8 Richard Baxter, Pastor and Writer, 1691
10 Karl Barth, Pastor and Theologian, 1968. Thomas Merton, Contemplative and Writer, 1968
13 Lucy (Lucia), Martyr at Syracuse, 304 was a young Christian martyr who died during the Diocletianic Persecution
14 Juan de la Cruz (John of the Cross), Mystic, 1591 was a major figure of the Counter-Reformation, a Spanish mystic, a Roman Catholic saint, a Carmelite friar and a priest who was born at Fontiveros, Old Castile.


OLD TESTAMENT:  Isaiah 40: 1 - 11  (RCL)
                                    Isaiah 40: 1 - 5, 9 - 11   (Roman Catholic)

Isai 40:1 (NRSV) Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the LORD's hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice cries out:
"In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5 Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
6 A voice says, "Cry out!"
And I said, "What shall I cry?"
All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the LORD blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand forever.
9 Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
"Here is your God!"
10 See, the Lord GOD comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.


PSALM 85: 1 - 2, 8 - 13  (RCL)
Psalm 85: 8 - 13   (Roman Catholic)

Psal 85:1 (NRSV) LORD, you were favorable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you pardoned all their sin.

8 Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people,
to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
9 Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
and righteousness will look down from the sky.
12 The LORD will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before him,
and will make a path for his steps.

Note: verse numbering is one higher in Roman Catholic bibles


85   Benedixisti, Domine   (ECUSA BCP)

1      You have been gracious to your land, O Lord, *
 you have restored the good fortune of Jacob.

2      You have forgiven the iniquity of your people *
 and blotted out all their sins.

8      I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, *
 for he is speaking peace to his faithful people
 and to those who turn their hearts to him.

9      Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, *
 that his glory may dwell in our land.

10  Mercy and truth have met together; *
 righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

11  Truth shall spring up from the earth, *
 and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

12  The Lord will indeed grant prosperity, *
 and our land will yield its increase.

13  Righteousness shall go before him, *
 and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.


NEW TESTAMENT:  2 Peter 3: 8 - 15a   (RCL)
                                     2 Peter 3: 8 - 14   (Roman Catholic)

2Pet 3:8 (NRSV) But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.
11 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? 13 But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
14 Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.

h/t Montreal Anglican

Aware that he will soon die, the author leaves his fellow Christians with a testimony of what being Christian demands: how to live up to The Way, so that they may be among the godly when Christ comes again. It was tempting to deny that Christ would come again because early Christians expected the world to end within their lifetimes.

The delay, he argues in v. 8, is only in human terms, for God does not measure time as we do. God wishes all people to be found worthy at the Last Day; he does not want any to “perish” (v. 9) for ungodliness; so he is waiting patiently for all to repent of their waywardness. The End will come “like a thief” (v. 10), i.e. suddenly, unexpectedly. The images of the end-times in v. 10b are drawn from popular Jewish and Greek (Stoic) philosophy of the day. (Annihilation of all things by fire was a Stoic belief.) A “loud noise” heralds the Day; the conduct of all people will be made known then. So, he asks rhetorically in vv. 11-12, given that the End will come, what should our conduct be as we wait for the End and hasten it (through bringing people to Christ)? But, says v. 13, for us Christians annihilation is not the End, for (per Isaiah 66:22), we look forward to “new heavens and a new earth”, inhabited by the godly. In v. 14, he answers: we should work at being “at peace”, at being ethically and spiritually perfect, prepared for Christ’s (“him”) coming at the End. We should see the apparent delay in his coming as an opportunity for repentance, for attainment of salvation.

For the author’s purpose in writing this letter, see 1:13-16. Here too he seeks to focus his readers on correct interpretation (“sincere intention”, Greek: eilikrene dianoia, v. 1) of the eschatological tradition. It is in accord with the Old Testament prophets and what Jesus said. [ NJBC]

Verse 1: “the second letter”: This author knows that 1 Peter has been circulated in the church. [ CAB]

Verse 2: “holy prophets”: As in 1:19, Old Testament prophets are probably meant. Amos 9:10 warns that those who think that their evil ways will not overtake them will “die by the sword”. See also the warning in Malachi 2:17 and Zephaniah 1:12. [ CAB]

Verse 2: “the commandment ... spoken through your apostles”: Jude 17 says “But you, beloved, must remember the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ”. [ CAB]

Verse 2: “your apostles”: “Your” suggests that Peter did not write this letter, for he puts space between himself and the apostles who witnessed the earthly ministry of Jesus. [ NJBC]

Verses 3-4: It appears that the “scoffers” claimed that the universe is immutable, so it would never end.

