Dear siblings in Christ,
Our Longest Night service is tonight, where we face grief and loss and wait for God in silence together. And then less than 48 hours later, we will gather again for a Christmas Eve service, where we celebrate with joy the incarnation of the Word of God in the flesh of Jesus. The starkness of this contrast is exceeded only by Good Friday and Easter Sunday, I think.
I also think it tells us something important about our faith. There is room for holding both grief and joy together in Christian spirituality. We need not dismiss one to face the other, or ignore one to acknowledge the other. Faith works best when we acknowledge what is real, instead of trying to shape life according to our personalities or whims.
The reality is that we have much to grieve and much to celebrate this Christmas. Where are you experiencing grief right now? Where are you experiencing joy right now? I invite you to hold it all with an abundance of compassion this week, allowing whatever emotions surface to simply be, knowing that every aspect of our lives has been already been touched and blessed by divinity because of the incarnation.
And I invite you to join us for worship this week, where we can do this together (both services will be live streamed):
- Tonight (Monday Dec 22) at 7pm: Longest Night service (childcare available)
- Wednesday December 24 at 4pm: Christmas Eve service (no childcare, but kids of all ages are welcome to worship!)
Whatever this Christmas season brings for you, may you know yourself to be loved and delighted in the God who has become human for us.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Ben
