Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Well, welcome back, Collective Table Podcast.
[00:00:10] Our scripture reading for today is John 1:5.
[00:00:15] The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
[00:00:22] So a week before Halloween, I had to pop into the Walmart down the street for something, and I was honestly gobsmacked to see Christmas decorations already out and on sale.
[00:00:36] Under my breath, I cursed consumer culture for this creep of holiday marketing.
[00:00:42] Yet with the next breath, I wondered to myself if our world was just holding on until we could gain a little hope at Christmas time. Christmas can give us something to look forward to, to hope for. I mean, let's be honest, stores would not waste shelf space if people didn't buy Christmas decorations before Halloween.
[00:01:07] As a society, I just think we're dying for a bit of light in the darkness.
[00:01:14] Advent reminds us that light pierces the dark places. It's what hope is all about, really. Albert Einstein once said, darkness is the absence of light. We can study the light, but not the darkness. A simple ray of light can break into the world of darkness and illuminate it.
[00:01:35] So as we focus on hope this week, I wanted to remind you listeners that hope is not passive. Hope is an act of resistance, a declaration that things are not the way they have to be.
[00:01:53] Each one of you listening is a ray of light.
[00:01:58] You are piercing the darkness. As we take this Advent moment to wait for Christ, let us hold on to this light, trusting that the power of love and justice can overcome the deepest darkness.
[00:02:14] Let us study justice, love, peace, hope.
[00:02:20] Perhaps you consider not filling a void this year with just tiny flashes of lights and things that we consume. But perhaps you can find true rays of hope with one another in the community and through Christian charity this time of Advent.
[00:02:38] For our practice today, I'd like to invite you to practice silence.
[00:02:43] Sit quietly for a few minutes and think about something you're hopeful for.
[00:02:48] As you sit, look at the way the light shines and moves around you.
[00:02:54] Be filled with hope that light pierces dark places.
[00:03:00] Will you pray with me?
[00:03:03] Lord of Light, we place our hope in you.
[00:03:08] In the face of suffering and despair, let us be hopeful in your goodness and charity and justice.
[00:03:17] Help us to be bearers of light and agents of change in both the world around us and the world inside ourselves.
[00:03:26] God, let this time of hopeful waiting during Advent transformation our perspective.
[00:03:33] Amen.
