Josiah’s Advent message reframed joy not as a fleeting feeling but as a faithful practice rooted in the gospel itself. Wrestling honestly with Martin Luther’s challenging claim that Christians are called to be joyful, Josiah explored Luke 2 to show that the good news of Jesus’ birth is *great joy for all people*—not an escape from the world, but God dwelling within it. He argued that joy is cultivated through abiding in Jesus, much like fruit naturally grows from a healthy vine, and that it develops over time through prayer, gratitude, and re-centering our minds on what is good. In a world marked by fear, cynicism, and darkness, Josiah named joy as an intentional act of resistance—against despair, against injustice, and against the lie that there is no good news—inviting the community to practice joy as a lived expression of hope during Advent.

Ryan’s Advent Peace message challenged the idea of peace as sentimental calm or personal comfort and reframed it as a disruptive, justice-oriented calling rooted in the life and work of Jesus. Drawing from memories of Christian “slogan theology,” he contrasted cheap peace with biblical *shalom*—wholeness, restoration, and flourishing—and argued that “comfortable peace is counterfeit peace.” Jesus came not to maintain equilibrium but to disrupt systems of oppression, calling his followers to be *peacemakers*, not peacekeepers. Ryan connected this to real-world examples—immigration injustice, LGBTQ+ rights, food insecurity, BIPOC communities facing harm—and reminded the church that Advent Peace is a protest against domination, scarcity, and injustice. True peace, he said, prioritizes the flourishing of our neighbors over personal ease, asking us to join Christ in rebuilding the world with justice and compassion.

Keisha opened the first Sunday of Advent by sharing honestly from a place of sadness, grounding her message in the deep, enduring Hebrew concept of yachal—a hope that waits, endures, and trusts God even without clarity or guaranteed outcomes. Drawing on her own family’s painful journey with her mother’s terminal diagnosis, she contrasted shallow, wishful ideas of hope with the ancient, tension-filled, faithful waiting reflected in Psalm 130. She reminded the community that Advent is for the weary, the waiting, and the ones still holding onto God in the dark, just as generations before waited for the Messiah they would never see. Advent, she said, teaches us to trust the God who comes close, who chooses to be present in suffering, and invites us to consider what we’re carrying, how hope lands for us, and who can sit with us as we wait.