This sermon was preached on Sunday, December 10, 2017 at St. Aidan’s in San Francisco. The readings for this sermon are: Isaiah 40:1-11 , 2 Peter 3:8-15a , Mark 1:1-8 , and Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 . " Therefore, beloved, while we are waiting for these things, may we strive to be found by God at peace. " Last year, my very pregnant neighbor decided it was time for her overdue baby to come. She tried everything: bouncing on yoga balls in the courtyard, taking long walks, even eating super spicy pizza at a pizzeria that my classmate swore by. Of course, nothing my neighbor did made the baby come any faster. Little Samara came on her own time, in her own way, overturning her parents’ lives with beautiful chaos, as all babies do. Like Samara’s new family, the early Christian church was shot through with ill-disguised impatience for a long-awaited arrival. The author of the Second Letter of Peter from our epistle today is writing to a Christian community waddling in the we