St.  Paul's annual Service of Lessons and Carols for Advent Sunday, sung on November 30, 2025.  George Cunningham, Presider; John Abdenour, organist and Director of Music, with assistance from Martin Shedd, Simon Lee, and Benjamin McCormack.

"The world climbs upward; Christ descends downward.

The world secures itself; Christ gives himself away.

The world rules by fear; Christ rules by mercy."

"Jesus says that 'God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.' Ours is a living God, which means our faith is not an heirloom to be preserved but a living, embodied practice."

"Saints are strange because they live by love in a world that worships fear (and people take notice). They give when everyone else is hoarding. They forgive when everyone else is keeping score. They tell the truth when bending it would be a whole lot easier. They stay gentle in a culture that confuses cruelty with strength."

"Jesus did not come to reform the reformable. Jesus did not come to improve the improvable. Jesus came to raise the dead."

Robert Farrar Capon

"That’s the God we want: the one who moves fast, who strikes down the oppressor and lifts up the victim without hesitation, the God who brings justice now, but Jesus tells a story that seems to mock that expectation. His judge is unjust. His widow may not be innocent. And instead of speed, we get delay. Instead of clarity, we get ambiguity. Sirach’s world is clean—good people cry out, bad people get punished. Jesus’ world looks more like ours—messy, slow, morally tangled. The parable isn’t about how quickly God acts, but about how faithfully we wait."

"The surprising grace of Jesus seems to work by asking us to live as though the promise were already fulfilled, to step into a freedom we can’t yet see."

"If we reduce his words to “Be good so you’ll go to heaven,” we’ve missed it. Following Jesus is clearly not about becoming rich and powerful, nor is following Jesus about performing well enough to get into heaven. Both notions reduce the gospel to a transaction and our living God to a service provider."

"Yes, let us pray for those in positions of power—pray that God may turn their hardened hearts to love justice and mercy, so that all may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. And let us act—even in the unjust systems of this earthly life—act shrewdly even now, for whatever good we can do in our little corners of this broken world, holding fast to our faith in the goodness and love of our God who endures."