SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, December 6, 2020

Dear Friends in Christ –

It’s been hard for me to settle into a groove, a theme for this season. Advent is a time of active waiting, anticipating, perhaps even yearning for what only a miracle can provide.

Can’t be jolly when the wild fire’s bearing down on your friend’s home or there’s another provocation from the east or the west to deprive displaced people dignity, or another charge of sexual misconduct appropriately redrawing the lines of what is cute, funny or demeaning, another storm lurking post-season in the Caribbean, another genocide, another record set for Covid deaths as the United States, as the most advanced(?) country in the world leads, not in diplomacy, nor humanitarian efforts, but in hubris and partisan stalemate as people are evicted from their homes, hungry, frightened and forgotten.

So we need a miracle. We need to be reminded of the God of creation that draws near. Last week we experienced hope as we remembered that Jesus loves us as we are.

This week we look to the prophet Isaiah through whom God promises peace and restoration to an exiled and chastened people. We know what it's like to be living in a ton of hurt. So we will gather and we will pray and we will repent and we will look to the Lord.

The miracle occurs as we gather as God’s people –