Advent begins in the dark. It is not a season for the faint of heart.
— Fleming Rutledge

If you were organizing the calendar for the church year, what would make the most sense as a starting place?

One possibility is to begin at Midsummer. The lavish growth and burgeoning life in mid-June with brilliant flowers, growing vegetables, animal life everywhere, are manifestations of “life abundant” brought to us by the Holy One. Another possibility for a start to the church calendar might be harvest, say late October. Bringing the fruits of fields and breathing a sigh of relief that a fruitful growing season is completed—”well done, faithful servant”—we would start the year after a harvest festival leading to a new beginning for the earth.

Spring would be an obvious time to begin a calendar dedicated to honoring and serving God, as the Jewish calendar does. In April as the first green shoots appear from the earth that has weathered the cold and barren winter, signs of hope and the persistence of life. We could push “spring” beginning back a little earlier, counting, as is done in Chinese religion, and mark the new year by the powerful but unseen stirring of life after the passing of the Winter Solstice, the tipping point for the return of light.

But the church doesn’t begin its year at any of these moments. The church begins its year it what seems like a gloomy and in-between time, when autumn in fading into serious winter, the night growing longer and the light continues to diminish. We begin the year in a quiet and sobering time that has no obvious natural highlights.

We begin the year in the growing dark and quiet so that we can stop, rest, and become aware of the ways that we do not see our lives or our call clearly. We begin in the dark so that we may, in the words of Barbara Brown Taylor, become dis-illusioned. We begin in the dark so that we may experience apocalypse, “pulling back the veil,” and see the truth of our lives, even if that means that we find ourselves at a starting place that is awash in grief and disappointment. We begin in the dark so that we can find a resting center, remember our purpose and direction, and prepare to turn our lives in that direction.

Last Sunday you may have experienced “déjà vu all over again” with our first Gospel reading of the new church year, Luke 21:5-19. It is very similar to Mark 13:1-37, which we heard only two weeks earlier. The message of both passages bears repeating because it is such a difficult message to hear and to follow. In the passages, Jesus names the truth of the moment and tells his disciples to remain calm, to pay attention, and to be ready to act. The New Year of the church looks these conversations to remind us to pull back the cover that hides from us the truth of our moment. In the midst of the uncovering, we prepare for the shock of what we see and to embrace the wondrous and paradoxical gift of God’s Way of Love which guides our purpose. Rather than the stuff of disaster movies and fear-mongering, apocalyptic literature is the literature of social protest, naming the ills that have laid covered for so long, and encouraging faithfulness and patience in the midst of the chaos. To be dis-illusioned and claim hope and agency requires courage and the strength of the beloved community. As Adrienne Maree Brown wrote, “We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.”[1]

At the core of the dis-illusionment comes the realization that the successes and values that are are the bread and butter of awards ceremonies—achievement, recognition, status, wealth, power—are not permanent, nor are they necessarily lifegiving to oneself and to one’s community. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is constantly pointing out his examples to follow: the small, the overlooked, the unlauded, the shunned. He is constantly lifting the veil to show where we meet God’s Kingdom in the world, and to urge us to trust his upside-down, counterculture call to service and servanthood. Part of the unveiling, the dis-illusioning, asserts not that we will avoid pain and discouragement, but that following the under-the-radar Way of Love that is threaded through the Bible is in fact the Way to abundant, purpose-driven life.

How do we name the truth of where we are? How do we find our resources? How do we gather our wits, plumb our hearts, motivate our spirits, prepare our feet and hands, and if possible to find our community that will walk with us? Each year at Advent, we rest and watch and wait in the growing dark and we remember that the astounding force of life is nurtured in dark: the darkness that first filled the void and from which came creation; the seed that rests in the earth, waiting to sprout into new life; the embryo that needs the protection of the womb if it is ultimately to emerge as new life.

I’m closing with a few resources that have very practical applications or that I have found uplifting. I look forward to hearing from you about what gives you insight and what rekindles your purpose on our shared path.

