the Book of Common Prayer, 1979, provides as an optional conclusion to the daily offices of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. “May the God of hope fill us with all joy and hope in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may abound in hope.”