Advent: a season of shadow & shimmer

One of the perks of moving through the church year is that there are so many beginnings built in. Whether we are exploring creation stories or beginning a new season, or welcoming the start of the new year, something keeps telling us we get to begin again.

It’s almost like the medium is the message: there is always More. There is more to the story, more to us than our pasts - more to be written, created, received, lived.

That does not feel true at times though, does it? Maybe it doesn’t feel true for you most of the time. Instead of More, you experience lack. Instead of knowing the dawn of a new day, you consistently feel stuck in the shadows.

The shadows are the backdrop of Advent, which means “arrival”. It is the season of waiting and preparation for the coming of Christ into the world. In the gospel of Luke which we’ll start exploring together this Sunday, the story of Christ’s birth takes place amid struggle, humiliation and upheaval. It was not the exactly the silent night scenario we love to sing about (and still that remains one of my favorite songs of the season!). These were Herod-heavy times. These were the shadows, and yet…

there’s More. There’s life emerging not just beyond the shadows, but right there within them.

As we move through this Advent, we’ll look for what is shimmering in these stories, as well as in our own stories. Where in the shadows is life stirring? We’ll pause to light candles that help us notice the ways that hope, peace, love & joy are arriving in and around us. We’ll make space to hold both the hard & heavy as we turn toward the Light together. You can see below all the ways we are gathering this season.

Whether you are feeling more of the shadow side of this season or more of the shimmer, we’d love to welcome you.