Reflection for Advent December 5, 2024
HOPE
by JULIANNE MCCULLAGH
ALL SHALL BE WELL. ALL MANNER OF THINGS SHALL BE WELL.
WE LIGHT CANDLES AGAINST THE DARKNESS OF THE WINTER NIGHT AS WE GATHER FOR PRAYER
One Christmas morning when I was a young mother I spoke with an older woman at church. I tried to make neighborly conversation about the fun of Christmas and Santa with children.
She said to me: “oh, we never did the Santa thing. We emphasized the spiritual aspects of Christmas.”
I was STUNNED. She simultaneously judged my parenting skills as not Christian enough and deflated my sense of Christmas as a joyful season of fun with children.
She gave church ladies A BAD NAME—judgmental and joyless. I felt sorry for her children. I also, eventually, felt sorry for her for mistaking Santa and the children’s joyful anticipation AS something not worthy of a proper Christian.
Emphasizing the spiritual aspects of Christmas is fine, but—Christmas is the Incarnation—the becoming flesh, becoming a child—the Word that spoke the universe into being became a little baby. A baby who cried, who laughed, who ate. A child who played and asked questions and worried his parents. A lot like us and our children. Christmas lights and JINGLE BELLS and pious songs remind us that something beyond the ordinary is available – the eternal innocence of the human soul longs for the mystical, call it magical if you will, but remember it is joyful and abundant and full of surprises. Our imagination can lead us to a holy place. Imagination and thinking outside the box, our willingness to ask questions and wait for answers, can be a doorway to the sacred.
God is full of surprises. Look at his plan for salvation. What general or king would pick a young woman in a tiny poor town in the hills of Galilee to bear the son of God? What clever commander would put this woman and child in danger of being stoned or cast out of the community for becoming pregnant before marriage? What bold leader would speak to his people in dreams and visions, EXPECTING THEM TO GET the message?
AND WHAT IS THE MESSAGE? THE MESSAGE IS HOPE
HOPE IS NOT BLIND OPTIMISM — OUR HOPE IS ROOTED IN OUR LONG HISTORY OF FAITH – OUR OWN FAITH AND THE FAITH OF THE GENERATIONS WHO CAME BEFORE US. THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. OUR ANCESTORS.
WE GATHER HERE TONIGHT IN THE HOPE THAT THE PROMISES MADE TO ANCIENT GENERATIONS AND FULFILLED IN VARIOUS WAYS THROUGHOUT THE AGES ARE STILL STRONG IN US—AND IN EACH OTHER. WE LEAN ON ONE ANOTHER AND GATHER STRENGTH FOR OUR
JOURNEY FROM OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS, REACHING BACK GENERATIONS.
WE ARE NOT ALONE IN THE DARK. WE STAND WITH THEM. WE STAND WITH THE SHEPHERDS ON THE HILLSIDE WHO HEARD THE ANGELS SING “HOSANNAH IN THE HIGHEST” AND SOUGHT OUT THE BABY IN THE MANGER. WE TRAVEL WITH MAGI WHO COULD READ THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES AND FOLLOWED THE LIGHT TO BETHLEHEM, UNDERSTANDING THAT A KING HAS NO NEED OF LUXURY OR A PALACE.
THAT A PROMISED KING COULD BE BORN IN A CAVE UNDER A STARRY SKY IN BETHLEHEM.
WE STAND IN HOPE WITH ELIZABETH WHO RECOGNIZED HER SAVIOR IN HER YOUNG COUSIN AND HER OWN CHILD LEAPT IN HER WOMB IN RECOGNITION OF THE WORD MADE FLESH.
WE STAND IN HOPE WITH THE ANCIENT SAINTS and THE MODERN SAINTS AND THE IMPERFECT SAINTS THAT WE ALL KNOW IN OUR OWN LIVES, WHO HEARD THE VOICE OF GOD DESPITE THE NOISE AND DESPAIR THAT DISTRACTED OTHERS. THE NOISE THAT SMOTHERED HOPE.
THEY TUNED IN TO THE FREQUENCY WHERE THE MUSIC OF THE ANGELS SOUNDED IN THE QUIET OF THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS.
THEY COULD HEAR AND BE TRANSFORMED, FILLED WITH COURAGE AND LOVE TO BE A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS LIKE JOHN THE BAPTIST, A VOICE THAT CALLED OTHERS TO FAITH. A VOICE THAT CALLED OTHERS TO HOPE.
WE GATHER HERE TONIGHT IN OUR PARISH CHURCH –A SANCTUARY AGAINST THE DARKNESS OF THE WORLD THAT STILL STRUGGLES TO UNDERSTAND—WE CARRY OUR LIGHT OUT INTO THE DARKNESS THAT SURROUNDS US—WE CARRY THE LIGHT IN OUR WORDS AND IN OUR ACTIONS. WE CARRY THE LIGHT OF HOPE IN OUR VERY BEING BECAUSE OUR LIGHT OF HOPE IS THE LIGHT THAT DARKNESS CANNOT OVERCOME.
WE GATHER HERE TONIGHT SURROUNDED BY OUR LOVED ONES AND THE GENERATIONS BEFORE US WHO TAUGHT US BY WORDS AND EXAMPLE. BY THEIR PRESENCE AND PERSISTANCE IN FAITH AND IN HOPE DESPITE THE HARDSHIPS OF THEIR LIVES AND THE DARKNESS OF THE WORLD—IN WAR—IN HUNGER—IN DISCONTENT AND ANGER. SOMETHING IN THEM SAID NO TO THE DARKNESS AND YES TO THE LIGHT.
WE LEAN ON THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS. WE LEAN ON THEIR COURAGE TO STAND UP TO BULLIES AND DICTATORS AND THOSE WHO TURN AWAY FROM THE POOR AND HUNGRY AT THEIR DOOR. WE SAY NO—THERE IS A BETTER WAY—THE ABUNDANCE OF GOD CANNOT BE MEASURED. IT IS OVERFLOWING AND SPILLS OUT A THOUSAND FOLD ONCE WE OPEN OUR HEARTS AND SHARE OUR RESOURCES. IT MULTIPLIES LIKE THE LOAVES AND FISHES.
WE LIVE IN HOPE AGAINST THE HARDNESS OF THE HEART THAT BUILDS GRADUALLY AT THE SINS OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN ENTRUSTED WITH THE CARE OF THE LITTLE ONES. THAT HARDNESS OF THE HEART THAT TURNS US AWAY FROM GOD. FROM Jesus WHEN WE NEED HIM THE MOST.
THAT HARDNESS OF HEART THAT FOCUSES ON THE DARKNESS AND IGNORES THE LIGHT.
Be a child who sits under a Christmas tree and looks up at the lights and the ornaments, who gazes into the nativity scene quietly, in wonder, listening for the music in the branches, the laughter of a baby, the awe of the shepherds and the harumph of a camel. Sit in the field with the Shepherds and listen to the choir of angels announcing the birth of the long-awaited Messiah. Be brave like the magi who followed the signs in the heavens until they reached the most unlikely palace of a new king.
AND HOPE.
HOPE THAT THE HUNGRY WILL BE FILLED WITH GOOD THINGS AND DESPOTS WILL BE CAST DOWN FROM THEIR THRONES. AND HOPE, ESPECIALLY, THAT EACH OF US AND OUR LOVED ONES WILL BE FILLED WITH THE LIGHT THAT DARKNESS CANNOT OVERCOME.
