Songs of Advent 2: Peace

Welcome To REUNION

We are glad that you are here. We hope that you feel save, welcomed and relaxed. We are going to read the Bible, pray, sing a few songs and listen to a short Lead In. We might even have discussions But.. you’re invited to participate as much as you want. No expects you to speak or share. We do invite you to remain present. We believe that remaining present - even in our minds - is an act of love.

Lead In Notes with Ken Deboer

Last week we learned that advent is about waiting, In that waiting we are hoping for something to happen, for God to show up, and for change to appear. We might ask ourselves "What are we waiting for?

Is it that new car, the bigger house, the end of our credit card debt, maybe to get past the pimply stage of life. Those things are all great goals, wonderful to aim toward but we often find that when we get there the thing we were hoping for doesn't live up to what we imagined it might be. It doesn't give us the feeling we wanted. 

I think that feeling might be what the Hebrew bible calls "shalom" a word that we usually translate as peace, but really means more than that. 

Psalm 72 gives us a prescription for peace.

• The Psalm outlines how a king might rule so that his people experience shalom but transfers into our lives as we act as catalysts for peace in our community, drawing from the peace given to us by our master, Jesus Christ. 

Peace is something we hope for, wait for, feel helpless about.....Ken

Make Me a Channel of Your Peace - Jon Cohen

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is hatred let me bring your love
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord
And where there is doubt true faith in You

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is despair in life let me bring hope
Where there is darkness only light
And where there's sadness ever joy

Oh, Master grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul

Make me a channel of your peace
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
It is in giving to all men that we receive
And in dying that we are born to eternal life

Oh, Master grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there's despair in life let me bring hope
Where there is darkness only light
And where there's sadness ever joy

Discussion Prompts

• What does peace or "shalom" look like to you?

  • when and how do you experience it. 

• The word "shalom" is sometimes translated as prosperity.

  • Is prosperity necessary to experience peace?

• Where are the places in your life where you have been able to bring peace?

  • What did that feel like?

• How can we, as a church bring the gift of peace to our community, even our world.

  • What actions would we need to take to become known as bringers of shalom.