It is the second Sunday of Advent, and we’re making a declaration. Whether we are heeding the call of John the Baptist to “bear fruit worthy of repentance” or longing for the peaceable kingdom of Isaiah, we are taking our stand for the promise that Jesus offers for beloved community, a new way of living. We are declaring and leaning into this kin-dom of heaven, living it now in all the ways we can. We’re beginning, here at the onset of December, to have a bifocal vision looking back to the incarnation and the glory of that first Christmas, but also looking ahead to the completion and the hope that the joy we experience in this season will not be a passing thing but our whole existence in eternity. This might be time for a creed or affirmation of faith that expresses our hope and confidence in the world that God is bringing to life around and within us.