Welcome back from Thanksgiving break and Happy December! We have two weeks of Chapel left for this term. That means we will celebrate a condensed version of Advent on Wednesdays.
Two big things are happening this Wednesday, December 4:
- We celebrate Advent 2. This week we are pleased to welcome Dr.Jennifer Wojciechowski, Assistant Professor of Church History, to preach about the ministry of John the Baptist and the candle of peace.
- We celebrate our Fall Graduates. If you have finished your course work this fall we invite you to come to the Chapel of the Incarnation in person, or tune in to the livestream on YouTube. President Steinke and Dean Elton will honor you and offer a blessing.
Daily Spiritual Practices
All of our daily communal practices are back in session this week. Monday Text Study. Tuesday Contemplative Practice. Wednesday Holy Communion. Thursday Lunch Church. 11:00am every day. Use the Zoom link for Monday and Tuesday and YouTube for Wednesday.
Life from a Dead Stump | A Devo for Advent 2
This week we light the candle of peace and long for a day when it becomes reality. Three of our four readings use a metaphor to describe the state of the world and the hope for a preferred and promised future. It is the image of a stump. It is a tree or a vine that has been cut down by an axe. This may appear like death. Nothing is visible on the surface. Yet, a stump is still deeply rooted in the ground. Life finds a way. A little bud will pop out on the side of the stump and grow into a new branch that will eventually become a new tree or vine.
A stump is not the evidence of an execution. It is the evidence of an extreme pruning. This week we meet John the Baptizer who serves as the last of the Hebrew prophets who declared the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah and Jeremiah, centuries earlier, had warned that Assyria and Babylon were the axe that would cut down the vine of Israel in an act of extreme pruning. In John’s day many people thought that King Herod and his magnificent temple were the resurrection of Israel. John warned them that the axe was coming again. The true shoot from the stump of Jesse (the name of King David’s father) was still coming into the world to be the true king.
All of our readings describe what the true King will be like. This is a King and a kingdom of peace, of Shalom. This kingdom is one in which justice, righteousness, and equity for all people is the way of things. It is a place where the poor and the weak are restored, where the predator and prey play together and we are all led by the innocence of children. It is a place where the Spirit of the Lord shall rest on them, in wisdom and understanding, and the presence of Shalom shall weave us all together in harmonious diversity.
We trust that Jesus is the prince of peace. We are invited to strive for this Kingdom in the holy tension of already and not yet. We engage in active anticipation. May we be a light of peace this week that shines in a world of strife.
Join me for an Advent Contemplative Art Experience. learn more at artpastor.com/advent