Waiting on the Christ Child - On the Advent of Young Adults

‘Advent is a season of anticipation, of holy waiting... in remembering the anticipation of Christ’s first coming, we acknowledge and nurture our anticipation of Christ’s second coming.’ (Rachel Held Evens).

Grappling on the edges of advent and the integration of who we are and who we want to be often means a season of watching and waiting, expectant hope, reflection on the ghosts of things left undone or unsaid, the choices of consumption and of busyness, and the invite to stop mid stroke in what can feel like a tide of events, end of year celebrations, and fake smile washing with ’the reason for the season’ plastered on your best foot forward, keep the peace face.

Siri Liv Myhrom reminds us that Whilst Christmas is the extrovert of the Church calendar, along with Easter, it is busy and social, loud and flashy, well-fed and adorned... Siri like me wonders if Advent is introvert’s season. Advent is expectant and full of hope. There is also a solemn quality to the waiting, not dour of dreary- something grounded and okay with a close stillness, a quality that honours the waiting itself as sacred. You will never find an article from me shaking the introvert out of you to better mask your introversion to fit in at the extrovert’s party. Instead, you might see me asking the extroverts into a quieter recognition this might be a season for reflection.

Rachel Held Evan's invites her blog readers into 5 questions to ponder, if being guided through questions this Advent might be helpful, they are:

1. When I wake up on Christmas Morning, how will I be different? What had I hoped for, how have I allowed this season to transform me? Or my community? Or my family? Did I let go, did I open my hands up for something different? Did I wait expectantly like a child for the wonder of God resting in the arms of humanity?
2. How can I prepare myself, my home, and my family for the arrival of Jesus in a way that nurtures a spirit of anticipation and hope?
3. Have I left enough space in the busy season to pay attention, to listen, to wait and to be suprised?
4. What does light in the darkness mean for the world? What does it mean for my life?
5. What does it mean to listen to the prophets in this season - not just the prophets of old, but the prophets of today? Crying out from the margins and displaced?

The problem with stopping, is that it can disarm us from all the things we take on to forget that the world is not in hope, peace, joy and love. We begin to ask questions about why we are here, why we care about the world and it’s people and what our part in it might be. Willie James Jennings reflects that he looks at ‘Joy as an act of resistance against despair and its forces.’ I might invite you to take on each of the themes, Hope, Love, Joy and Peace, in resistance to the tide of despair and all that we do to numb some of our feelings.

It would be easy to assume that I am actually asking you to be busier in this season, to pick up rather than put down, to take on more thinking and squeeze them into what is already a busy season. But perhaps a little bit like lent, I am asking that you might consider laying some stuff down. To explore faith, scripture, practice and Advent, maybe in ways that you have never considered before, or maybe in a way that you remember from seasons past... but the invitation is to just engage. And so, I have crawled through the depths of AI and google, to find some readings, some activities and maybe some different ways to engage on your own, or in community, or in your family.

Some Further Resources for Reflection

• Sanctified Art is a hub of weekly (paid) resources for worship, that doesn't follow the lectionary, from Advent 1 through Epiphany, art and reflections following the themes; You are a blessing; we can’t go alone; do the good that is yours to do; hope is worth the risk; love knows your name; don’t forget to laugh; and, the road isn't straight. These are reminders for some of us who know the fundamentals, but they might be life lessons which we teach and relearn with those hearing them for the first time.
• Rachel Held Evan's 12 activities for Advent, for families individuals and communities.
• ‘On Being’ Essays for reflection on Advent from different perspectives
• “Resistance Against Despair, Celebrating the beauty of Black Joy” – Stacey Floyd-Thomas and Willie James Jennings.
• If you are looking at justice, decolonizing the advent season, some deeper learning and reflection I might point you toward Kaitlin Curtice – indigenous (Native American), author and poet... Native: Identity, Belonging and Rediscovering God
• Cláudio Carvalhaes, Brazilian theologians and liturgist his work “Liturgies from Below: Praying with People at the End of the World” might provide a liberating take on Advent themes.
• Christina Cleveland – in “God is a Black Woman” explores waiting and hope, reimagining God through a non-Western lens
• Mitzi Raheb – a Palestinian Christian Theologian ‘Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes”

Whilst these all scratch the surface of the possibilities of the Advent season, I might take the opportunity to say a very Happy Christmas to you all, may you engage as deeply as you need and take the time to celebrate, or build on relationships, take some much needed rest and recuperation.

Advent is expectant and full of hope. There is also a solemn quality to the waiting, not dour of dreary- something grounded and okay with a close stillness, a quality that honours the waiting itself as sacred.