SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Candle liturgy

One: Last Sunday we lit the first candle?the candle of hope. Today we light the second candle, the candle of peace. We light it knowing full well that peace is elusive, and in some parts of the world, it is almost completely absent. Yet in this season of Advent, we trust that God is never absent from us. God is always preparing something new. And even where there is war and discord, whether between countries, within families, or within our own hearts, God is present, gently leading us to new possibilities.

{Two candles are lit. Optional: sing one verse of “O Come, O come Emmanuel”)

Isaiah 11:1-10

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2The 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. 3His 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; 4but 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. 5Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. 6The 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. 7The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder?s den. 9They 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.

??????????????????????? 10On 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.

Romans 15:4-13

??????????????????????? 4For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

5May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, 6so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

??????????????????????? 7Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. 8For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, ?Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name?; 10and again he says, ?Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people?; 11and again, ?Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him?; 12and again Isaiah says, ?The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope.?

??????????????????????? 13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As we started our Advent journey last week, a journey to something new and exciting, always expectant, we were given a pending invitation, an invitation to walk towards the light of God. The Scriptures for this Advent season will help us prepare for the birth of Jesus Christ through being filled with places-holy places, hard places, and the pathways in between. Together, these places present ?a geography of salvation??a map of the heights and depths our good God will go to bring us home. Through these weeks of Advent, we will ?visit? some of these sacred locales. Along the way we?ll learn that we can meet God on the mountaintop?but that God also draws near to wherever it is we find ourselves. Our journey to Bethlehem will be filled with landmarks from the book of Isaiah, and will lead us to the stories many of us know. We are moving from waiting for our invitation to celebrate when the house of the Lord is established, to this week, knowing that even in the midst of a broken creation, signs of hope emerge. And remember, signs of hope do emerge. As we walk through ?a geography of salvation,? I invite you to pray with me as we seek a tangible hope. Let us pray.

This past week, I asked you to reflect on a few things as we go through the hustle and bustle of preparing for Christmas. Reminding us that no matter where we are on our journeys, our feet can always walk in the light of the Lord. The light of the Lord can fall anywhere and everywhere. Here were our questions: What do you hope for? What are some ways that you can walk in the light of God each day? Can you find the holy in the ordinary? And lastly, what do you hope will come your way during this season of preparation? As we venture into looking at tangible hope, we will also reflect on what and how we hope.

I read this story on Friday from StoryCorps that really impacted me in having a tangible hope. ?In Prison And Outside, He Found His ‘Iota Of Light’: A Mentor Named Fred (http://www.npr.org/2016/12/02/503982241/in-prison-and-outside-he-found-his-iota-of-light-a-mentor-named-fred).? I encourage you to read or listen to the whole story that can be found on NPR ?StoryCorps.?

?Robert Sanchez first met Fred Davie in 1998, in a small, windowless room at Sing Sing Prison. Sanchez was there serving 15 years on a drug conviction; Davie was a Presbyterian minister, who was teaching there in a theology master’s program. On a visit to StoryCorps with Sanchez, Davie recalls those days nearly two decades ago ? and remembers just how impressed he was with how well-read his students were. But Sanchez says Davie shouldn’t have been surprised.

“Fred, we didn’t have much else to do,” Sanchez laughs.

It wasn’t the only thing that surprised Davie.

“I remember that you said that you had no arrests prior, nothing in your system, and nothing on you, and you got 15 years to life for a nonviolent drug charge. But I thought, he’s making that up,” Davie says. “It can’t be possible.

Still, Sanchez says he got through the sentence by holding fast to hope: “What is life without hope? Even an iota of light can go a long way.”

After serving 16 years, Robert Sanchez was released from Sing Sing Prison. Once he was out and lost in the world, he knew he had someone he could call. “I knew that I can pick up the phone and tell you, ‘Fred, I don’t get this s***,’ ” he laughs. “I could just ask the dumbest questions ever, but you never told me they were dumb.”

For Davie, it’s a matter of how he was raised.

“I had people in my corner every step of the way. My dad wasn’t there, but if things messed up, no matter where I was, I could always go to my mother’s front porch, and know that I was welcome.”