In peace,

Jen+

What to do about debilitating fear

These past months and even years have been years of fear throughout our country and our world. Fear has the danger of making us choose frantic expedience over deep values. I found Nadia Bolz-Weber’s exercise of creating an “autobiography of worry” helpful. By making a time line of the challenges that have gripped her at points through her life she is reminded that we are in a very small moment of a very big story. Her essay is both profound and hilarious.

https://open.substack.com/pub/thecorners/p/avoiding-despair-like-i-owe-it-money?r=44tutv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

How to find a practice for our now

Richard Rohr has been a spiritual visionary for decades. Last week he reached named the spiritual exhaustion so pervasive right now. He recommended a specific practice that leans on the psalms of lament as scaffolding. I receive daily devotionals from the Center for Action and Contemplation which you can find here:

https://cac.org/

This particular letter, however, is from a different source, so I have copied it in full below.* You will be heartened by Rohr’s words and his advice. Note: We will be praying the psalms of lament in the Saint Andrew’s sanctuary at 8 am on December 10-13, Tuesday through Friday.

Words that Have Helped Me
This is just a collection of observations that I have gathered. Many of them have been referenced in my sermons. Perhaps they will speak to you.

Otis Moss III, Blue Note Preaching in a PostSoul World: Our work is to give witness to the work of God “in darkness and even in the abyss.”

Quincy Jones: “Every day you have to make a choice between love and fear. As much as you can, choose love.”

Michael Curry: “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.”

Dag Hammarskjöld: “I don’t’ know Who—or what –put the question. I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone—or Something—and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.”

John O’Donohue, “For the Interim Time”

When near the end of day, life has drained
Out of light, and it is too soon
For the mind of night to have darkened things,

No place looks like itself, loss of outline
Makes everything look strangely in-between,
Unsure of what has been, or what might come.

In this wan light, even trees seem groundless.
In a while it will be night, but nothing
Here seems to believe the relief of darkness.

You are in this time of the interim
Where everything seems withheld.

The path you took to get here has washed out;
The way forward is still concealed from you.

“The old is not old enough to have died away;
The new is still too young to be born.”

You cannot lay claim to anything;
In this place of dusk,
Your eyes are blurred;
And there is no mirror.

Everyone else has lost sight of your heart
And you can see nowhere to put your trust;
You know you have to make your own way through.

As far as you can, hold your confidence.
Do not allow confusion to squander
This call which is loosening
Your roots in false ground,
That you might come free
From all you have outgrown.

What is being transfigured here is your mind,
And it is difficult and slow to become new.
The more faithfully you can endure here,
The more refined your heart will become
For your arrival in the new dawn.

In peace,

Jen+

*Fr. Richard’s Rohr’s Letters from Outside the Camp: Turning to Inspired Words

In the fall of 2020, Fr. Richard Rohr began sending out occasional letters that he called “Letters from Outside the Camp,” a reference to the “tent of meeting outside the camp” described by the early Israelites (Exodus 33:7). It is the prophetic position at the edge of the inside that inspired Richard to wonder how we can maintain a sense of freedom outside the contemporary political and religious “encampments” of our day.

Dear Jennifer,

It is time for another letter.

These past days have been hard for many of us. Many people are experiencing shock, disillusionment, and loss of orientation. Many people are angry and hurting. We ask, “What is faith now? What is love now?” Friends and students are writing me for guidance. I feel unqualified like a blind man trying to lead the blind. It feels like spiritual exhaustion.

Then a dear friend came to me and shared what his single mother of eleven children would often read aloud to their family: Psalm 42 in its entirety. It is one of the psalms of lament and begins, “As a doe longs for running streams, so my soul longs for you, O God” (42:1).

I was immediately strengthened and “resourced,” leading me to a few days’ study of the longest and most read book in the Bible. I found seven psalms of lamentation that deeply spoke to my present experience, and perhaps yours, too. I offer them to you in hopes they might do the same.

Exclusive reliance upon contemplative prayer in times like these leaves us almost too vulnerable now, too boundaryless, perhaps too shapeless. We need inspired words.

Psalm 57 (Honest self-pity)
Psalm 77 (A turning from Order, toward Reorder, and through Disorder)
Psalm 86 (A prayer in ordeal)
Psalm 102 (A prayer of complaint)
Psalm 131 (Begging for a contemplative mind and heart)
Psalm 146 (I told you never to “put your trust in princes,” whether Democrat or Republican, but only in God!)

