From the Pastor

Thursday, December 4, 2025

NEWS FOR THE PEWS

FROM THE PASTOR

Dear Friends,

What are you doing to prepare for Christ this Advent season? As the season gears up with extra shopping, decorating, crafting, baking, cleaning, as well as the special parties and concerts, what do you do to remind yourself of the reason for the season?

Bonnie Zimmer offers her creche collection in the display cabinet this season. Ask her to tell stories of where she found these unique decorations.

Come out on Friday to celebrate the season with our City of Tonawanda neighborhood at the annual tree lighting in Clinton Park. We’ll set up a table outside and offer free cocoa, cookies, and ornament to passersby, as well as opening our building for anyone who needs the restroom or a place to sit and warm up. The craft room will be ready for anyone interested in creating a holiday craft. We’ll set up around 5, expecting the largest crowds closer to the 7:00 pm official lighting ceremony.

Join FPCT for worship this Sunday, December 7, 2025, at 10:30am in person and livestreamed on Facebook. With “Pruning Deadwood” we continue our Grounded & Growing Advent season. Scriptures this week include Isaiah 27:1–6; Psalm 85; and Matthew 3:1–12. Are there traditions or obligations you can cut from your schedule? Where do you find peace in the busy-ness of this season? Where do you see Christ in the world around you? Join us to pray together, hear stories from scripture, and find your home, here at First Presbyterian Church of Tonawanda.

See you soon,

Pastor Rebecca

Grounded and Growing: Advent 2

“On that day” according to Isaiah 27, one of two things will happen. On the day of Christ’s second coming, when the dragon that represents chaos and death is destroyed, we will either be found to be a fruitful stalk of grain ready for harvesting or a useless prickly weed ready for burning.

Our world is full of prickly weeds—full of sin. We are full of sin. While this is an uncomfortable truth, we need to sit in that reality and allow our worshiping communities to dwell there also. We need to take off our rose colored glasses and truly look at the world and look at ourselves. This is where the Advent journey takes us. It is a journey among dangerous dragons, prickly weeds, and a warning from John the Baptist that judgement is coming. We need to understand our need for a Savior before we celebrate Christ’s first coming and eagerly anticipate Christ’s second.

Last week we found hope rooted and growing even in the darkness, and this week we find the promise of a time of flourishing, a time of peace. Unlike last week’s passage which described Jesus as the shoot coming out from the stump, this week’s passage shows God’s beloved people rooted and growing. Isaiah 27:6 speaks of being grounded, blossoming, growing, and developing fruit; it is a passage that moves from seed to harvest.

Not only will God’s people be fruitful, they will be tended to and protected by the Lord their keeper. It is an image of benevolent and vigilant care.

As a result God’s people cling to God for protection and find shalom, perfect peace, in God’s arms. God’s desire for peace is so great that the phrase, “let it [the vineyard i.e. God’s people] make peace with me,” is spoken twice.

This image is further developed in Psalm 85:10–13, NIV:

Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The LORD will indeed give what is good,
and our land will yield its harvest.
Righteousness goes before him
and prepares the way for his steps.

Which brings us back to the juxtaposition found in Isaiah 27. Are we the weeds or the flourishing vineyard? Are we rooted in the promises of God, and resting in the comfort of God’s protection? Are we clinging to God like a vine clings to its support in order to grow and bear fruit? As John the Baptist warns, “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10, NRSVUE). There is no flourishing—there is no peace—without repentance.[1]

From The Pastor

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