Advent Vision: Seeing The Word

Isaiah 2:1-5

. . . they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

Isaiah saw the word.

What an interesting way to begin this passage, this vision from so long ago. . . Isaiah saw the word. The scripture begins, “The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.” And then the prophet tells us what he saw. He translates his vision into words which we imagine, which we revision, which we picture anew. From sight to words to sight again.

Yes, we see the vision too: A mountain tall and established. Firm and sturdy. The highest of mountains, visible from distances far away in every direction. And though the mountain captures much of our vision, we look beyond it, above it. The mountain holds and supports the centerpiece of our vision. We see LORD’s house, the LORD’s dwelling place with us. It captures our eyes.

And like droves of others, our feet move in the direction of our vision with great excitement. Along with a company more diverse than we can comprehend - nations of people - we stream together like a river. Only this river moves upward. It flows up the mountain toward the house where we are placing our hopes.

And we are placing our hopes there. We long for teaching, instruction. We yearn to know where to place our steps - where and how to stream once we leave this place so that we may be people who walk in the LORD’s paths.

And what does that look like? What are we invited to see? Like Isaiah, we’re called to revision actions that are truly hopeful, so different from the world we often inhabit. Swords? No more! Take your swords, your symbols of violence, war, and power and beat them down. Allow them to be transformed, molded into plowshares for building, for growing! And spears? No more! Take your spears, your weapons, your tools of death and beat them down into pruning hooks for cultivation, for possibility!

This is a vision we long for. This is a vision we would love to see enacted right here in our present reality. What if the nations no longer practiced war? What if we - we who live in the nations of the world - were so distanced from war that we began to forget what it even was? Isaiah gives us such a vision.

But this vision seems foreign to us, doesn't it? It seems too distant from our present experience. Unlike many around the world, we don't live in a town, a state, or even a nation that would be considered a war zone. But the mad warring of our world affects us too. Even in this very moment as we consider Isaiah's vision, our nation is caught up in two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Along with other allies, our nation has soldiers there, some of whom are our sons and daughters, parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. And as we go to our nation's airports, we are thrust into a debate over the intrusiveness of new forms of security efforts, and no matter what side of the debate we find ourselves on, we are reminded that terrorist cells are planning attacks against American civilians.

And just this week, contentions arose and millions were on edge as North Korea and South Korea broke into armed conflict. It's frightening, and our congregation remains in prayer for many of us who have relatives on both sides of the Korean border. We're affected by all of these conflicts, directly or indirectly. All of these conflicts are quite the opposite of plowshares and pruning hooks, aren't they?

And yet this vision remains, coming out of the context of Isaiah's experience, a context thousands of years before our own, from a context across the globe, one that seems so different from our own. But is it? The nuanced answer, of course, is yes, but Isaiah also knew of war and conflicts. In fact, he knew them more intensely than most of us do. Isaiah's context was one that included regular fears that military upheaval could be right around the corner any day. Can you imagine living in that kind of fear and uncertainty? National powers were continually seeking empire status. It wouldn't be long before Assyria would rail against Northern Israel taking its people captive. And about 150 years later, Babylon would carry the people of Judah, southern Israel, away as captives - the very people Isaiah is addressing. So Isaiah of knew war and rumors of war in ways even more threatening than we have likely experienced.

And yet Isaiah is bold to proclaim this vision right in the midst of a warring context. It is bold isn't it? Perhaps upholding a vision such as this one seems foolish - at best, laughable. Much of the rest of the book of Isaiah goes onto be very frank and open about war and conflict. Perhaps we can learn something as this passage gives such a beautiful vision right at the beginning of this great work of prophesy.

