Today’s Readings for Advent Peace (Dec 7, 2025)
- Isaiah 11:1–10 — The Peaceful Kingdom
- Psalm 72:1–7, 18–19
- Matthew 3:1–12 — The Proclamation of John the Baptist
Peace Begins in the Inner World
Peaceful coexistence becomes possible only when each being is rooted in its own peace.
This second Sunday of Advent brings us to the theme of Peace, a deep peace that grows from inner transformation.
We begin with Isaiah, who offers a beautiful image:
“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse.”
I love this image because it’s something we see right here in our forests. An old stump, grey and weathered, looks like the end of something. But if you look closely, maybe in spring, maybe in summer, you might see a tiny green shoot pushing up from what you thought was long gone.
Life rising where life seemed over.
Isaiah is speaking to a people who felt like the stump: cut down, exhausted, unsure of their future. And he says:
God can bring life from what feels lifeless.
Hope can rise from what seems cut down.
Peace can grow in surprising places.
Peace That Changes the Whole System
Then Isaiah paints that unforgettable picture of peaceful coexistence: the wolf with the lamb, the leopard with the young goat, the calf and the lion, a little child leading them.
It sounds a bit like those social media videos we love, a goose guarding a puppy, or a dog curled up with a deer, animals you’d never expect sleeping side by side.
It makes us laugh, though it seems so unreal. We squeal at the idea that different animals can peacefully co-exist.
But Isaiah isn’t offering something sentimental or cute.
He’s describing a world transformed at its roots, a world where fear is not driving things anymore, a world ordered so deeply around justice that even natural enemies no longer harm one another.
This kind of peace is possible, Isaiah says, because the One who is coming is rooted in wisdom, understanding, and compassion.
Peace grows where justice takes root.
The Measure of a Leader Is Compassion
Psalm 72 carries this forward. It prays for a leader who will protect the poor, defend the weak, and judge with righteousness.
In the biblical imagination, the measure of a leader is never wealth or power. It is always compassion.
Where the vulnerable are protected, where fairness is practiced, peace “abounds until the moon is no more.”
Paul echoes this later in Romans. He writes:
“Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
A gentle pastoral reminder that we support one another, live in harmony, and help each other hold onto hope.
Clear the Path
But then we come to John the Baptist, and he sweeps into the story like a gust of cold December wind.
John is out in the wilderness in camel’s hair and a leather belt, eating locusts and wild honey. He’s raw, elemental, earthy.
And his message is equally direct:
Prepare the way.
Clear the path.
Turn toward what brings life.
In other words, if you want the peace Isaiah described, if you long for that world where fear lessens and justice prevails, then begin by tending your inner world.
Because peace never begins “out there.”
It begins in us.
Tending the Inner Forest
And here is where the forest helps us.
In the forest, harmony isn’t created by forcing sameness. It grows because each tree is rooted where it belongs, doing what it’s meant to do, and connected in ways that nourish rather than control.
Peace grows the same way in us.
Family systems wisdom deepens this. Systems theory teaches a simple but profound truth:
We cannot change other people. We can only change ourselves.
We can’t control their thoughts, their choices, their reactions. But when we root ourselves in peace, when we regulate our own patterns and impulses, the entire system around us begins to shift.
The Wisdom of “Let Them”
There’s a modern way of saying this that some of you might know. Mel Robbins calls it the “Let Them Theory”:
Let people behave the way they behave.
Let them think what they think.
Let them respond how they respond.
And you remain grounded in who you want to be.
This isn’t avoidance. It’s wisdom.
It is the same wisdom in John the Baptist’s message.
Because peace never begins with “them.”
It begins in ourselves, in our own rootedness, clarity, and groundedness.
Connection That Nourishes: How Forests Model Peaceful Community
And creation mirrors this beautifully.
In our forests, each being simply grows as itself. Harmony doesn’t happen because trees control one another.
A maple doesn’t ask a birch to grow the maple way.
A pine doesn’t try to correct a spruce.
Each tree stands rooted in its own place, receiving what it needs and offering what it can.
And through their underground networks, as Susan Simard’s research shows, the trees support one another, sharing resources and creating resilience, not by trying to change each other, but by being deeply rooted and deeply connected.
Peace That Moves Outward From Inner Grounding
And this is the spiritual truth of Advent Peace:
Peace in creation, peace in community, peace in families, all become possible when each of us is rooted in our own peace.
Peace grows outward from inner groundedness.
John’s call to repentance, to reorientation, is an invitation to tend the inner forest. To clear the path. To prune what no longer bears good fruit. To make space for the Christ who comes with peace, justice, and renewal.
And suddenly Isaiah’s vision doesn’t feel so far away: wolves beside lambs, the vulnerable safe, the earth full of the knowledge of God.
Because peaceful coexistence does not begin when other people change. It begins when we are rooted in peace.
Advent Peace: Rooted, Clear, Compassionate
This Advent, may we become people of inner peace, people who tend our inner landscapes, who release what isn’t ours to carry, who root ourselves in compassion and clarity, so that we can bear the kind of fruit that makes peace possible in our homes, our communities, and the world God loves.
Amen.
A thread to carry into the week
Peace doesn’t start when they change.
It starts when I am rooted.
Tend what’s tender. Learn what’s true. Name what’s unjust. Do the next right thing.