Introduction
“At Christmas, we celebrate how light entered into darkness. But first, Advent bids us to pause and look, with complete honesty, at the darkness. Advent asks us to name what is dark in the world and in our own lives and to invite the light of Christ into each shadowy corner. To practice Advent is to lean into a cosmic ache: our deep, wordless desire for things to be made right. We dwell in a world shrouded in sin, conflict, violence, and oppression. . . . Before the delight of Christmas, Advent invites us to a vulnerable place—a place of individual and communal confession where we honestly name unjust systems, cultural decay, sorrow, the sin of the world, and the sin in our own lives. Only by dwelling in that vulnerable place can we learn to profess true hope. Not cheap hope, spun from falsehoods, half-truths, or denial, but a hope offered by the very light that darkness cannot overcome. —Tish Harrison Warren, Advent: The Season of Hope
This Sunday we light the candle of peace, and man, do we need some of that. But the peace God offers at Advent isn’t like the world’s. Let’s gather this Sunday and see just what that means.
Grace and peace y’all,
Text:
A Confession from John 15 (the message)
Reader: Jesus declared he is the Real Vine and his Father is the Farmer, that every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. That if we live in him -make our home in him just as He does in us, the harvest is sure to be abundant.
Everyone: Jesus we make our home in you and you make yours in us. Make this Church good soil for the Vine to take root and the branches to bear fruit.
Reader: Jesus told us the tree will be judged by the fruit.
Everyone: Give us hands to tend the soil, hearts to endure the pruning and ears to hear the song that gives us hope.
Lord’s Prayer
Christ, who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who’ve sinned against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory forever. Amen.
