The lessons for each Sunday in the church year proclaim God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Also derived from a Sunday’s texts are lessons for the Christ-inspired and Christ-like life of God’s people. The comments here will help you find hunger-related threads –sermon starters – among the themes of this day’s texts. (We're presuming you have already done your exegetical work on the texts.) God bless your proclamation (and teaching) of what is most certainly true!

The vision in Isaiah looks forward to a new time and new order. The character being described here is a bit mysterious. Even though the word “king” isn’t mentioned, the language conjures up the image of a new kind of ruler. There is nothing surprising about the hopeful vision in the first five verses - this ruler or messiah cares for the poor, lives in wisdom, righteousness and faithfulness. This kind of ruler is within the realm of possibility. But in verses 6-8 the prophet seems to take a turn and imagines relationships contrary to what we would observe in nature. Or maybe the prophet thinks getting a ruler of this sort is just as likely as a seeing a wolf lie down with a lamb. But still, the hope for transformed relationships is genuine and the idea that the vulnerable would be protected from all danger serves as a sign of what we hope God can do among us.

This psalm echoes Isaiah in the hope for a new ruler. This new ruler will uphold the cause of the poor and oppressed. When justice is threatened and unbalanced, it is often the poor and vulnerable who first feel the effects. Part of entering the Advent season and anticipating the arrival of Christ involves joining in this prayer and seeking for ways we can help defend the cause of the poor.

Paul is writing to a Jew and Gentile audience (whom he has not met) that is learning what it means to be a people of Christ. The instruction encourages them to put up with others’ failings (“the weak” in verse 1) and build up the neighbor (verse 2). In doing so, the importance of fellowship is brought alongside faithfulness. In other words our ability to participate in the joy and peace and power of the Holy Spirit that God fills us with is in some way influenced by how we live together as the body of Christ. Hopefully this draws our attention to how we treat both our neighbors in the pews next to us and how our congregations build up our neighbors in the greater community.

In many ways John’s entrance is what you might expect from someone who has just come from the wilderness. His clothing was wild, as was his food, and he sounds every bit as the type of prophet a wilderness would produce with talk of vipers, unproductive trees, and fire. There is a promise of the coming one, but this pronouncement has an ominous tone. However, the next scene is not of fiery judgment, but is one of baptism and water where we hear the voice call Jesus, “Beloved.” Does this change the way we think about the way of the Lord being prepared? What identity do we take on when we are baptized in Christ, and what difference does this make for how we are called to live in the world?