Peace Shall Over All

Reflection: It’s Christmas time - the most wonderful time of the year, as the old carol croons. It’s also a very busy time, and very hectic time, and often a highly stressed and anything-but-peaceful time - but what can we do? Well, to start, we can slow down a bit, and celebrate Advent - the season-within-the season. Advent bids us to slow down, and to breathe deep and be in a spirit of peace as we anticipate both the celebration of the birth - and the one-day-hopefully soon return - of the Prince of Peace.

In a world in which peace can be hard to come by, Advent can also be a “holy” time – that is, a time set aside – to seek the peace of Christ – or better, to BE the peace of Christ – in and through the things that seek to rob us of that peace. Often, those peace-robbing things are rooted in sin – our own and the sins of the world that we are forced to contend with. Advent, then, can also be a time to look deeply at the crooked paths we walk, to turn, and let Christ bend and reshape us and show us the righteous path lit by His light.

In this light, we will look at another classic hymn: It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.
I invite us to come and listen, sing and pray for the day when Jesus’s peace shall be over all the earth.

I look forward to continuing in the light of this Holy Advent with all of you.
Peace,
Pastor Mark