Goshen College Goshen College Logo

About
About
About GC
  • About GC
  • Quick Facts
  • Offices
  • Outcomes
  • Employment
  • Mission, Vision & Values
  • Our Faith Identity
  • Leadership & Governance
  • Intercultural & International Education
  • Sustainability @ GC
  • Institutes
  • Map & Directions
  • City of Goshen
Academics
Academics
Undergraduate Programs
  • Undergraduate Programs
  • Majors & Minors
  • Academic Catalog & Courses
  • Study Abroad
  • Goshen Core
  • Environmental Programs
Adult & Continuing Studies
  • Adult & Continuing Studies
  • Nursing (RN to BSN)
  • Social Work
  • Transition to Teaching
  • English Learners License
  • Academic Catalog & Courses
Graduate Programs
  • Graduate Programs
  • Business Administration (MBA)
  • Environmental Education (MA)
  • Nursing (MS, FNP track)
  • Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
  • Post-MSN FNP Certificate
  • Academic Catalog & Courses
Online Programs
  • Online Programs
  • Business Administration (MBA)
  • Nursing (RN to BSN)
  • Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
  • STEM Teach Indiana course
Admissions & Aid
Admissions & Aid
Undergraduate Programs
  • Undergraduate Programs
  • Request Info
  • Apply Now
  • Visit Campus
  • Costs & Financial Aid
  • Scholarships
  • Net Price Calculator
  • Admitted Students
  • International Students
  • Transfer Students
Adult & Continuing Studies
  • Adult & Continuing Studies
  • Request Info
  • Apply Now
  • Visit Campus
  • Financial Aid
Graduate Programs
  • Graduate Programs
  • Request Info
  • Apply Now
  • Visit Campus
  • Financial Aid
Student Life
Student Life
Student Life
  • Student Life
  • Housing
  • Clubs & Activities
  • Spiritual Life
  • Dining Services
  • Diversity on Campus
  • Health & Safety
Resources for:
Alumni
Alumni
Alumni
  • Alumni
  • Alumni Directory
  • Transcripts
  • The Bulletin
  • Homecoming Weekend
  • Contact Us
Read The Bulletin
Latest issue: Fall/Winter 2017
Visitors
Visitors
  • Bookstore
  • City of Goshen
  • Offices
  • Rec-Fitness Center
  • Music Center
  • Buy Tickets
  • Map/Directions
  • Events Calendar
On Campus
On Campus
  • Moodle
  • Mahara
  • Registrar's Office
  • Library
  • Job Bank
  • Offices
  • Human Resources
  • Department Forms
  • MyGC
  • GC Online
  • Events Calendar
Quick Links:
The Arts
The Arts
  • Study Art
  • Art Galleries
  • Study Music
  • Music Center
  • Live Stream
  • Performing Arts Series
  • Study Theater
  • Theater Productions
  • Events Calendar
  • Buy Tickets
Athletics
Athletics
  • Baseball
  • Basketball
  • Cross Country
  • Soccer
  • Tennis
  • Track and Field
  • Basketball
  • Cross Country
  • Soccer
  • Softball
  • Tennis
  • Track and Field
  • Volleyball
  • GoLeafs.net
  • Live Stream
  • Rec-Fitness Center
  • Intramurals
News & Events
News & Events
News & Events
  • News & Events
  • Events Calendar
  • Latest News
  • GC in the News
  • Social Media Directory
  • Alumni Magazine: The Bulletin
  • Photo Albums
  • Ticket Office
  • E-Subscribe
  • Live Stream
The Record wins 2018 ‘Newspaper of the Year’ award
Posted 2 weeks ago
Key Actions: Give

Request Information

Get essential information about our academic programs, admissions & financial aid. Your admissions counselor will also follow up with specific questions.

Undergraduate Adult & Continuing Studies Graduate

If you're not a prospective student or parent, feel free to email general questions to info@goshen.edu.

Visit Campus

Visiting our campus is one of the best ways to get a feel for Goshen — from classes and dorms to the dining hall menu — and decide if it’s a good fit for you. We are a friendly community where people are happy to answer your questions and show you around.

Undergraduate Adult & Continuing Studies Graduate

Apply Now

Take the next step!

Undergraduate Adult & Continuing Studies Graduate

GC › Recent Devotions
  • Subscribe
Advent & Lenten Devotions  —  2010 Advent  —  Nov. 23: An unexpected peace

Nov. 23: An unexpected peace

November 23, 2010 Leave a Comment

Share Tweet Email

By Jim Brenneman, president

Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5 (NRSV)


DEVOTIONAL:
Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher, declared, “All things come to pass and perish through strife.” Much later, Thomas Jefferson seemed to agree. “The tree of liberty,” he proclaimed, “must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Are we destined to such self-fulfilling prophecies of warfare and violence? Is humanity simply bound by fate to be what Oliver Stone’s movie title suggests, Natural Born Killers?

Against the tide of such political and cultural philosophies, along comes Advent each year to remind us that time and space bend to God’s imaginative alternatives. Isaiah prophesies of an “unexpected hour,” a day when the nations of the world will voluntarily “flow up” the mountain of the Lord, and there under the tutelage of Rabbi God, will submit their differences for mediation. In the end, they will agree to melt down their weapons of war into implements of agriculture and board up their various war colleges forever.

Elsewhere, Isaiah foresees the first Advent as a foretaste of the final Advent, “For unto us a child is born . . .He shall be called the Prince of Peace . . . His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace” (Isa. 9:6-7a). At the birth of Jesus, the multitude of angels concurred, “glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace!” (Luke 2:14). Is it too much, then, to imagine that the prophetic vision of Isaiah in today’s Advent lesson is more than a distant possibility? Let us devote our hopes, our dreams, our wills and our lives to making this prophecy come true to the blessing of the whole world.

Prayer

Lord, may the Advent vision of Isaiah come to pass today in our lives, in our homes, in our world. May we find ways to come to God, to learn to mediate our differences, to transform our violent instincts into peaceful practices. In the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, Amen.

Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5 (NRSV)

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 3Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; 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 any more. 5O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!


Filed Under: 2010 Advent, Advent Devotions

Share Tweet Email
« Nov. 22: An unexpected hour
Nov. 24: Becoming the peace we seek »
  • Recent Devotions
  • Subscribe

Devotion Archives

  • 2018 Lent
  • 2017 Advent
  • 2017 Lent
  • 2016 Advent
  • 2016 Lent
  • 2015 Advent
  • 2015 Lent
  • 2014 Advent
  • 2014 Lent
  • 2013 Advent
  • 2013 Lent
  • 2012 Advent
  • 2012 Lent
  • 2011 Advent
  • 2011 Lent
  • 2010 Advent
  • 2010 Lent
  • 2009 Advent
  • 2009 Lent

Recent Comments

  • Devotions editors on God Sees the Secret Servant
  • Adela Hufford on A Treasure in the Midst of Sorrow
  • Wayne on God Sees the Secret Servant
  • Angela Maggard on God Sees the Secret Servant
  • H. Horton on God Sees the Secret Servant
Goshen College

Address

1700 South Main Street
Goshen, Indiana 46526

Map / Directions

Phone

(574) 535-7000 | 1 (800) 348-7422

Email

info@goshen.edu

Social Media

Social Media Directory

Web Privacy Policy |  Web Accessibility Policy |  Leave Website Feedback |  Login

Squirrels like Jimmy B., shown here on a bike, can be seen around the Goshen College campus.

Rankings

Affiliations