Our visions matter, don't they? Our images, our visible hopes, they matter, don't they? They certainly affect how we live in our present - how we see the world, and how we're willing to shape the very world we live in. And this passage seems to uplift that truth, doesn't it? I love the last words of invitation in this passage. Isaiah doesn't give us a pie in the sky vision only to crush our hopes with reality. He invites us to live into the reality of the very vision we have experienced: O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

Come, let us walk in the light of the LORD! Come, let us put our feet - right now! - in the direction of the revealed visions of God! Come, let us make this vision a self-fulfilled prophesy! Take your swords, take your spears! Go ahead! Take your resentments, your stereotypes, your harsh words, your bitterness, your manipulation - all the weapons you can and do muster - and take the sacred risk of bringing them to the healing power of the Holy Spirit that they may be transformed into the very vehicles that build and heal this world. Come, let us - all of us, right now - walk in the light of the LORD!

Often the images and visions we carry become the lens through which we see the world around us - the lens through which we name what's beautiful and what's possible. I know of a man who works in a private school for gifted children in Dallas, Texas. Young students take tests to be admitted into the school, demonstrating their intelligence, creativity, and aptitude for learning. As a new school year was about to begin, a five year old came to take ones of these tests. The test has a particular exercise on it called the Incomplete Man.*

The Incomplete Man has a picture of a human body, and some of the parts are missing. The child is told to fill in the missing parts, and this exercise is meant to test fine motor skills used in drawing and basic understandings of symmetry. The five year old child who took this test was extremely bright and engaged the work with a lot of energy and creativity. He drew ears and filled in a hand here. Some toes there. He drew a face. And soon, he appeared to be finished.

Only there was one obvious error at least as the testing teacher could see it. The child had taken great care to fill all the missing parts in - to finish the Incomplete Man, but there was one obvious omission. The child didn't draw eyes. The teacher assumed that he had simply gotten ahead of himself because he had done the rest of the exercise so well. She said, "Are you sure that the man is complete?" The child nodded. "Is everything filled in? On the face?" Again, the child seemed confident. After prodding him a bit, the teacher decided to let the exercise go and move on to the next part of the test.

It wasn't until later that this teacher saw the five year old boy with his father, and that made it all make sense. The boy's father was blind. This son had drawn what he believed to be a complete man, and he was right, even if he didn't follow the exact expectations of test. The boy had an understanding - a vision, a way of viewing the world - that taught him to define completeness in ways that affected his own actions, his lens for living and loving.

And that raises some questions for us at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. How are we being invited to vision differently, to provide an alternative vision of what it means to live and work in this world? What do we need to do, as individuals and as a church community to become people of plowshares and pruning hooks?

Maybe it is about bringing those weapons, those harsh words, and those resentments to God so that they and that we may be transformed. Maybe it is about entering this season of Advent, looking to view the Kingdom of God breaking into this world, to let it capture our vision that we might live in the very direction of those visions. Maybe it is about viewing a person or a group of persons differently. As the world deems them incomplete and insufficient - too poor, too sick, too disabled, too sad; not beautiful enough, not smart enough, not brave enough, not "in" enough, not "us"-enough - we can be bold in the spirit of Advent to see them differently - and perhaps to see ourselves differently - as the children of God we all are.

And so what are we waiting for? God is breaking into this world as God did in the incarnation of a holy child in our midst so long ago - God is breaking in even now! Open your eyes. See the Word. See the vision of God's love around you. And turn and live in that direction.

O House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

-Renee Roederer

*I first heard this story from Ben Johnston-Krase, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Racine, WI. His friend runs the school from which this story comes.

Praying For Our Korean Community

Today we are in prayer for our Korean Community at Pasadena Presbyterian Church and for those living in South Korea and North Korea. After South Korea engaged in military exercises today, North Korea attacked the island of Yeonpyeong. South Korea then sent jets over the boarder to retaliate. The article that follows was posted this morning on National Public Radio's website and was reported by Scott Neuman. Please pray for all who are caught in this conflict.

2 Dead After North Korea Shells South Korean Island

by SCOTT NEUMAN

Ahn Young-joon/Yonhap/AP

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak (center) arrives at a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Tuesday. Lee raised the country's security alert to its highest peacetime level.

text size A A A

November 23, 2010

South Korea vowed "enormous retaliation" should North Korea launch another attack after Pyongyang's forces rained artillery shells on an island along a disputed sea border on Tuesday, killing two South Korean marines and wounding more than a dozen people.

