This has been a very difficult nine months, and many of us are worn down and stressed, our lives disrupted, and the sorrow of needing to stay isolated at Thanksgiving added to all of that.  When I look to the church calendar, however, I feel a new hope in the new birth of this season. The first Sunday in Advent is upon us, and the hope at the coming of God in the Christ Child and the promise of peace that child brings are rekindled. The scripture from Isaiah and the Psalms for this Sunday, in fact, implores God to come to Israel in visible and dramatic ways to save God’s people. We, too, begin this season with lament, calling on God to come again.  We need you, Lord, just as your ancient people did.

As we celebrate Advent at SVPC this year, we will be using materials from Sanctified Art, which explore the themes of Advent through the lens of dreamers. Beginning with the prophets and the psalmists, and then Mary, Elizabeth, Joseph, Simeon, Anna, the shepherds and the Magi who dreamed of God’s presence and helped make it happen. The Advent story is also for the dreamer in all of us. Those who dream of a deeper connection with God and those who dream of a better world.  Those who dream of love, and joy, and peace alive in our world. Let us dream together these next few weeks – as an act of hope, as an act of resistance, as an act of faith.  Not neglecting to take action, make faithful choices, pray, always pray, and worship in ways that will allow us to dream of the world that God promises.  It’s a long way to peace, one of the commentators remarks, so let’s begin with hope and make the journey together. 

Join us this Sunday at 2 p.m., as we hear from one of God’s premier dreamers, the prophet and poet Isaiah, who dreamed of a world where God would be present, granting release to the captives and making all things new.

In hope,

Judy

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 is a strange way to begin this time of Advent. Beginning Advent with weeping and lament? That is unusual! And powerful. This is where we need to begin. The coming of Advent jolts the church out of Ordinary Time with the invasive news that it’s time to think about fresh possibilities for deliverance and human wholeness. …We are living in a time of brokenheartedness…we live with our hearts broken open so that compassion, caring, and God’s reckless love can find a way into our hearts and the heart of the world. Make straight in our hearts a highway for the possibility of peace.

—Patricia E. De Jong, Feasting on the Word

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence—as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed.

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.