Day Thirty Six - Righteousness and peace will kiss each other

Today’s Bible Study is based on the theme of Peace using as many of today’s lectionary readings as possible on this second Sunday in Advent. So, we look at Mark 1:1-8 which covers John the Baptiser preparing the way for ‘someone greater’ as prophesied in the Isaiah 40:1-11 reading. We link this into 2 Peter 3:8-15 the Advent of the promise of Peace in Christ linked to Ps 85:1-2, 8-13, verses which contain the lovely phrases ‘steadfast love and faithfulness will meet’ and ’righteousness and peace will kiss each other’ .

The Isaiah prophecy starts with ‘Comfort my people’ and this is what this Life-Light series has been about particularly this year. Advent is a time for anticipating the reassurance that the Christmas season of peace and goodwill to all brings. Isaiah’s words about ‘make straight in the desert a highway for our God’, were written at a time of great uncertainty and trouble, and yet the prophecy was not for his own time and came to pass in the person of John the Baptiser centuries later. God’s plans are long-term aren’t they, so it is good that although ‘People are no more enduring than grass’ we know as Isaiah says that ‘the word of our God endures forever’. We are right in thinking, I believe, that perhaps there are still parts of the prophecy that will only come to fruition at the second coming of Christ when ‘the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it’. Hope of this, as well as joy at the arrival of the Light of the World in the babe at Bethlehem, are what we celebrate at Advent.

After Jesus had ascended back to his Father, Peter encouraged the fledgling church members by writing later in his 2nd letter ‘with the Lord one day is like a thousand years’. So although we may feel the coming again of Christ, the final act of the greatest show on earth, is an eternity away, Peter reminds us that ‘The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think, he is patient with you because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.’ Any delay in the second coming of Christ is down to God’s unbelievable ‘steadfast love and faithfulness’ which was also the dynamic behind his first coming.

The Psalmist knew the sequence of God’s actions was when ‘love and faithfulness meet’ and ‘righteousness and peace kiss each other.’ For me this is the essence of Perfect Peace - believing in the faithfulness of God reaching out in love, waiting patiently for humanity to turn towards Him. Only when individual righteousness is restored can the kiss of Peace between Creator and created reveal the glory of the Lord for all people to see.

Let’s pray

Loving and Faithful God, thank you for your written Word full of promises that, unlike ours, have stood the test of time.

Thank you that ‘in the fulness of time you made this Word more comprehensible in the Person of Jesus.

Show me what I need to do to prepare myself and my neighbour for the second coming of the Lord Jesus so that ‘righteousness and peace will kiss each other’. Maranatha. Amen.

Elisabeth Sweeney-Smith