The shelling began around 2:30 p.m. local time, according to South Korean military officials. The North fired about 200 rounds, and the South returned fire with about 80 rounds of artillery and scrambled fighter jets in an exchange that reportedly lasted an hour. It is considered one of the most serious exchanges in years between the two nations.

North Korea claimed that troops from the South, which was holding military drills at the time, were the first to fire. The communist country also threatened more attacks if provoked by South Korea.

At least 16 people, including civilians, were injured on Yeonpyeong island, about 75 miles west off the coast. Emergency officials said mountain fires were spreading and that most residents had fled to bomb shelters in nearby villages. It was not immediately clear whether there were casualties in the North.

A Center Of Tension

Click on the map for a closer look at tiny Yeonpyeong Island.

NPR

YTN TV said shells were still falling on Yeonpyeong. The station broadcast pictures of thick columns of black smoke rising from the island, which has a population of about 1,600. Screams and chaotic shouts could be heard on the video.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs said the "inhumane" attack on civilian areas on Yeonpyeong violates the 1953 armistice halting the Korean War. The two sides technically remain at war because a peace treaty was never negotiated.

Top South Korean officials gathered at an underground bunker at the presidential compound for an emergency security meeting. President Lee Myung-bak called the attack a clear military provocation and raised the country's security alert to its highest peacetime level.

"Enormous retaliation should be made to the extent that (North Korea) cannot make provocations again," Lee said. He added that an "indiscriminate attack on civilians can never be tolerated."

Heard On 'Morning Edition'

November 23, 2010

Doualy Xaykaothao reports from Seoul on the attack

[4 min 21 sec]

November 23, 2010

Brian Myers of Dongseo University in South Korea discusses the clash

[4 min 14 sec]

Tensions between the two nations have been high since North Korea's recent decision to reveal what it claims is a new uranium enrichment facility to a visiting American scientist, and after the sinking of a South Korean warship in March that killed 46 sailors. Seoul blamed a North Korean torpedo, while Pyongyang has denied any responsibility.

Tuesday's skirmish also comes just six weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il unveiled his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as his heir apparent.

The United States, which has tens of thousands of troops stationed in South Korea, condemned the attack and called on North Korea to "halt its belligerent action," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in Washington. He said the United States is "firmly committed" to South Korea's defense, and to the "maintenance of regional peace and stability."

A senior Obama administration official said the president was woken up shortly before 4 a.m. by National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, who updated him on the exchange of artillery fire between the two Koreas, according to The Associated Press.

North Korea's supreme military command threatened to continue military strikes against South Korea if it violated their disputed sea border "even 0.001 millimeter," according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

The shelling occurred as South Korea was holding military drills in the area. North Korea's military had sent a message to South Korea's armed forces early Tuesday to demand that the drills stop, but the South continued them, another military official said.

During the drills, South Korean marines on the island shot artillery toward southern waters, away from North Korea, the official said.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing military rules.

After the North's barrages, South Korea responded by firing K-9 155mm self-propelled howitzers, military officials said, but they declined to say whether North Korean territory was hit.

The small South Korean-held island of Yeonpyeong, which has been the focus of two previous deadly battles between the Koreas, houses military installations and a small civilian population. Yeonpyeong is known for its crab fishing and is surrounded by about 30 small islands.

Ha Sa-hun/Yonhap/AP

People from Yeonpyeong island arrived at Incheon port west of Seoul, South Korea, after escaping Tuesday's bombardment.

Lee Chun-ok, a 54-year-old island resident, said she was watching TV when she heard sounds of artillery and a wall and door in her home suddenly collapsed.

"I thought I would die," Lee said from the port city of Incheon, west of Seoul, where she took refuge. "I was really, really terrified, and I'm still terrified."

China, which is the North's economic and political benefactor while maintaining robust commercial ties with the South, called for calm.

"We express our concern over the situation. The situation is to be verified," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regularly scheduled media briefing in Beijing. He called on both Koreas without naming them "to do more to contribute to peace and stability on the peninsula."

