Peace be with you. Friends, we come to the third Sunday of Advent and it always strikes me as we move through Advent.

What an Isaiah in season it is. We hear week after week from the Prophet Isaiah during Advent.

We heard a couple weeks ago about the Holy Mountain to which all the tribes go up.

We heard last week about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

And today the great image from Isaiah is that of the blooming desert.

Listen, the desert and the parts land will exalt.

The step will rejoice in bloom. They will bloom with abundant flowers and rejoice with joyful song.

Now keep in mind the biblical authors were desert people. They were well acquainted with the desert.

And I've got a little acquaintance with it in the course of my life including living in California where I was in Santa Barbara.

It's called a coastal desert. So very dry climate.

And anyone that lives in deserts knows that parts land and then when the rains come suddenly overnight the desert blooms.

And it's extraordinary. You think that this land will never will never bloom with life.

And then just from this one rain the whole hillside the whole desert suddenly flowers.

Well, that's the image Isaiah has in mind.

And I want to stay with that juxtaposition of death and life here because very often in the Bible the great heroes have to spend time in the desert.

Think of a story of the story. Abraham has to cross the desert to get to the promised land.

Joseph is sent into Egypt and into prison before he's ready for his mission.

Think of Moses his many years as a shepherd in the desert before he becomes a liberator.

Think of John the Baptist of voice crying in the deserted places.

Think of Paul who goes into the desert of Arabia for a long time after seeing the risen Lord as he tries to understand what happened to him.

Jesus himself famously spending 40 days and nights in the desert.

Well, what is it about deserts?

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