Embracing the Holy Night: A Union of Advent Anticipation and Christmas Celebration

As the candles of the Advent wreath flicker with hope and love, we find ourselves at the junction of anticipation and celebration; the sacred time when the fourth Sunday of Advent meets the joyous eve of Christ's birth. It's a moment ripe with divine wonder, and on today's episode of Resilient Faith, we invite you into a space of contemplation and jubilation, reflecting on the profound themes of the season. Let your heart be warmed by the special blessing from theologian Kate Bowler, as it echoes through our conversation, illuminating the nativity's promise of new beginnings and God's relentless love.

This year's transition to Christmas is a unique blend of tradition and reflection, with Taylor Swift's music harmonizing with Gospel truths, guiding our community worship. It's a powerful union of contemporary artistry and ancient faith, fostering resilience against life's trials. As we bid farewell to 2023 and cast our eyes toward the horizon of a new year, we extend an invitation to join us in embracing the peace and presence that only this time of year can bring. Through stories, songs, and scripture, this episode of Resilient Faith is a sanctuary of fellowship, designed to uplift and inspire as we journey together into the light of Christmas and beyond. Amen.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome to Resilient Faith the podcast. Opportunities to find deeper resilience within ourselves can come when life seems most challenging. This podcast is to help you develop that resilience and connection with God. Being resilient and having power starts with faith. Welcome, friends, to another episode of the Resilient Faith podcast. I truly hope that you enjoyed our sermon series on the Gospel according to Taylor Swift. We certainly had a lot of fun doing that and leading our community in worship inspired by the music of Taylor Swift and, of course, tying it to the themes in our scripture and in the very important issues and conversations in our world today. And yet now we are towards the tail end of Advent.

Speaker 1: 1:18

Advent is the four Sundays leading up to Christmas Eve. This year we have a bit of a unique situation, since the fourth Sunday of Advent also just happens to be Christmas Eve, and so we will be celebrating the fourth Sunday of Advent lighting the candle of love on the Advent wreath and then also lighting the Christ candle, celebrating the birth of Christ once again in our world, in our hearts, in our lives. So I wanted to share a blessing with you. You'll know how much I enjoy sharing poetry and blessings and things that I find that I really enjoy and that are meaningful to me and therefore I hope and pray will be meaningful to you. So I know that I have shared the work of Kate Bowler in the past, but this is a blessing for Christmas Eve from Kate Bowler, so I'm sharing this with you as we draw closer to this season of Advent, this season of anticipation and hopeful expectation for the birth of Christ for Christmas.

Speaker 1: 2:36

So here's what she wrote for this blessing you are here, what a wonder. Robed in the everyday majesty of a newborn so beautiful, so soft, so new, perfect, in the terrifying fragility that thrills every parent. Watch his head, look at those tiny fingernails. God become human, blinking at strange new surroundings, full wisdom and power poured into a smallness that knows hunger and gravity and unseeing urgency for your mother's skin. And Mary, so newly parted from you, turns her thoughts to the impossible angelic visitation that promised you'd come and she knew somehow, staring at your eyelashes, that you were a great reversal here to put all things right. Blessed are we when our hearts warm with her. You're here and we are too Newly come to worship with kings and shepherds and barn animals and angels as you light up the world on this holiest, loveliest night.

Speaker 1: 4:13

Well, friends, I do hope and pray that, as we are approaching this finish line of Advent, as we are getting closer to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, that you will all feel surrounded by God's presence and God's love as we look with gratitude towards the end of 2023, that we will also look with gratitude and hopeful expectation into 2024, not that the world will somehow miraculously be different than it is or people will miraculously be different than we are, although we can always hope for that but that we will continue to feel a sense of God's presence with us and us among us, through all that we do, through all that we experience, no matter what. May God bless you today, tomorrow and always Amen. You've been listening to Resilient Faith. The podcast Resilient Faith is sponsored by Brentwood Presbyterian Church in West Los Angeles. You can follow our church and this podcast on Facebook at BPCTeam and Instagram at BPC underscore USA. Make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and thanks for listening.