North and South Korea have fought three bloody skirmishes near the maritime border in recent years, most recently in November 2009. That battle left one North Korean officer dead and three others wounded, according to South Korean officials.

Two deadly clashes have previously erupted around Yeonpyeong. In a gunbattle in June 2002, one South Korean warship sank, killing six sailors. The North said it also suffered casualties, but didn't confirm how many. In a 1999 clash, South Korea said several sailors were wounded and up to 30 North Koreans died.

Brian Myers, an international studies professor at South Korea's Dongseo University told NPR that the conflict is somewhat perplexing because ties between the two nations had been improving in recent weeks.

But Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy, believes that the attack on Yeonpyeong is "a classic ploy" by North Korea's military to undermine the thawing relations.

Harrison, author of the book Korean Endgame: A Strategy For Reunification and U.S. Disengagement told NPR that he believes there's a clash between a faction led by Kim Jong Il and another, harder-line one led by the military.

"The armed forces hawks don't like what they are seeing, and what they have done is a classic ploy in situations like this to stir things up and undermine the doves," he said.

Harrison, who has traveled to North Korea nearly a dozen times, said he believes it's a myth that Kim is in total control.

"His father, Kim Il Sung, was the head of a Stalinist regime, but when he died in 1994, there was essentially a coup by the Korean military," Harrison said. "Kim Jong Il is not the absolute ruler that he's popularly believed to be in the West."

With reporting from Michael Rhee and Doualy Xaykaothao in Seoul and NPR's Louisa Lim in Beijing. This story contains material from The Associated Press.

Multi-Cultural Thanksgiving Celebration!

Join us for a very meaningful worship experience this weekend!

Pasadena Presbyterian Church is a congregation which strives to be purposefully multi-cultural. Our church is tri-lingual with English, Korean, and Spanish speaking members, and we have three different language services on Sunday mornings.

But twice a year, we feel it is important to worship together, to experience the gifts that each of our language communities brings - to learn from one another and to share faith in common. This Sunday will be one of those opportunities. Please join us at 10am in the sanctuary, and afterward, we're going to have a delicious Thanksgiving meal together!

Come meet new people! Come enjoy fellowship!

This is Too Cute!

This just too cute! In our next Spiritually Hungry, Institutionally Suspicious Class we'll be talking about a wonderful spiritual gift that young adults bring to the church. . . play! How are you playful, and have you ever thought of this as a spiritual gift or an integral part of your faith life?

Please join us on November 28th in the library from 11:20-12:20. It will be fun!

Young Adults Struggle With Health Care

This is a re-post of NPR's story "Some Recent Grads Face Health Care Coverage Gap," reported by Julie Rovner. The story first aired on May 27, 2010.

Some Recent Grads Face Health Care Coverage Gap

by JULIE ROVNER

May 27, 2010

When it comes to health care, even the simplest things can get very confusing.

So it is with the new health law's requirement that young adults be able to remain on their parents' health plans until they turn 26. But when exactly the new benefit begins, who exactly is eligible and who decides all have the same answer: It depends.

It depends who your insurer is, who your employer is and who makes the decision about what kind of benefits you get on the job.

The Lucky Ones

Robin Byrne is one of the lucky ones. She's getting to stay on her mother's plan with no break.

The 22-year-old just graduated from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, with a degree in economics and international affairs. She's off to do a Fulbright fellowship this fall, studying in Muscat, Oman. But between now and then, she'll need health insurance.

How The New Young Adult Benefit Works

• The benefit goes into effect during the first policy renewal period beginning on or after Sept. 23, 2010. Plans must offer an open enrollment period of at least 30 days.
• Many plans are offering coverage earlier than Sept. 23. Contact your human resources office for more information. The Department of Health and Human Services, which published regulations to specify the rules governing how the benefit will work, also published a list of insurance plans offering coverage early. It is available here.
• All plans that offer coverage for dependents must provide coverage to any young adult who has not yet reached the age of 26. That includes young adults who are married, who live in other states, or who have jobs. It does not include grandchildren. The young adults do not have to be able to be claimed as dependents for tax purposes.
• The only exception to the requirement: young adults who are eligible for health insurance at their own job. That exception ends, however, in 2014.
• Young adults cannot be charged more than any other dependent for their health insurance.

