Advent Musings: Always Something New

Here is a reflection I wrote for the December newsletter for Life Together. I thought I would share it here.

I was recently talking with a friend about how difficult it is to make the convictions of Christianity a reality in everyday life—particularly convictions centered on what it means to live a life that promotes justice and peace. More specifically, we were talking about the seasons of Advent and Christmas, and how even the most well-intentioned church goers and faith communities succumb to the haste and hurriedness of consumption during this season, even while preaching messages of quiet peace and hope. I must admit that I experienced a sense of disappointment during the conversation. My friend seemed to suggest that participating in the consumption of the Christmas season is inevitable forever—that there is perhaps little point in trying to offer an alternative message of simplicity to the obligation we feel to buy and buy until the joy meant to begin on December 25^th ends in a great anti-climactic post-present-wrapping-coma.

But I think we sell ourselves short when we allow the problems and challenges of our time to become so much bigger than us that we become immobilized. The work of organizing, of educating and attempting bring change to a world so broken, is so hard. If we do not do it, however, if we do not push forward—leaning into the beauty of God and one another—then we have rejected the call for hope and unbounded love that Advent invites us to participate in. Perhaps my idealistic tendencies give my world outlook a bit too rosy of a color, but I think making the claim that “capitalism is this country’s God—that’s just the way it is and always will be”—prevents us from seeing a larger picture. Is that not why we do the work we do? Do we not cling to the hope that we can indeed be vessels of truth that re-structure and re-envision structures of power in our society?

I have come to understand through my own experiences, both in my intentional community and at my site placement, that that is why we hear these stories over and over again: the story of the angel Gabriel coming to Mary, Mary fully accepting the promise made to her, the birth of a baby in a manger, the absence of a room in the inn, and the trek of the wise men. Jesus’ birth and life, representative of something so countercultural to the empire in which he lived, is absolutely connected to our living into our own calls to bring about God’s justice for all people. The image of preparing room in the own “inns” of myself becomes ever more real to me as I continue the work before me. Through the complexities of life, I am grateful for roommates who inspire me, supervisors who support and challenge me, and an Advent story of hope to ground me.