Verse 3: “scoffers”: These are the “false prophets” mentioned in 2:1; they scoff at the group’s traditions ( 1:16). This word is also used in Jude 18. It was commonly accepted that the Day of Judgement will be preceded by the appearance of false prophets. See also Matthew 7:15; 24:11, 24; Mark 13:22; Acts 20:29-30; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 4:3-4; John 2:8; 4:1-3. [ CAB]

Verse 4: “Where is the promise of his coming?”: The author has been defending the promise of the second coming: see 1:4 and 3:9. This is a typical query calling into question the power and intention of either a pagan god (see Deuteronomy 32:37 and 2 Kings 18:34) or of Israel’s God (see Judges 6:13; Psalm 42:4, 11). [ NJBC]

Verse 4: “our ancestors”: Perhaps a reference to the first generation of Christians. [ CAB]

Verses 5-7: They fail to see that the world began, that it was brought into existence by God’s “word”. See Genesis 1:6-10 (the first creation story). In fact, the world has been destroyed once already – in the Flood. See 2:5 and Genesis 7:11 (the Flood). So it will be destroyed again, the second time by “fire”, which will destroy the “godless” on the Day of Judgement. God’s ability to destroy by fire has already been proved by his action against Sodom and Gomorrah: see Genesis 19:24. [ NJBC]

Verse 5: “They deliberately ignore this fact ...”: The “scoffers” are guilty of culpable ignorance, unlike the author, who remembers ( 1:13) and reminds (v. 1). [ NJBC]

Contemporary Jewish speculative religious thinking was that the flood was a type for the coming destruction of the world by fire. [ CAB]

Verse 7: As God by a word created heaven and earth, so by a word he will exercise executive power on the scoffers. [ NJBC]

Verse 7: “reserved”: While Deuteronomy 28:12 speaks of God’s stores of rain and fertility, Philo speaks of God’s treasury of judgement. [ NJBC]

Verse 8: “one day is like a thousand years”: God’s measure of time is indicated in Psalm 90:4: “For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night”. [ NOAB] In Genesis 2:17, Adam is told by God “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” but Adam lives for nearly a thousand years see Genesis 5:5. His long life was explained by the rabbis as God’s gift of time to repent: see Midrash Rabba Genesis 22:1. See also Jubilees 4:29-30. [ NJBC]

Verse 9: In Joel 2:12-13, Yahweh says through the prophet: “Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing”. In Romans 2:4, Paul asks: “... do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”. See also Ezra 3:30; 7:14, 33; 9:21. [ CAB]

Verse 10: “the day of the Lord”: In the Old Testament, the day when God will vindicate his cause and execute judgement: see Amos 5:18-20; Joel 2:28-32; Malachi 4:5; Zephaniah 1:7. [ CAB] In the New Testament, see also Acts 2:20 (Peter quotes Joel on the Day of Pentecost); 1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; Revelation 3:3. [ NJBC]

Verse 10: “like a thief”: See also Matthew 24:43 (the necessity for watchfulness) and Luke 12:39. [ NOAB]

Verse 10: “heavens ... earth”: When Christ comes again, all creation – “heavens”, intermediate “elements”, and “earth” – will pass away with a “loud noise”, possibly the trumpet and cry of 1 Thessalonians 4:16 or the roar of the consuming fire. [ NJBC]

Verse 10: “elements”: In Greek philosophy, the elements were water, air, earth and fire.

Verse 10: “disclosed”: or found, in a forensic sense. [ NJBC]

Verse 11: Paul writes of the need for moral behaviour consistent with belief in God’s final judgement:

    in 1 Thessalonians 3:13: “... may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints”, and
    in Philippians 2:15-16: “... It is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labour in vain”.

Verse 12: In apocalyptic writings, “fire” plays a prominent role in the destruction of the world. [ NOAB]

Verse 12: “day of God”: This phrase emphasises a different point from that in v. 10 about “the day of the Lord” (Jesus): God has power to be active in creation and to judge. The description here resembles the biblical descriptions of God’s day (see Isaiah 34:4; Mark 13:24-25; Revelation 16:8-9), where the heavens are predicted to fail and fire to come upon the world. [ NJBC]

Verses 13-14: These verses quote freely from Isaiah 66:22. In Isaiah and Revelation 22, the thought is not (as here) the destruction but the renewal and transformation of the universe. [ NOAB] See also Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1. [ NJBC]

Verses 15b-16: The author knows several of Paul’s letters; he considers them to be “scriptures”. Paul also wrote of the need to live ethically and spiritually perfect lives. [ NOAB] The tradition about the second coming of Christ rests on the word of two inspired witnesses, Peter and Paul. [ NJBC]

GOSPEL:  Mark 1: 1 - 8  (all)