— Julie Rovner

"I have asthma," she says. "It's very mild, but it does mean I have to buy inhalers. And they're not terribly expensive. But out of pocket they would certainly be more expensive than with our prescription coverage."

The good news for Byrne is that her mother's health plan — which comes from a local government job in New Jersey — is going to continue to cover her both before and after her fellowship. Byrne says the security of knowing she'd be able to stay on her mom's plan gave her more freedom to pursue her career goals.

"Knowing I would be covered, I felt a little bit more comfortable applying to not necessarily riskier programs, but programs that may or may not have extended health insurance, rather than just looking for traditional employment," she says.

That was true for some of her friends as well, she added.

Running Into Problems

But things haven't gone quite so smoothly for everyone finishing college this spring. Jackson Cahn graduated last weekend from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. The biochemistry and biophysics major is taking a year off to teach before pursuing graduate studies.

Jackson's mom, June Blender, says she was delighted when the provision letting young adults stay on their parents' health plans remained in the bill that was signed into law. But then she found out that her employer, Microsoft, wasn't going to enroll newly eligible young adults like Jackson until the next open season for benefits this fall.

While her benefits are great, says Blender, that gap left the family in a bit of a bind.

"The open season begins in November. But he graduates on the 23rd of May, so there's a significant gap in his insurance," she says.

And because Jackson, like Robin Byrne, has asthma, buying even temporary insurance on the open market probably isn't an option.

But this story has a happy ending, too. It turns out that Jackson can qualify for his stepfather's insurance starting in June, until he can get back on his mom's plan next January.

Who Makes The Call

Still, what looks like a fairly simple element of the new health law — letting young adults stay on their parents' health plans — turns out to be anything but.

Young Adults Among The Most Likely To Need Insurance

Young adults between ages 19 and 29 have the highest rate of uninsurance among any age group, according to census figures. In 2008, they accounted for 30 percent of the 46 million Americans under age 65 without health insurance, even though they make up less than 20 percent of that population.

And despite their relative good health, the consequences of going without insurance can be serious, according to a new reportby The Commonwealth Fund.

The report, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of 19- to 29-year-olds in 2009, found that more than three-fourths of those without insurance reported not getting needed medical care because of the cost.

Of those who did seek care, about 60 percent of those without insurance reported problems paying medical bills, and an estimated 11.3 million young adults — both insured and uninsured — said they were paying off medical debt. Of those, half had turned to parents or other family members for help, nearly a third were forced to put off education or career plans, and 39 percent were unable to meet other debt obligations, such as paying off school loans.

— Julie Rovner

One reason the whole thing has gotten so confusing is that the decision about when to start the new benefit is being made by lots of different players in the health system.

For example, many health insurance companies have decided to begin offering the coverage to graduating college students in June. That's earlier than the law requires. But for most people with insurance at work, it's not the insurance company that decides what their benefits are. It's the employer.

"For all of the Americans that have coverage through an employer — and that's about 160 million Americans — roughly two-thirds of that number are with a self-insured employer," says Paul Dennett, senior vice president for health care reform at the American Benefits Council, a trade group for large employers.

For those people, the employer — not the insurance company — sets the benefits package. Except most people in "self-insured" plans don't know it because the employer usually hires a health insurance company to process the claims and handle the paperwork.

As a result, "the card that's in their wallet may be indistinguishable from a card that looks like a card from an insured plan," Dennett says.

Most of the time, he says, "it's a distinction without a difference" in terms of how benefits are delivered.

Except in cases like this one.

Falling Into The Gap

According to the new law, health plans are required to start offering coverage to young adults who are no longer students starting on the first policy renewal date after Sept. 23. For many plans, that will mean Jan. 1 of next year.

That will leave a multimonth gap for a lot of graduating college seniors. But Dennett says employers that decide to wait may be concerned about the requirement that they offer coverage to every young adult up to age 26, not just this year's graduating class.