And Sanchez says he knew he always had that support in Davie, even if nowhere else. Sanchez didn’t grow up with a father either ? his own dad died from an overdose. “If I had a dad,” he tells Davie, “if I had somebody that was going to guide me, that was you.”

Finding hope during a drug sentence where you could serve 15 to life, could be hard to do. Yet through the life of one person, he was able to find his hope and Sanchez?s life was changed. And now, he is a social worker helping men and women transition from prison to being back in the real world. Now he is the one giving people hope when they thought they had nothing. As I look at the passage from Isaiah, the pastor was able to see the hope in someone who was nothing but a stump?an outcast, in prison, could have been an addict. Yet, a shoot has come from him and he is now a branch to other people who need to see the Spirit of God.

Isaiah is sharing promises for the people who are in a place where they felt abandoned, a little empty, forgotten, and dried up inside. Where they have been longing for someone to come and save them. Isaiah speaks of a stump that symbolizes death, but people would have wondered how something possibly could come to new life from a dead stump? Isaiah is reminding the people that God can do anything. He says, look at the ground and see what the Lord is going to do. The Lord is going to bring new life, a new leader, from the line of David. This new leader will be infused with God?s own understanding, counsel, and might. He does not lead with the faltering wisdom of an ordinary man. He embodies and brings about divine justice. Under his watch, the poor and meek are lifted up. There is no room for evil and oppression; on this mountain, even predators are peaceable. It?s an idyllic picture and is about the redemption of all of creation. It is really important to be reminded that this image is the desire for all of creation to be made new and whole in the light of God. It is also the reminder that instead of being part of God?s new creation, in so many ways, we are ignorant of God?s peaceable ways.

As I think about the root and stump of Jesse, I think Paul?s words that ?in him, the Gentiles have hope? is very real for all of us. We have hope in Christ, the Christ who is coming again and again. When Jesus was born into this world, he was the first sign of tangible hope for the people of God. He was the sprout or twig from the dead stump of the people. When I think about the image of the sprout or twig from the dead stump, I think about our lives, our congregation, our community. I wonder what kind of signs or twigs can be sprouting up around here?in each of us, as well as for our congregation and our community?just like with the stump of Jesse. You know, as we await the advent of God?s peaceable kingdom, we can find and nurture the twigs of promise God brings forth every day. Remember the importance of looking for the holy in the very ordinary moments of life. Maybe you don?t see the wolf and the lamb lying down together quite yet, but there are glimmers of peace surfacing, even in the midst of danger and despair; just like they did for Robert Sanchez when he was in prison.? Maybe those glimmers come when what seemed like an irreconcilable relationship is reconciled; survivors thrive in new life beyond the pain of the past, grace is offered and accepted when the unthinkable has happened. In these times, God?s kingdom breaks into the present, revealing blessed glimpses of the glory yet to come. But we have to open our eyes and look at what God is already doing.

The first set of questions that cross my mind are here: What do you hope for in your life? What glimmers of God?s peaceable kingdom have you witnessed? But then as I think about different questions and answers, I realize that this could be the bigger question for us to focus on today?Where do you need sprouts to grow in your life? Where do we need them in our hearts, our lives, our families, our congregation, our community? Because this causes me to think more, reflect more honestly, and invite God into my life to an even deeper place. For me, this passage from Isaiah and the reminder from Paul in Romans, calls us to look inside ourselves to see where the dead limbs and stumps are in our lives?and see where new sprouts need to grow. This is transformation from the inside. Just like Jesus was transformation from inside the community and for the people of God. Isaiah promised the people that transformation would happen and it would come. The transformation would make life new and set people on a different direction. Our transformation happens when we allow for Christ to sprout through our lives and live through us each and every moment of our lives. Our task is to trust that through the Holy Spirit these sprouts will come, these sacred roots will arise and to give God thanks and praise for every sign of growth, healing, hope, and sign of peace. My question for you today is how are you going to nurture your lives, prepare your hearts, and seek peace for God?s kingdom here and now?how are you going to do this every day as we wait and place our hope in Christ? As Paul said, ?13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.? Amen.