Most years, this Advent time of year is a comforting and joyful one. We nestle into the familiarity of decorations, seasonal foods, holiday music, and especially the gatherings with family, friends, and the wider community that help to make Advent special. 

This year, we are missing so much of this. I know that so many of us are struggling with these hard circumstances. I am missing seeing your faces in the sanctuary, and it was hard to go through a Thanksgiving weekend without seeing extended family in person. 

But what if the difficult parts of this year could actually make us more aware of the wilderness-realities of the world? How might we be better able to hear John the Baptist’s call to us—that a way needs to be prepared, and that some change needs to happen? Would it mean that we might be even more ready than usual to be a part of the coming of God’s peace into the world?

I hope to see you online in worship, as we continue our waiting for the renewal of God’s presence in our lives and in the world. This Sunday we will celebrate communion, so remember to come to worship with communion elements that reflect foods that are special to you.

In hope, 

Hardy

Image: Beginning of the Good News, Lisle Gwynn Garrity, © A Sanctified Art LLC, sanctifiedart.com.

Join us immediately following worship this Sunday for Coffee Hour

After the service is over, log on to our Zoom coffee time at:

bit.ly/SVPCCoffeeHour

“It doesn’t take much effort to imagine our world as a wilderness. Scarcity, isolation, inequity, hunger, and violence seem to rule the day. The oppressive pain and injustice around us can make us wonder whether God is still at work…. 

Preparing the Lord’s path means challenging systems and structures that we have institutionalized as normal but that God condemns as oppressive and crooked. It means clearing the path of self-aggrandizement, self-absorption, and greed to make way for a community where all of creation is valued.”

—Rev. Traci Blackmon, Associate General Minister of Justice & Local Church Ministries, United Church of Christ

Image: Prepare a World, Lauren Wright Pittman, © A Sanctified Art LLC, sanctifiedart.com.

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way;

the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,’”

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”