Related Blog Post

Big Health Insurers Have A Gift For College GradsApril 19, 2010

"The law will also apply to individuals who aren't on the plan right now because they graduated a year or two ago, and lost coverage under their family's plan — or maybe never elected it at all — who will have that new opportunity to do so," he says.

He adds, "So as a matter of simplicity and fairness to everyone who'd be eligible for coverage up to age 26, many employers are figuring the best way to do that will simply be this fall, when open enrollment is available to all of those individuals and they can do it all at once."

Of course that means that, at least in the short run, it will create exactly what the new law is suppose to get rid of: health care haves and have-nots.

Call For Prayer: Sudan

Yesterday was an important day in Sudan, triggering both hope and great fear for many of its people. Registration opened yesterday for an important vote that will take place in January. The election will allow for the possibility of voters in Southern Sudan to vote for independence, splitting the region's alliance away from the central Khartoum government. While many people in the South hope for independence, all are aware that such a move could reignite violence and Africa's longest-fought civil war.

Please pray for the safety of all people in the Sudan, both in the South and the North - that people may be free to express thoughts, convictions, and actions without the consequence of violence. And let's pray this prayer as well:

Loving God, help us to be a part of the very prayers we make.

Here are some ministries and partners who are working hard in Sudan. Please learn about their efforts and pray for them:

PC(USA) Sudan Mission Network

Sudan Advocacy Action Forum

Build Classrooms for 2000 Children in South Sudan

Heads Up About Advent Groups!

Guess what? It's almost time for Advent Groups at Pasadena Presbyterian Church! For the weeks of Advent, PPC is offering meaningful ministries of study. Small groups will be gathering together during this season to share meaningful insights, challenging questions, and inviting fellowship.

And. . . we plan on having an Advent Group for Young Adults! Dates and times are yet to be solidified, but please look forward to joining us. We look forward to meeting with you!

Scripture For Sunday

Isaiah 65:17-25

For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice for ever
in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
or the cry of distress.
No more shall there be in it
an infant that lives but a few days,
or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall not labour in vain,
or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—
and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer,
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain,

says the Lord.

Nuevos cielos y nueva tierra

¹⁷ »Presten atención, que estoy por crear
un cielo nuevo y una tierra nueva.
No volverán a mencionarse las cosas pasadas,
ni se traerán a la memoria.
¹⁸ Alégrense más bien, y regocíjense por siempre,
por lo que estoy a punto de crear:
Estoy por crear una Jerusalén feliz,
un pueblo lleno de alegría.
¹⁹ Me regocijaré por Jerusalén
y me alegraré en mi pueblo;
no volverán a oírse en ella
voces de llanto ni gritos de clamor.

²⁰ »Nunca más habrá en ella
niños que vivan pocos días,
ni ancianos que no completen sus años.
El que muera a los cien años
será considerado joven;
pero el que no llegue a esa edad
será considerado maldito.
²¹ Construirán casas y las habitarán;
plantarán viñas y comerán de su fruto.
²² Ya no construirán casas para que otros las habiten,
ni plantarán viñas para que otros coman.
Porque los días de mi pueblo
serán como los de un árbol;
mis escogidos disfrutarán
de las obras de sus manos.
²³ No trabajarán en vano,
ni tendrán hijos para la desgracia;
tanto ellos como su descendencia
serán simiente bendecida del Señor.
²⁴ Antes que me llamen,
yo les responderé;
todavía estarán hablando
cuando ya los habré escuchado.
²⁵ El lobo y el cordero pacerán juntos;
el león comerá paja como el buey,
y la serpiente se alimentará de polvo.
En todo mi monte santo
no habrá quien haga daño ni destruya», dice el Señor.

