2nd Sunday of Advent 2025
Isaiah 11: 1-10; Romans 15: 4-9; Matthew 3: 1-12
Where is the Kingdom (the Reign) of God? Isaiah prophesies it, but where is it? Bells ring when we hear the first half of today’s prophecy. Jesus is the shoot from the stump of Jesse, on whom the Spirit of the Lord rests: thus, we know that God’s reign has begun.
John the Baptist bears witness to that in the Gospel. Jesus is the one about whom John preaches, the one who comes after John, the one who will “baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire”.
To that extent, John’s assertion is the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy, which is why the Gospel writers are so keen to stress Jesus’ membership of David’s line, as David was the son of Jesse. Both Matthew and Luke include a genealogy, which differ from each other, but which agree in insisting upon that descent from David, however questionable it may appear.
We can say then that the testimonies of Isaiah and the Baptist agree, and that the Kingdom is here, at least in embryo, but that it is far from being fully realised. Where is that universal harmony described in the second half of the Isaiah passage? Do we see lions opting for a vegetarian diet? Are lambs and wolves the best of pals? Not as far as I am aware: animals continue to prey on one another, and the most violent predator of all is man, the summit of God’s creation, whose prey is so often his fellow human beings.
Look around the world as it is, a quarter of the way through the twenty first century since the First Coming of Jesus inaugurated the Reign of God, and more than a century after the “War to end war”. Increasingly, the world is soaked in blood, the land of Jesus providing one of the most brutal examples.
In his journey from Turkey to Lebanon, Pope Leo insisted on a two-state solution as the only possible way forward for Israel/Palestine. Will Netanyahu and the extremists in his cabinet agree to that? They may, if Trump bullies them into it, but what is the likelihood of that? Jews, Christians, and Muslims continue to bicker over the Holy Places, and ethnic cleansing looms large. The Kingdom cannot be fully realised without genuine harmony in that most holy place of the earth.
Meanwhile, war rages in Sudan, and threatens to break out again in South Sudan, while other parts of Africa are involved in spasmodic conflicts and the Northern Hemisphere looks the other way, with governments, including our own, slashing Overseas Aid and opposition parties threatening to go further because, according to the Leader of the Opposition, “it is not a priority for voters”. Shame on the Government, shame on the Opposition, shame on voters. No sign of the Kingdom there!
In Europe, Putin plays with the notion of peace, whilst maintaining his determination to control Ukraine as a first step towards re-creating the Soviet Empire and threatening the West; and the supposed “free world” has become the plaything of a seemingly deranged would-be dictator. Even the earth itself is threatened with destruction by its inhabitants who, in their acquisitive greed, foul their own nests to say nothing of the “hole of the cobra”: so much for the “living in harmony” which St. Paul describes as a pre-requisite of the Kingdom.
What is the answer? How can the Kingdom which is, after all, what Jesus preached, be brought to fulfilment? John the Baptist offers one word: repentance. What does that mean?
You are probably fed up by now of being told that “repentance” is a translation of the Greek metanoia which is literally a fundamental re-orientation, often expressed as a “change of heart”. From where will that change of heart come? It can come only as a gift from God, from the Spirit of the Lord who rested on Jesus, and with whom Jesus baptises us.
Where will it begin? It must begin with us who have been baptised. We must live according to the Spirit—in other words, in accordance with the gifts of our baptism. If WE do not live in that change of heart, there is no hope for the world. If, on the other hand, we become attuned to that Spirit who lives within us, if we live in harmony with others, if we become people of deeper prayer, at peace with ourselves, with God, with other people, and with the whole of creation, then the Kingdom will grow, will spread, and we may begin to hope that its fullness may be brought ever closer. The Kingdom, like charity, and measles, begins at home, but does not end there.
