Sermon for December 3, 2023
Pastor Jenna Bergeson

Pastor Jenna brings in the voices from a recent webinar from the ELCA's "Peace, Not Walls" campaign, which is working for peace with justice in Palestine and Israel. She challenges the conventional, passive notion of peace, advocating for a more active and engaged approach to addressing systemic injustice. Pastor Jenna encourages the church to embrace prophetic peacemaking, aligning with the calls for truth-telling, activism, and a reevaluation of language and action toward achieving genuine justice and peace in the world.

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Second Sunday of Advent
Being Present with Hope

In our Advent series, we are celebrating the gift of being truly present — to each other and to the call of God to make this world a better place. We can be the gift of presence with those who are experiencing life as less-than-peaceful. But this might also be true of how we are personally feeling in this moment. Our lives can feel a bit chaotic or in need of a makeover. The Good News is that God is continually making a way for do-overs. In this we can find peace, even when life doesn’t feel so peaceful. This week we focus on what it means to be a gift of non-anxious presence for those who need it most.