Called to Peace and Community | Advent Devotional Day 4

December 3rd, 2025
by Sarah Hines

Advent 2025 DevotionalCore | Peace
December 3, 2025
Dave Wenzel

Title: Called to Peace and Community

Scripture:

Psalm 122:1 I rejoiced with those who said to me,
“Let’s go to the Lord’s house!”
2 Now our feet are standing
in your gates, Jerusalem!
3 Jerusalem is built like a city
joined together in unity.
4 That is where the tribes go up—
the Lord’s tribes!
It is the law for Israel
to give thanks there to the Lord’s name,
5 because the thrones of justice are there—
the thrones of the house of David!
6 Pray that Jerusalem has peace:
“Let those who love you have rest.
7 Let there be peace on your walls;
let there be rest on your fortifications.”
8 For the sake of my family and friends,
I say, “Peace be with you, Jerusalem.”
9 For the sake of the Lord our God’s house
I will pray for your good.

My Reflection

Sit with today’s psalm and let it wash over you – a simple message of being called into a community of peace.

As a relative newcomer to the Gathering (two years), a few phrases struck deeply. Like the psalmist, I remember our “joy” at the invitation and welcome we received in our first, hesitant visits. Paradoxically (at least to many of the loudest voices in our culture), inclusivity – and the resultant diversity – produced a soul-feeding sense of connection and belonging.
For us, this Church is like “a city joined together in unity.” Not the false unity of “us” defined in opposition to a “them,” but the unity of all who love. That unity includes everyone. Love calls us all, even if our brokenness for now conceals our fundamental oneness.

The psalmist notes “it is the law” for the people to give thanks together. This is not a law of imposition, but of mercy. Israel is commanded to unite in praise exactly because the act of doing so is the thing which brings peace to the nation and each member. It echoes Pastor Matt’s encouragement to us that we make a habit of gathering for Sunday services, both when we feel the need for spiritual food acutely and when we feel spiritually full.

Peace exists only if it exists across us collectively. The presence and welcoming of those in a state of spiritual abundance is a blessing to those who arrive that week in a state of hurt or need. Over time, we all occupy both those places. A peaceful garden in a crowded city is a gift from all those who tend it and honor its quietude. No one person creates and sustains it.
Finally, the psalmist prays, “let there be peace…” and “…rest on your fortifications.” In a phrase, the structures built for defense against violence are converted to places of peaceful respite. United in praise, all find belonging and respite.

My Prayer:

Dear Creator,
You are Love. Love is expansive, overflowing, pouring out. The same You that lives within me inhabits the souls of those I love, those I do not know, and those I have difficulty loving. Jesus prayed that we might be one as You are one – a unity we can hardly imagine.
Help me to be still and make room for Your peace. Let me bring that peace into my home and to our Church. Make them places of peace, where all are welcome. And let the peace that we share flow to the whole community and beyond. Peace and unity, not despite our diversity, but through it. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Reflection Question:

What aspects of church ground me in peace? In your moments of peaceful abundance, how might you share that wholeness with others?

Posted in Advent Devotional

3 Comments

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Sandy Becker - December 3rd, 2025 at 6:43am

Touched by this devotion in so many ways. Especially appreciate the command to worship as “not a law of imposition, but of mercy”

Cathy Westbury - December 3rd, 2025 at 7:25am

I love leaning into “peaceful abundance” & the challenge to not let it pool up in me but to overflow. Thank you!

Peter Wehrly - December 3rd, 2025 at 8:14am

Thanks, Dave. Words of comfort and reflection this morning. I’m struck by verses 6 & 7, to the “rest” to which the Psalmist refers. I love being in worship at The Gathering. The music, the message and the community encourage me each week. But it’s rest I find mostly. A rest that gives room for love to fill me.