65:17 보 라 내 가 새 하 늘 과 새 땅 을 창 조 하 나 니 이 전 것 은 기 억 되 거 나 마 음 에 생 각 나 지 아 니 할 것 이 라

65:18 너 희 는 나 의 창 조 하 는 것 을 인 하 여 영 원 히 기 뻐 하 며 즐 거 워 할 지 니 라 보 라 내 가 예 루 살 렘 으 로 즐 거 움 을 창 조 하 며 그 백 성 으 로 기 쁨 을 삼 고

65:19 내 가 예 루 살 렘 을 즐 거 워 하 며 나 의 백 성 을 기 뻐 하 리 니 우 는 소 리 와 부 르 짖 는 소 리 가 그 가 운 데 서 다 시 는 들 리 지 아 니 할 것 이 며

65:20 거 기 는 날 수 가 많 지 못 하 여 죽 는 유 아 와 수 한 이 차 지 못 한 노 인 이 다 시 는 없 을 것 이 라 곧 백 세 에 죽 는 자 가 아 이 겠 고 백 세 못 되 어 죽 는 자 는 저 주 받 은 것 이 리 라

65:21 그 들 이 가 옥 을 건 축 하 고 그 것 에 거 하 겠 고 포 도 원 을 재 배 하 고 열 매 를 먹 을 것 이 며

65:22 그 들 의 건 축 한 데 타 인 이 거 하 지 아 니 할 것 이 며 그 들 의 재 배 한 것 을 타 인 이 먹 지 아 니 하 리 니 이 는 내 백 성 의 수 한 이 나 무 의 수 한 과 같 겠 고 나 의 택 한 자 가 그 손 으 로 일 한 것 을 길 이 누 릴 것 임 이 며

65:23 그 들 의 수 고 가 헛 되 지 않 겠 고 그 들 의 생 산 한 것 이 재 난 에 걸 리 지 아 니 하 리 니 그 들 은 여 호 와 의 복 된 자 의 자 손 이 요 그 소 생 도 그 들 과 함 께 될 것 임 이 라

65:24 그 들 이 부 르 기 전 에 내 가 응 답 하 겠 고 그 들 이 말 을 마 치 기 전 에 내 가 들 을 것 이 며

65:25 이 리 와 어 린 양 이 함 께 먹 을 것 이 며 사 자 가 소 처 럼 짚 을 먹 을 것 이 며 뱀 은 흙 으 로 식 물 을 삼 을 것 이 니 나 의 성 산 에 서 는 해 함 도 없 겠 고 상 함 도 없 으 리 라 여 호 와 의 말 이 니 라

Reminder: Let's Discuss Barbara's Sermon!!!

Just a reminder that we're having a wonderful gathering THIS SUNDAY after worship. We are creating a wonderful young adult discussion group with a fun name: The Second Sunday Sermon Sandwich Group!

Right after worship, we'll head over to the Corner Bakery Cafe for sandwiches, and we'll discuss the sermon we've just heard. It will only cost you $5 too! Everyone can chip in a $5 bill, and the Young Adult budget will pick up the rest.

And here's a wonderful tidbit. Guess who's preaching on Sunday? BARBARA ANDERSON! Barbara is the very beloved former co-pastor of Pasadena Presbyterian Church. This is the first time she'll be back in the pulpit in our congregation, and she's a tremendous preacher. So please join us for a meaningful discussion on Sunday!

By the way, did you know that Barbara has a blog of her own? Check it out at www.newwayopening.com!

Remembering Soldiers Everywhere

As you know, today is Veterans Day in our country. On this day in particular, we remember the sacrifices that soldiers make. Their schedules are shifted, they are often uprooted from their families, and they can witness the horror of war in addition to experiencing the strong ties of kinship with their fellow soldiers.

Many Veterans in our country also serve once they return home from active duty. We are grateful for all the veterans in Pasadena who continue to serve our community with a strong commitment to volunteerism. Thank you so much.

As young adults at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, we recognize that many of our soldiers around the world are young adults themselves. We pray for their health and well-being.

And on this day, we offer prayers for those who struggle mentally and socially with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder once they return from combat. This common condition can be debilitating. According to a news story from National Public Radio, the number of suicides among American troops at home and abroad is nearly equal with the number of combat deaths this year. Let's continue to pray for those who struggle after combat.

Loving God, in your compassion, we pray for peace in this world and for inner peace toward those who have witnessed great horrors. In your mercy, please grant your healing along with support from communities who love these children of yours. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.