We all know that Advent is a time to wait with ever-greater hope.

The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival.” The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent

Advent is marked by a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, of longing. There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of the world, first expressed by Israelite slaves in Egypt as they cried out from their bitter oppression. It is the cry of those who have experienced the tyranny of injustice in a world under the curse of sin, and yet who have hope of deliverance by a God who has heard the cries of oppressed slaves and brought deliverance!

It is that hope, however faint at times, and that God, however distant He sometimes seems, which brings to the world the anticipation of a King who will rule with truth and justice and righteousness over His people and in His creation. It is that hope that once anticipated, and now anticipates anew, the reign of an Anointed One, a Messiah, who will bring peace and justice and righteousness to the world.

Part of the expectation also anticipates a judgment on sin and a calling of the world to accountability before God. We long for God to come and set the world right! Yet, as the prophet Amos warned, the expectation of a coming judgment at the “Day of the Lord” may not be the day of light that we might want, because the penetrating light of God’s judgment on sin will shine just as brightly on God’s people.

Last week we saw John the Baptist storming out of the desert proclaiming a baptism of reconciliation for the forgiveness of sins as the way to prepare for the coming of the Lord. Today he is equally practical. When people ask him: “What must we do to prepare for the coming of the Messiah?”, he gives them very down-to-earth advice. Advice they can implement in their daily lives immediately. He says to them “Share your surplus food and clothes with the starving and the naked.” To the tax collectors he says: “Do not rob the people – just collect what you are entitled to and no more.” To soldiers he says “Do not abuse your power. Do not intimidate people or use violence against them.”

The color pink was a ‘joyous’ color. Even today we dress little girls in pink because they bring such joy into our lives. We use this joyous color of pink today on our advent wreath to show our joy that this season of waiting for our Lord is half over, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, when we will celebrate the great feast of the birth of our Savior.

This is another passage which envisions the Shalom of God, God’s reign of peace, justice and love. To a people who had suffered frequently from invasion, subjugation and exile, this imaginative prophecy would have brought great comfort. More recent visions of Utopian societies draw much from Old Testament passages like this.

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Isaiah 61:1-2)

On the Third Sunday in Advent, the Revised Common Lectionary gives us Isaiah’s well-known words that also served as the text for Jesus’ preaching in the Synagogue at the first appearance of his public ministry. The vocation claimed by Jesus in the recitation of these words is also given by God to us: to bring the good news of God, in word and deed and the example of our lives, to all who are bound and oppressed and cut off from the glorious freedom and abundant life God intends for us. Jesus’ vocation is our own, and the same Spirit given to Jesus is poured out upon us as well.