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Greetings!
 We surely could use some peace.
Can the lights and tinsel of the commercial kind of Christmas bring it about? Can it be purchased? Can peace be legislated?
Where does peace come from? And will it come in our time?
Last Sunday's Scripture lection in Zephaniah talked about God quieting us with His love-- while He also "joys" over us with singing.
That's a peaceful place to be. What an image.
Add to that image this coming Sunday's passage from Micah: "And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace."
What times we live in. Many, there are, who claim to have peace, or know how to achieve it, if we will but listen to and follow their prescription.
But it can't be bought or legislated. It comes ultimately from the person and work of Jesus Christ. And the ultimate peace-- that time and place in the future that so many of the prophets looked toward-- may not come in our time. But it will come in time.
Thanks be to God: He Who is peace-- the "one of peace"-- is already there in the future, beckoning us toward Himself.
Looking forward to lighting the candle of peace with you this coming Sunday.
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel...
Pastor Chris | 
The first will cover the basics on where we got the Bible and how to choose a translation that's just right for you. We love and cherish Scriptures as believers, but we don't really know as much about where they came from as we should. And what about translations: These days there are so many to choose from.
Next, we're working on a series for the winter as a kind of follow-up to "Epiclesis 101": It's been about two years since we put that introductory class together, but our hope for this new mini series of three sessions is to go beyond the basics of who we are and tell the bigger story: How did Epiclesis come to be? What does it mean to be "Ancient-Future?" We want to share the Epiclesis story, talk about what makes our community of faith truly unique, and also take the time to focus on how the structure and leadership works at Epiclesis.
The world's philosophers drive out an old passion by instilling a new one. They hammer out one nail by hammering in another. The seven princes of Persia acted towards King Ahasuerus on this principle. They overcame his regret for losing Queen Vashti by persuading him to love other maidens. However, where they cured one fault by another fault and one sin by another sin, we must overcome our faults by learning to love their opposite virtues. "Depart from evil," says the psalmist, "and do good; seek peace and pursue it." For if we don't hate evil, we can't love good. More than this, we must do good if we want to depart from evil. We must seek peace if we want to avoid war. It isn't enough merely to seek peace, we must pursue it with all our energy when we have found it and it runs from us. For "it passeth all understanding," and God dwells in peace.