Mark 1:1 (NRSV) The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2 As it is written in the prophet Isai'ah, 
"See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,'"
4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Mark begins his telling of the “good news” with quotations from the Old Testament. God had promised the Israelites a “messenger” (v. 2) to lead them. The prophet Malachi understood this promise as pointing to the end-times, to one who would prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. To him, the “messenger” would be Elijah. While v. 3 originally spoke of return from exile, by Jesus’ time it was seen as an expression of God’s comfort and salvation. To us, John the Baptist comes to prepare for, and announce, Jesus’ coming. Tradition says that John baptised near Jericho, in an arid region. People came to him in large numbers, repenting (changing their mind sets), “confessing their sins” (v. 5), resolving to sin no more, and dipping themselves in the River. John dressed like a hermit or prophet (v. 6). (In Palestine, some species of locusts were eaten.) John is so unworthy, compared to “the one who ... is coming” (v. 7), that he cannot untie his “sandals”, a task normally performed by a slave. His baptism is a sign of purification, of turning to God, of accepting God’s forgiveness and judgement; Jesus’ baptism re-establishes a spiritual link between God and humans.

The parallels are Matthew 3:1-12 and Luke 3:1-20. See also John 1:6, 15, 19-28. [ NOAB]

Verse 1: “beginning”: John the Baptist marks the transition from the epoch of the old covenant to that of the new, which Jesus brings. [ CAB]

Verse 1: “good news”: This term, or gospel, functions as the title of this book, and later (probably about 150 AD, in the writings of Justin Martyr) became the name for this genre. The term is common in Paul’s letters where it means the message itself. [ CAB] [ BlkMk] [ NJBC]

Verse 1: “Son of God”: See also v. 11 and 3:11; 5:7; 14:61; 15:39. [ CAB] In the Old Testament this term is used to describe angels or divine beings (see Genesis 6:2 and Job 37:7), the Israelite nation (see Hosea 11:1) and an anointed king (see Psalm 2:7). There it usually has moral force: God loves Israel, so Israel should in turn love and obey her Father: see Deuteronomy 32:6. Two of the late apocalyptic books seem to use it of the Messiah (see 1 Enoch 105:2; 2 Esdras 7:28-29; 13:32, 27, 52), as does Mark in 14:61. The Greco-Roman world knew of gods and heroes, usually saviours and healers, who were called sons of god. So it is understandable that the centurion at the foot of the cross remarks: “Truly this man was God's Son” (in 15:39). [ BlkMk]

Verse 2: “the prophet Isaiah”: A reading found in some manuscripts is the prophets. This is easily explained: the quotation is actually not from Isaiah. Mark may have used a collection of Old Testament quotations and so attributed it to Isaiah. The quotation is a combination of Exodus 23:20 (in the Septuagint translation) and Malachi 3:1 (the Masoretic Text). Malachi used phrases from Exodus 23:20; there (per the Septuagint) God promises to send his messenger before Israel and guide it to the Promised Land. See also Matthew 11:10 and Luke 7:27. [ NOAB] [ NJBC] BlkMk considers that it is likely that this quotation was added by a later editor. It is not found in the parallel passages.

An alternative view, presented by BlkMk, is that the quotation is Malachi 3:1 with my changed to your. In Greek, this change is only one letter: from mou to sou. In antiquity, unlike today, making such changes was fully acceptable. In Isaiah, “the Lord” is Yahweh; here it is Jesus.

Verse 3: The quotation is Isaiah 40:3 in the Septuagint translation except that near the end he replaces our God’s with his. [ NOAB] [ CAB] [ NJBC]

Verse 4: See also Acts 13:24 (Paul speaks in the synagogue at Antioch in Persidia). [ NOAB]

Verse 4: “John the baptizer”: He is later called John the Baptist. He was imprisoned (v. 14) and executed ( 6:17-29) by Herod Antipas. For the story of his birth, see Luke 3:10-18; for his preaching, see Luke 3:10-18. John is in Israel’s prophetic tradition. [ CAB]

Verse 5: “people from ...”: The historian Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, also describes John as a preacher of repentance who used baptism and attracted large crowds. [ NJBC]

Verse 5: “baptized”: Baptism was a Jewish practice, but only for non-Jews who adopted Judaism.

Verse 6: John’s clothing recalls that of Elijah: “‘A hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist’” (see 2 Kings 1:8). In Matthew 11:14, Elijah is identified with John. [ CAB] Whether John was making the point that he stood in the line of Israel’s prophets or was presenting himself as the new Elijah (or both) is unclear. In Malachi 3:1, Yahweh says through the prophet: “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts”, and in Malachi 4:5 “Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes”. [ NJBC]

Verse 7: “The one who is more powerful than I”: John may well have been speaking of God’s arrival in power at the end of time but in this book it undoubtedly refers to Jesus. [ NJBC]

Verse 8: See also Acts 2:17-21 (Peter speaks to the crowd on the Day of Pentecost) and Joel 2:28-29 (“Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions”). [ NOAB] The Greek means Holy Spirit not “the Holy Spirit”. Mark elsewhere always uses the definite article. Matthew and Luke append with fire .