On December 8th in worship we will celebrate the second Sunday of Advent, focusing on scripture passages from the prophet Isaiah and Matthew’s gospel that set forth a vision of peace for God’s kingdom.
Isaiah highlights the contrast of our world with this new sort of peace, illustrating unexpected pairings, placing the wolf and lamb together, a leopard and baby goat, a calf and lion, a cow and bear, as they are content resting and eating together. What?! That doesn’t make sense. And yet the prophet tells of a time when animals that would naturally resist each other will live in harmony – “they will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain” and things will be made right in God’s kingdom.
Matthew’s gospel describes the ministry of John the Baptist out in the wilderness getting the people ready to receive a different kind of Messiah than they are expecting. “Repent – turn your hearts towards God and God’s ways – instead of toward your own interests.” Preparing for God’s coming calls us outside of ourselves and our own concerns and asks us to pay attention to the people around us asking, “How abundantly are they living?”
This Sunday, God will issue a challenge for us to get unstuck in how we perceive the world and God’s actions in it, and instead open our hearts and minds to the new things that God is working in our midst as God’s kingdom draws near.
Come and worship with us on Sunday to find out more!
Rev. Amy