Second Sunday of Advent

The Rev. Phil Brochard The sermon uses Nomadland to illustrate how many people in America survive on society’s edge, making visible the injustice that keeps some secure while others live in precarity. This image leads to John the Baptist, a prophet living on the margins, whose harsh words to religious leaders expose both their complicity and their awareness that something is wrong. John calls them—and us—not to rely on privilege but to bear good fruit by confronting what is broken. Isaiah’s poetic vision of predators and prey living peacefully is presented as “impossible” imagery meant to expand our imaginations so we can see God’s realm breaking into the world. The preacher offers Elizabeth House as a real-world example where hope, community, and transformation reveal that such impossible peace is already emerging. We are called to see these signs, imagine the world God desires, repent, and live into it.