Community

Please join our hearts in worship this Sunday by participating in the recorded service (above). Have some bread and “fruit of the vine” ready for Holy Communion. This Advent liturgy was the inspiration of our dearly departed Rev. Bonnie Bell. She always felt that these familiar songs of Christmas- time were the only ones that non-church-going people knew and would like to sing. So we formed a liturgy where we could sing them more often as they related to the different parts of our traditional liturgy in hopes of making new people feel more welcome. I hope they bring some joy to your life.

The Second Sunday of Advent we light the candle of Peace on our advent wreath. We hear about how God hopes for us to live peacefully and comforted. John the Baptist is introduced as one who is preparing the way for that peace to come to all humanity. The way it comes is by turning our hearts toward God – repentance. As God’s church, we are the ones who trying to show the world this better way by striving to do our best to live as God intends.

Stir up your power, and come! The psalmist’s plea in Psalm 80:2 has become familiar to us in the Advent prayers. Isaiah wants God to rip the heavens open. Both cry out for an apparently distant, angry God to show up, to save, to restore. When we hear Jesus describing the coming of the Son of Man with stars falling from heaven, it can sound dire and horrible, not like anything we would ever hope for. But when we really look at the suffering of people God loves, we can share the hope that God would tear open the heavens and come.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom” This refrain from the Psalm for Sunday summarizes our readings well. It also summarizes our basic approach to life as children of God – children of light as Paul calls us. As we each wait the ultimate fulfillment of God’s grace and love for us, we are given the gift of life to be used and lived well by seeking things like  wisdom, truth, and justice for the vulnerable and suffering.