Sunday, November 27
Psalm 24
Because you are reading this, you are aware that it is Advent. You picked up this booklet and, most likely, intend to use it to help experience this season of preparation and expectation. And that’s a good thing.
Often things like this day go unnoticed. We pass them by unaware, failing to recognize them. Like scenery along the way, we miss slowing down to look. Instead, we stay focused on the demands of our lives, caught by the compulsions of our routines.
We enter a season like Advent without allowing it to enter our lives. You didn’t do that, and that’s a good thing. Still, we can easily miss that which we ought to notice, ignore that which needs our attention, disregard that which deserves our utmost regard, avoid that which we need to be doing.
So as you use this booklet to experience the Advent Season this year, take time to “lift up your heads” beyond these pages that the Prince of Peace might enter. Identify those places around and beyond you in need of peace: the neighborhoods engulfed by gun violence, the young people victimized by bullying, the families sinking into poverty, the jobless losing hope, the civilians demonstrating for justice, the communities devastated by war’s destruction.
And this Advent, as you notice these things not only with mindful awareness but also with heartfelt compassion, may you be moved to act in the ways of Christ, the Prince of Peace, as a peacemaker. And that will be a good thing.
PRAYER
Help us, O Prince of Peace, to lift up our heads, notice places in need of peace, and become the peacemakers you call us to be. In your name, Amen.
Rev. Carl E. Horton, strategic planning and program facilitator, Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, PC(USA)
Louisville, Kentucky