ESpirit
Dear Readers,

During ADVENT, eSpirit will be published once a week focusing on the themes celebrated by the four ADVENT candles in Episcopal practice. These themes are:

HOPE (the Prophet's candle)
LOVE (the Bethlehem candle)
JOY (the Shepherd's candle)
PEACE (the Angel's candle)
 
Join us in the joyful anticipation of Christmas! 

-Kate Maynard & Kenzo An

Week #1: HOPE (The Prophet's Candle)


One easily assumes that the candle of HOPE links to the Prophets because of the beautiful and soaring prophecies of Christ’s birth, such as this: 
 
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,
         Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  
(Isaiah 9:6. NIV)
 
But perhaps other connections to the Prophets are intended. Scripture portrays prophets in stark terms. Their lives were not only hard but extremely weird.* Ezekiel lay on his side for 390 days, then rolled onto his other side and repeated the vigil. Jeremiah, the purported author of Lamentations, known as the “Weeping Prophet,"  walked around town wearing a cattle yoke around his neck. Isaiah wandered naked in the public square for three years. Jonah was swallowed up by a great fish. John the Baptist ate his sparse diet of grasshoppers and honey and faced beheading. And Jesus… his suffering path took him through the crucifixion of Good Friday.
 
And if these experiences weren’t harsh enough, their words are bracing, warning of war and exile, portents of calamity, even as they foretell of God’s saving action on our behalf.
 
This suggests to me that Advent HOPE is best understood from within the FULL sacred prophetic tradition: both the one that exalts the coming Messiah, proclaiming God’s reign and redemption, but also its undertone, the tradition that highlights the world’s strife, human suffering and fear, our struggle for faith.
 
Enter Advent holding these together. Hear both sides of the Prophetic voice. Both are necessary. The light of Christmas shines true, but its backdrop was darkness, silence, turmoil. Israel was an obscure backwater, an enemy-occupied territory where Roman death squads patrolled the land. Bethlehem’s streets were dark, the manger rough. But as the familiar carol about Bethlehem reminds us, this is also the very same place where human FEAR and divine HOPE collide at last, resolved in the Christ Child himself.
 
“Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.”
(O Little Town of Bethlehem, verse 2)
 
Submitted by Kate Maynard maynard703@comcast.net
 


 
Contacts:

The Right Rev. Shannon MacVean-Brown, Bishop of Vermont
bishopshannon@diovermont.org

The Very Rev. Greta Getlein, Dean and Rector
ggetlein@stpaulscathedralvt.org

The Ven. J. Stannard Baker, Cathedral Deacon and Diocesan Archdeacon
   sbaker@stpaulscathedralvt.org

Mark A. DeW. Howe, Canon Precentor and Director of Music
   mhowe@stpaulscathedralvt.org

Jennifer C. Sumner, Office Administrator
   admin@stpaulscathedralvt.org

Barbara F. Comeau, Financial Administrator
    bcomeau@stpaulscathedralvt.org

Katie Gonyaw, Children's Formation Coordinator
kgonyaw@stpaulscathedralvt.org

Grace Jack, A/V & Social Media Coordinator
gjack@stpaulscathedralvt.org