Greetings!

This second week of Advent, we continue our preparations for the coming Christmas celebration. It’s a week where our tradition asks us to focus on the idea of peace. Peace in our world. Peace that comes with the child who will lead us toward God’s vision of true peace.

In our world today, with all of its violence and divisions, do we really believe that peace is possible? Right now? In our midst? What would it take for us to be able to really expect peace? To live peacefully with one another?

As we hear the stories from Scripture that lead us through this season, and as we sing the songs and say prayers that invite God’s Spirit to work in our hearts, I hope that we will truly be able to shift our perspective even just a little bit – so that we can really expect God’s peace to emerge among us at Christmastime. Come join us in worship and be a part of it.

In Christ’s Peace,

Hardy

P.S. I am very much looking forward to seeing you all at our one-service this Sunday, which will be held at 10 a.m. we will be blending all of our wonderful styles of worship into one time of prayer and praise, together across all of all worshiping groups. And then I hope you’ll come back at 7 p.m. for our annual SVPC Chancel Choir Christmas Concert!

Theme for Sunday

Only converted people, who are in union with both the pain of the world and the love of God, are prepared to read the Bible—with the right pair of eyes and the appropriate bias, which is from the side of powerlessness and suffering instead of the side of power and control. This is foundational and essential conversion. The Greek word metanoia, poorly translated as ‘repent’ in the Bible (Matthew 3:2, Mark 1:15), quite literally means ‘to change your mind.’ Until the mind changes the very way it processes the moment, nothing changes long term. ‘Be transformed by a renewal of your mind,’ Paul says (Romans 12:2), which hopefully will allow the heart to soon follow.

 —Richard Rohr, Changing Our Minds

Isaiah 11:1-10

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.