Advent and Christmas 2024
ADVENT 2024
Dear Friends,
“All Creation Waits” is the title of our Advent book of reflections.
That title is taken from St. Paul's letter to the Romans, the eighth chapter, eighteenth verse in which St. Paul declares: "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God."
Advent is the church's season set aside for waiting for revelation. This same expectant hope is consistent in the natural world in winter and in the Christian themes of Advent. In this season around our pond, all creation is bedded down, waiting for signs of renewal that will come in some months. In the religious season, we wait with hope that God will powerfully come among us - both in renewed spirit and in the coming of God to restore the world.
Our Advent companion says it this way: "Advent, to the Church Fathers, was the right naming of the season when light and life are fading. They urged the faithful to set aside four weeks to fast, give, and pray—all ways to strip down, to let the bared soul recall what it knows beneath its fear of the dark, to know what Jesus called "the one thing necessary": that there is One who is the source of all life … One who brings a new beginning."
"This is Christian tradition at its best, moving in step with creation…When that primal fear of the dark—of the end—begins to slide over us, animals unselfconsciously and forthrightly offer unfearful responses. They take in the threat of dark and cold, and they adapt in amazing and ingenious ways. They shape themselves to life as it is given."
"The more I'm with animals and the more I learn about them, the more I know they can be more than our companions on this planet. They can be our guides. They can be to us "a book about God" (Boss, Gayle; Klein, David G.. All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings.)
In the midst of a darkening and long season, we are a people of hope. We can shape ourselves to "life as it's given" but hold onto hope. Even in the gathering cold and dark, it's warm and bright here. And the love we have for one another spills from this church into the world. We are a community called to joyful hope in troubled times.
If you are waiting for hope in this holy season, we invite you to join us. If you are waiting for a renewed sense of God's presence in your life, we invite you to join us. If you are waiting to let go of fear of what may be and instead face, with hope, life as it is given, we invite you to join us.
We are eagerly waiting to see you in this holy season at St. John's!
