Advent begins

What came into existence was Life,

and the Life was Light to live by.

The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;

the darkness couldn’t put it out.

John 1:4-5 “The Message”

Per usual, the liturgical season of Advent begins just as our hours of darkness are getting longest. It’s such a fantastic reminder of God’s unexpected power.

We are encouraged during Advent to expect hope. We are called upon to seek peace. We are roused to express love. We are gathered and sent to live out our faith with mercy and joy. This is God’s power at work among us this season. And not merely for our own private spiritual fix. God always has something much bigger in mind.

The revealing of Light!

For Christians, we connect the coming of light into the world with Christ. Wherever Christ is present, light is evident. Evident in the expressions of unexpected love. In the refusal to accept the power-dominated narratives of our time. In the efforts to embrace and lift up the humanity of our international neighbors. In the movements of solidarity with those who are suffering. This light has been a part of our world since the beginning.

I heard a story recently, told by Rachel Naomi Remen to Krista Tippett, on the On Being podcast. For her fourth birthday present, Naomi’s Jewish mystic grandfather told her this story: “The Birthday of the World.”

In the beginning, there was only the holy darkness, the Ein Sof, the source of life. Then, in the course of history, at a moment in time, this world, the world of a thousand thousand things, emerged from the heart of the holy darkness as a great ray of light. And then, perhaps because this is a Jewish story, there was an accident. And the vessels containing the light of the world, the wholeness of the world, broke. And the wholeness in the world, the light of the world, was scattered into a thousand thousand fragments of light. And they fell into all events and all people, where they remain deeply hidden until this very day. Now, according to my grandfather, the whole human race is a response to this accident. We are here because we are born with the capacity to find the hidden light in all events and all people; to lift it up and make it visible once again, and, thereby, to restore the innate wholeness of the world.

The Incarnation we celebrate in Advent continues to unfold in our time as more and more of Christ’s light is revealed. Advent is about proclaiming that the darkness of our day does not have the power to overwhelm the light of Christ. For it is in the darkest of times that the light of Christ can be most clearly scene. Be on the watch for it – and ready to respond as Christ’s light-bearing people.