COME DECEMBER LONGING

Rev. Dr. Kate Winters, “Dwelling in Presence,” November 27, 2023

As the wind howls and the rain pounds upon the already saturated ground, I watch the season evolve outside my window. The very last leaves are being blown off trees and I realize that the next storm may bring a carpet of white to cover them. Not long ago, I wrote about November melancholy. I think this storm is clearing the way for December longing. My heart is gearing up, and I’m beginning to feel its urgency.

Last year this time, I was preparing for the Advent season at The First Church. The most meaningful season as far as I am concerned. The church talks about it as a time of getting ready for the coming of Christ into the world, both at the end of time and as a baby in the manger in Bethlehem. As such, it is a four week period of waiting and hope. But Advent really came alive for me when I began to understand it as a season of longing. A time when we should not only really listen to what we are yearning for deep inside, but when we should talk about these longings with one another.

There is a huge difference between asking someone “What do you want for Christmas?” and “What do you long for at this time?” Our personal wants are too small for this season, while our longings may stretch as wide as the world and as high as the heavens. Lighting the Advent wreath of four candles is a meaningful ritual for naming these longings, often summed up in the words hope, peace, joy and love.

We short circuit this communal spiritual practice however by simply lighting a candle, singing a song, and moving on to the next one. My desire is to find ways to lean into these longings together and flesh them out. We can break open our hearts with one another, risk baring our souls, and then act as the beloved community finding ways to respond to these yearnings for the sake of the world and each other. The result would be incarnation – God breaking into the world through our flesh and blood.

Is it possible to create beloved community on line? Is anyone interested in lighting the candles and sharing your longings? Yes, it would be a challenge. But the world needs our heart’s longing and the will to embrace the earth with all our love.

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Author: Dwelling in Presence

Striving to live in the present where Spirit is found, I get (t)here most often by writing. It keeps me grounded in both the silence and in my senses. So, welcome to my journal. With a home on mid coast Maine, I have recently retired from 18 years as copastor of The First Church in Belfast, United Church of Christ, with my spouse, Joel Krueger. My spiritual formation has been nurtured by the sensual and sacramental faith of the Roman Catholic church, the heady intellectualism of Yale Divinity School and doctoral studies at Northwestern University, and the justice activism of the United Church of Christ in which I am ordained. Yale Divinity gave me the opportunity to study with pastoral theologian Henri Nouwen who I continue to think of as spiritual mentor these many years later. I have begun this blog to be certain to reach out in a time of great transition and chaos. We are suffering a worldwide pandemic, a global climate crisis, a war-damaged world and great upheaval in the church. With these reflections, I want to share what gives me joy and that which gives me pause. I look forward to hearing yours comments.

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