The Unsilent Church:

Dear friends—

During my sabbatical, one of the things I realized is that I wanted/needed to set aside more time for writing.  I love to write but I don’t do it very often, primarily because I get distracted by other pressing matters.  Anyone relate to that phenomenon?  😊

So I decided to create a new spiritual discipline for myself this Advent and I am inviting you along for the ride.  I am going to try to write an advent meditation for the next 25 days and I will email it to the church and I will post it on my blog: https://theunsilentchurch.com/.  Now please forgive me in advance if I miss a day here and there.  Spiritual disciplines are designed to move us closer to God and one another, but they shouldn’t hold us hostage.  Life may get in the way from time to time.  But I am committing to prioritizing this for myself and I hope that you all will find some value in it.  Also, I am planning to let this journey lead me.  I am not going to impose a big, fancy infrastructure onto it.  Some days may bring a long meditation, other days it may just be a quick note.  I just want to open myself to this practice.  So here is goes…

Day 1: 

Advent is about paradox.  It is about the human predicament.  We celebrate the birth of Jesus, who broke into human history to bring love and justice, to offer us a vision and a promise.  But we know all too well that God’s realm is far, far from being fully realized.  We can be overwhelmed by the pain and suffering we see in the world.  I don’t need to name it all—I trust that you have a good sense of what I am talking about.  We live in a broken world and it is a hard reality, particularly for those of us committed to seeing God’s justice.  And it is easy to become despondent or indifferent.  But Advent calls us to pause and to step into the paradox…to be people of the promise given but not yet fully arrived.  It is a difficult place to be for sure.  But it is a sacred place.  It is a holy place.  It is a place with depth, and meaning, and community, and love.  So we journey into the paradox with one another and with God.  And we do it together.  It won’t always make sense.  It won’t always be comfortable.  But it is our place.  Amen.