A Reflection for the Second Week of Advent – Year A
Monday, December 8, 2025
Psalm 21 | Isaiah 24:1–16a | 1 Thessalonians 4:1–12
We have just celebrated the second Sunday of Advent, and we are getting closer to Christmas Day. But we are not there yet. We are still in the waiting, still making room for God and for neighbor and for the One who is coming.
The psalmist begins with exaltation: In your strength the king rejoices, O Lord! The king’s joy flows from one source: the Lord’s strength. At the center of this thanksgiving stands a phrase worth holding: For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved. That word, hesed, means covenant faithfulness, loyal love, mercy that will not let go. The king’s stability rests on God’s steadfast love. And we are established in that same love. Not through anything we have done, but because God is steadfast in His commitment to us.
The reading from Isaiah is rough. Everything is disrupted. The wine dries up. The mirth of the tambourines is stilled. The earth is laid waste. But in the midst of all of it, we hear something else. From east to west, from the coastlands to the ends of the earth, voices rise. Not lament, but praise: From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One.
This is what I want you to understand: we are not singing glory to God’s name because God has finished what God is doing. This is an in-the-meantime praise. While all hell is breaking loose, we know that the Righteous One, whose steadfast love endures forever, is working it out. And while God is working it out, we will give Him praise. Even though the world is faithless, He is faithful.
Paul writes to the Thessalonians with earthy counsel. You already love one another, now keep on doing it. More and more. And then he says: Work with your hands. Do not let idleness set in. Do something that will make you tired at the end of the day. Make some cookies. Write some letters. Do something for someone. Put your hands to work, so that when you lay your head down, you can sleep. You will have done a good day’s work and given glory to God.
And let me say this: righteousness in the Bible is about relationship. It is about how you treat one another, about those who have power exercising it with equity. Justice for the poor means the rich take their feet off the necks of the poor. You cannot have the love of God in your heart if you do not take care of the most vulnerable among us: the widow, the orphan, the poor, the stranger within our gates. The way we care for them tells us about our hearts.
Let us carry this us: more and more. Let our love grow. Put our hands to work. Give glory to the Righteous One, even in the meantime. Especially in the meantime.