While We Are Waiting Part II: Prepare

"Prepare" – Isaiah 11:1-10
Part II of the Advent sermon series, "While We Are Waiting."

Sermon by the Rev. Elizabeth N.H. Link from Sunday, December 4, 2022.
"• A man who thought he’d never find joy after the death of a beloved spouse, opens himself to new people and relationships.
• A parent who’s experienced the excruciating loss of a child returns to worship and, despite grief and pain and doubt, finds new meaning in service.
• A woman who felt belittled and judged by her childhood church, somehow finds the strength to open herself to a new community to ask questions and explore God’s word in a whole new way.
• A son who is honest about who he is, and a family that grows to not only accept him but to advocate for him.

The list could go on.

From the outside, these signs of hope may not look like much—a shoot coming out of a stump, a branch springing forth from a root, a step forward, an opening, a light—but it’s enough, Isaiah says. Sometimes, that’s all it takes. But seeing such a sign of hope doesn’t always come naturally to us. So we have to watch, get ready for it, pay attention for when it comes."

Read the manuscript on our website: https://www.spres.org/while-we-are-waiting-prepare/