 Greetings, friends. Welcome to the United Church Center in Hartford, Connecticut, the headquarters of the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ. And we're welcoming you here today for the first of what we hope will be regular video features with our conference minister, the Reverend Kent J. Solani. Welcome, Kent. Thank you, Eric. Good to be here. So, Kent, tell me, what advent passage has really captured your imagination this year? I have always appreciated the prophecy surrounding advent, and in particular Isaiah's prophecy that is read at this time of year. The reading that's spoken to me the greatest this year has been from Isaiah chapter 2 verses 4 through 5. He 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 will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come let us walk in the light of the Lord. That passage provides a compelling vision for this season of advent. It provides the imagery that I love about light, about those of us who are people of faith attempting to shed light, to be light bearers, to walk in the light of God in this season. And it also reminds me of the expectations that are somewhat unrealistic in this Christmas season of Jesus coming, the little babe in the manger who's crying, no crying he makes. I'm not sure that's the Jesus that I'm preparing for. Do you think Jesus may have alerted his parents that he was hungry with a cry? I also think that Jesus grows up and becomes someone who doesn't fulfill the expectations of Messiah the way that the culture did. He wasn't a military leader. He didn't lead by conquest. He was born to unmarried parents who were dirt poor. And he came to literally turn the world upside down so that Jesus that we expect is a little different than I think what the culture expected in his time and even in our day. So we all have a lot of Christmas traditions in our families, out of our national traditions. What are some Christmas traditions that have been really meaningful for you this season Kent? There are a couple things that I really do appreciate about this season of preparation and one of those is, many of us have them, but the Advent calendar has special meaning to me. We have one that we've had in our family for years, decades even, which is the pocket Advent calendar in which you take something out each day and place it on the calendar so you get a visual representation. These are images that include both images from the secular world, like gifts and packages, but also from the faith tradition that we're a part of angels and harps and things like that. There's a great anticipation leading up to Christmas of being able to physically place something and getting closer to Christmas. I also love music and so the traditions of playing, my Christmas or my Advent preparations will not be complete unless I've listened to Handel's soulful Messiah, which was produced about twenty years or so ago, which is a very different rendering than the classic traditional Messiah and I have to listen to that several times before I feel ready for Christmas. And really the other thing I think as far as tradition goes, which is a very new tradition, is reading Facebook messages from my friends who are people of faith preparing for Christmas and with either video or music or even a meditation of some sort, it's really deep in my Advent experience in a very surprising way. I never thought I'd be looking to Facebook for devotional material, but it's actually turned out to work out quite well that way in my preparation time this Advent season. And what is your wish for this Christmas season? My wish is really a very simple one and one that is not original, but I do really believe in my heart of hearts that this vision of Isaiah where we would beat our swords into plowshares would come true, that the ways of the world, which includes some very violent reactions in our culture, that we would learn that is not the way, that the Prince of Peace has come to bring God's shalom. It's my prayer and my wish this Christmas that that message would touch more people through our lives, through the way we live and through the changes that we make. My Christmas wish as well is that we would recognize that we need one another, that there is an interdependence that exists on this earth, that human beings need each other, we need the created order and we need to make a difference in this world. We need a new zeal for the Gospel and God's extravagant love. On behalf of the staff of the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ, I would like to wish each one of you a very blessed Christmas. This is a season where we proclaim that God's love comes to us in a baby, in a vulnerable way. And so it is a joy for us to be part of this family, this season, this holy time. We wish God's extravagant love and blessings to be with you and yours in this Christmas season. God bless you.