An Advent Reflection

This Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent (at least that is what I understood, feel free to scathingly correct me if I am wrong). I have been attending the Lutheran Church near my house and this week I watched them light the first candle. Actually, that is a lie, I came in late and the candle was already lit--but I did hear the sermon about the four values/ideals of advent--Peace, Love, Hope and Joy. After the service I asked the pastor what order those values went in, or which candle was lit that first day because I had some idea of doing an advent ceremony with my community. The pastor told me that there were so many explanations for which candle meant what and what order they should be lit in that the church didn't even try to assign a value to a candle--he encouraged me to just pick an order that made sense to me.

I gave it some thought while I made a traditional advent wreath (that is, made from styrofoam with branches I scrounged from our bushes and some candles from the discount rack at Craft Warehouse). As soon as I finished the wreath I felt particularly inspired to share my thoughts with my community. I wrote a short reflection and read it before lighting the first candle. Here is what I wrote:

"After the pastor today advised me to choose my own order for the four values of advent--Peace, Love, Joy and Hope--I meditated for a while on what should come first. Hope jumped out at me as the place to start. I think that hope is one of the most critical, if not the most critical idea for us to embrace in our line of work. It is really easy for us to be consumed by despair in the social services. I now that every one of us sees evidence day in and day out that things are really messed up, that people are hurting, that things could easily get worse and that they often do, that there isn't always a place to turn and it is not magically going to get better. I feel this despair weighing down my steps and it makes every interaction harder and makes my work feel pointless. I think that everyone feels this way. The only answer to this despair is hope. Hope is a fundamentally revolutionary act. It is a way to defy the world's seemingly constant oppression and say, "no, you are wrong, things can and will get better." Hope doesn't require that we see the way, just that we believe there is a way. It is not something that comes easy, it isn't logical, it isn't even very comforting at first--it is, rather, a deliberate choice or practice that is developed in time. You have to choose hope--to choose to really, deeply believe that despite all the evidence to the contrary, things will improve for these people we are serving. With that said, I think that hope has to come first in the advent season. Because in order to change the world, as Christ set out to do, we first have to conquer despair. And so we turn to hope--Hope for Christ in the advent season and for all that he represents: peace, love, and joy. These values represent a revolutionary change that will transform the world we work in--this despair and pain will be swept away and replaced with joy and peace. The first step is hope--truly believing that it will happen. I want to offer this prayer for everyone, 'God, give us hope; teach us how to hope. Help everyone of us to overcome the powerful despair that dogs our steps and instead help us to embrace a revolutionary hope that this world is going to change. Amen.' And so, I light this candle for hope."