Although this newsletter is reaching you a week before Christmas when we are all caught up in preparations at home and church, I am mindful that we are still in Advent, a season of prayerful reflection about God's presence in our lives, God's work in and through all people, times gone by and yet to come. It is a paradoxical time, a time in which the inherent tensions of being Christians in a largely secular society, are perhaps more visible than at most other times. It is both a busy, hectic, got-to-get-things-done time and a time of sacred waiting.

 

Today I share with you two thoughts, both from deeply faithful women of God. I don't recall exactly when I first came upon them, though I know the first was some time during seminary.  I share these because they speak to the way in which what we are doing in Advent as we prepare for what we celebrate on Christmas flies in the face of what many people would think reasonable or real.  And yet, for those of us who know God through Jesus Christ, not only is all of this real and reasonable, it is a profound statement of faith and hope.  Holding onto faith and hope at this time, when so much seems out-of-control and surreal can help us get through whatever it is we face in this world because we know that God is present with us always.

 

  "Advent is the season when Christians are called to live with more hope than the world thinks reasonable." (Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, former President and Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School),

 

"This is the irrational season when love blooms bright and wild. If Mary had been filled with reason there would've been no room for the child." (Madelaine L'Engle, author and Episcopal lay woman).