Welcome to Advent! The first breath of the new church year is about to be drawn. Once more, we’ve circled around to the season of mystery, into “the close and holy darkness,” as the poet Dylan Thomas put it.
Advent is laden with expectation, pregnant with strange good news, and lit by archetypal symbols. I loved this season during my growing up years – though in my not-particularly-liturgical home, we just called it Christmas time. Special food, special songs, pretty things that came out only during this special season – it felt magical, like I was part of a story of great importance. As I became a grown person, I learned about the distinction that followers of the Christian tradition make between “ordinary” time and the seasons that are laden with signs of the sacred. In the Greek, a distinction is made between chronos, or “clock time,” and kairos – sacred time, time that is heavy-laden with meaning.
We are entering a season of wild kairos. In the rhythms of life, certain seasons help us remember the holiness of every moment and serve as guideposts – identity markers that help us recall ourselves and begin again towards how we want to live and who we long to be. This week, we light the first candle of Advent – the flickering flame of Hope.
Join us as we take the first breaths of Advent together. We’ll make some symbols of hope & expectancy to take with us on our journey through the next few weeks, and we will talk through the two faces of hope: judgment and expectancy. Please celebrate with us tomorrow, 11am at Kidd Springs Rec Center.
With Hope,
Genny