Finally, I share an excerpt of Psalm 42. Its words of lament comfort us and its message reinforces our trust in one another.

As a deer longs for flowing streams,
So my soul longs for you, O God
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God,
When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
While people say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again give praise,
My help and my God.…
Deep calls to deep
At the thunder of your cataracts;
All your waves and your billows
Have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands God’s steadfast love,
And at night God’s song is with me,
A prayer to the God of my life. (Psalm 42:1–3, 5, 7–8)

Start reciting and praying at least one psalm a day, or as many as it takes. It might reconvince you that the Bible is indeed inspired and that we are not exhausted from our resources.

Peace and every good,

Richard

P.S. I also recommend a serious fast from cable and internet news. The amygdala cannot process this much negativity, misinformation, opinion, and paranoia. It gets hooked.

[1] https://adriennemareebrown.net/2017/02/03/living-through-the-unveiling/

Rev. Jen has set her office drop-in day as Wednesday of each week from 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. for anyone who would like to stop in and visit. You are always invited to make an appointment for a time convenient for you. Mondays are her Sabbath day.

2025 PLEDGE DRIVE – WALK IN LOVE

Parishioner Pledge Drive packets were due back in the office Sunday, November 24. Please return so that the Treasurer and Vestry can begin working on the 2025 budget. Thanks so much for your time, talent, and treasure! You are all such a blessing to Saint Andrew’s!

KROGER COUPONS

If you have any unwanted Kroger coupons, please bring them to Hamilton Hall and place in the window ledge near the “Little Library”. We would like to make them available to our Non-Food Pantry recipients so that they might be able to take advantage of them to help extend their food budget. Thanks in advance!

SACRED POETRY GROUP

Our Sacred Poetry began meeting again. We will meet again on Wednesday, December 18 at 2:00 p.m. in the upstairs room of Advent House. All are welcome!

TUESDAY BIBLE STUDY

The Book and Bible Group has begun again, meeting at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays with Evening Prayer celebrated at 4:00 p.m. Our next meeting is Tuesday, December 10.

BAPTISM, CONFIRMATION, AND EXPLORATION OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

Our upcoming Confirmation classes are on December 8, December 22, and January 5. Please let Jen+ or Renee know if you are interested!

ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARTY

The Saint Andrew’s Christmas Party will be this Sunday evening, December 8, 5:00 p.m., at the home of Thom & Gwen Morris, 709 Toddson Drive. Please bring an appetizer or dessert to share. All are invited!

VESTRY MEETING MINUTES

If any of you are interested in what your Vestry is doing, there are two copies of each month’s minutes on the top of the piano in Hamilton Hall. Feel free to read and return!

THIS WEEK’S SHOPPING LIST FOR NON-FOOD PANTRY

Please add baby wipes, disinfectant wipes, and Adult Depends (any size) to your shopping list for the NFP for the month of December. Meals and conversation in Hamilton Hall are going well. Patrons are now able to pick out items they most need. Your contributions help our budget go farther in helping meet the needs of those in Putnam County. The next Non-Food Pantry will be Saturday, December 21 from noon – 2:00 p.m.

FREE DAILY DEVOTIONAL

We have some large print Day by Day daily devotionals in the sanctuary that you are free to take home for your personal devotions–and if we know that people would like copies, we can order the right amount. Many of you may also appreciate the on-line version of Day to Day. Click here.

ON-GOING COVID PROTOCOL

We continue to respond to both our county’s current CDC designation and to the current variant. Masking is optional. Decisions on COVID policy have moved from the Reconvening Committee to Rev. Jen and the Wardens.

We have heard that the daily reflections and scripture readings provided during Lent were appreciated. The meditations are written by persons from Gobin UMC and Beech Grove UMC. They will be in the newsletter each week. Whether you enjoy these every day or as the Spirit moves you, may this resource continue to bring you spiritual food for the journey. Blessings!

Click here to view the readings and accompanying links.

Your prayers are asked for: