Dear Ones,
This Sunday marks the beginning of the Season of Advent, which is designed to be a meditative preparation that opens us to the Light of Christ being born anew in our lives. Advent is completely counter-cultural to the way our society prepares for Christmas. Nowadays, no sooner do stores take down the Halloween decorations than the Christmas lights start blinking from store windows. The advertising industry launches us into the frenzied “holy-day” season complete with its annual rituals of shopping for the perfect gifts and getting into the “holiday spirit”—which can involve anything from chugging eggnog to finding the perfect ugly Christmas sweater.
Often as we enter this season I hear people say things like “I just don’t feel like being happy or jolly” or “I hate all the hype so I’m boycotting the whole thing.” All of these sentiments are understandable, but they are often based on a surface level understanding of what joy is, as well as the false notion that other emotions like grief, anxiety, weariness, fear and loneliness cannot coexist with feelings of joy.
What if we can spend time holding a welcoming space for all our emotions this season? Beginning this first Sunday of Advent we will be reflecting on the theme: How does a weary world rejoice?
As we do, we will explore not only how true joy exists alongside all of our emotions but also how true joy can strengthen our resilience and ground us as we experience things like weariness or anxiety or despair.
I am looking forward to entering this season with you and hope you will also take advantage of the online devotional from A Sanctified Art, the worship source we are using this year. The link is in the Nov. 30th Tidings newsletter, or ask a staff member. Printed copies will also be available at church.
Blessings,
Rev. Laura
