The preacher on Advent 2 was Canon Robin Paisley, former Rector of St John’s Dumfries.

He elicited some themes from the Advent readings which could speak to us today.

From the Gospel passage in which John the Baptist strongly called the people of his day to Repent. The original Greek translates literally as “change-mind”; the challenge to us today would be to use the time of Advent to think about topics about which we should change our mind: to be more Christ-like.

The Isaiah passage and complementary Psalm spoke about ways in which the people of Israel could have Hope in a time of great insecurity. Robin noted parallels between the political situation of Isaiah’s day and our own and suggested that just reading and dwelling on these texts could build resilience for us all and make Christlike principles clear.

In the Romans passage, the Apostle Paul was counselling the early Christians to Focus on Christ and against letting conflict over small issues distract. Paul put it with characteristic directness:
“let us stop judging one another” instead “be welcoming to one another”. This too has great relevance to situations in our world today.