Advent 4 | DEFIANT HOPE

Our time of waiting is nearly done; soon we will tell, again, the Story: the Creator pulls on a garment of blood and bone; the Almighty is present in a fragile newborn. The Deliverer of humankind is delivered in a stable smelling of dung. If God has come here, amidst the shame and straw, God has come everywhere.

God entered the earthiness of human existence for the sake of every human soul - and so there are no insignificant or pointless lives; any average day carries eternal significance. Our hopes for meaning and purpose - for lives of courage and generosity - can take shape wherever we find ourselves, however unsettled or desolate.

This is the defiant hope of Christmas: God is for us. God is in us. God is with us. Can we live into this hope?

As you prepare for Christmas, during quiet moments stolen here or there, reflect upon three questions:

  1. God came amidst shame and straw, a place unprepared for the Divine; how is my life or heart like that Bethlehem stable?

  2. Jesus’ arrival overturned the world’s expectations of power and perspective; what expectations are clouding my own vision right now?

  3. What if I truly believed the defiant hope: that God is with me, for me and in me; how might I live and see differently?

Read “The defiant hope of Christmas: God is with us” by Michael Gerson

Read “What Advent Means to Me as a Black Christian” by Taylor Harris

*Reflection adapted from Michael Gerson’s essay.

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"Dear White Peacemakers" | Grace Jackson '24