Advent 3 Joy :\u00a0 Luke 3:7-18<\/p>\n
John is nothing if not surprising. He challenges the status quo, not by presenting something new but by calling people back to their story, the story passed on to them through faithful generations. The river is the Jordan, the river their ancestors crossed to enter the land. John calls them back to this river. He refers to the stones, which were the stones the priests set up as a memorial to that first crossing He calls them back to the vision that they would occupy the land as a witness, as a light, and as a blessing to all the families of the earth.<\/p>\n
They recognize how far they have wandered from that vision, how crooked their path has become. They ask what they should do, and he gently, more gently than his speech until now would suggest, tells them practical, understandable actions they can take to straighten the path forward. John reminds them that much depends on their response. In what ways do we need to be called back to our story as followers of Jesus? What are the stories and symbols we need to remember? What practical actions are needed for our path forward?<\/p>\n
Philippians 4:4-7 We are told to rejoice in God always! Ask God for what we need, thank God for what we have, do not be anxious.\u00a0 The peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts. This is the season of Joy, we are awaiting the celebration of the birth of a child, that was not born in a hospital, a home but in a stable.\u00a0 What a unique beginning for our saviour. In making our way to the celebration of the birth of Jesus, we will find joy, the joy of sharing our Spirit with those around us, in all the ways Jesus shared so may years ago with His followers. May you find the road to joy this Christmas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Scriptures for Sunday December 22, Advent 4 \u2013 Love<\/strong><\/p>\n Micah 5:2-5a\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Out of Bethlehem in Judea will come a leader.<\/p>\n Hebrews 10:5-10\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Made holy through the sacrifice of Jesus\u2019 body.<\/p>\n Luke 1: 39-45, (46-55)\u00a0 Mary Visits Elizabeth<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lay Leader: Kaireen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lay Reader\u00a0 Maria<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Announcements<\/strong>:<\/p>\n The Prayer shawl group will meet on Sat. Dec. 21 at 3 \u2013 4:30 pm. All knitters and crocheters are most welcome to join. If you need supplies they are available.<\/p>\n The Christmas Eve service will be on Tues. Dec. 24th<\/sup> at 7 pm, We invite all who enjoy the Christmas story and Carols to join us on this Holy Night.<\/p>\n There will be no service on December 29th<\/sup>, We will resume on January 5th<\/sup> in the New Year.\u00a0 Happy New Year to all.<\/p>\n Dec. 18 \u2013 International Migrants Day<\/p>\n Dec. 21 \u2013 Winter Solstice ( 4:21 pm, EST)<\/p>\n Dec. 24 \u2013 Christmas Eve<\/p>\n Dec. 25 \u2013 Christmas Day<\/p>\n Dec. 25 to January 2 – Hanukkah<\/p>\n Dec. 26 to January 1 –\u00a0 Kwanzaa<\/p>\n Dec, 26 to January 5 \u2013 Twelve Days of Christmas<\/p>\n January is Tamil Heritage Month.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Advent 3 Joy :\u00a0 Luke 3:7-18 John is nothing if not surprising. He challenges the status quo, not by presenting something new but by calling people back to their story, the story passed on to them through faithful generations. The river is the Jordan, the river their ancestors crossed to enter the land. John calls …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":4914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3377],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith-community"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 13:03:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70918,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70917\/revisions\/70918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}