TRUE Hope this Advent Season
by Elle Pyke
Goodness me, it’s been a year hasn’t it?
I don’t know about you, but at times, I still find myself shaking my head, reluctant and unable to fully grasp all that has transpired in 2020.
Everything seems so surreal.
And yet, without asking permission, 2020 has forged on an once again we find ourselves in the season of Advent.
Advent, A season of expectation, in a year that has been bountiful in disruption and discomfort. A CALL TO SLOW DOWN.
Perhaps you’re like me, I’ve always loved the Advent season. There is something so delicious, so subversive about it all. A call to slow down in the midst of our hustle and bustle, a call to reassess our resources in the midst of gift giving and a call to rethink our priorities as we wait in the now and not yet of the Kingdom to come.
Advent at its best, has always been a time for telling the absolute truth. The truth of our tiredness, our anxieties, our fears and at the same time, telling the absolute truth of God's abundant graciousness, steadfast love and the hope for a new tomorrow.
This year, in this moment, we’ve never needed the hope of Advent more.
The current suffering we see across Canada, the injustice, the oppression, the sickness, the struggle, these are real and present dangers. Realities that as the church in Canada, we’d be wise not to ignore or push to the side. But to say that all is not right with our world, and yet still declare hope in the middle of what can seem like hopelessness, is precisely what I believe Jesus is inviting us to do.
I’m coming to understand, in ever-increasing ways, this is the tension of what it means to follow Jesus in our time and place. As Jesus-followers, we live our entire lives in Advent, making our homes in this in-between time. We set up shop right in the middle of the way things are and the way things ought to be. We celebrate, this baby in a manger, who has come and yet will come again, holding on to hope in one hand and our broken world in the other.
When all is not right with the world, it can be easy to believe that hope is for the naive ones, the glass-half-full crowd, the rose-coloured glasses folks, reserved only for times when life is up and to the right. It can be easy to believe that hope is simply for the sweet souls among us who haven’t seen the dark side of institutions, reserved for those who avoided hardships this year or given only to those who never read the news.
Having hope in Jesus, in the midst of struggle, is actually deeply healing and rejuvenating to the weary soul.
The kind of hope that Jesus gives to us is creative, it sparks reimagining of what could be, channels our collective lament and love and believes that tomorrow doesn’t have to be like today. Even in the spaciousness of uncertainty, in the polarized choice our culture offers us of pessimism or optimism, we have the choice to cultivate, practice and abide in counter-cultural, Jesus-centered hope.
Jesus-centered hope, as I’ve come to know it, is robust, full-bodied, isn’t afraid to tell the truth or get ITS hands dirty.
This hope grabs a shovel, digs into our Canadian soil and into our hearts and gets to work. It’s a hope that loves deeply, tends to justice, works for liberation, prays for restoration and creates space for redemption.
Jesus-centered hope is hearty and rugged, ready to be leaned on and longed for. This kind of longing, the hope that one day, peace and love will rule and reign, this has been the longing of Advent across the ages. As our faith has been passed down to us, so too has the longing. We now own the hopeful longing, tending to this liminal space, as we long for His will to be done here, as is it is heaven.
At the deepest dark here in the Northern hemisphere, is precisely the time we choose to celebrate the historical birth of Christ, reminding us that even in the darkest times, this kind of resilient hope is born.
The light breaking in.
The days turning.
The infinite taking up residence in our finite world.
For us, fellow sisters and brothers, a child is born, to us, in these times of darkness, a son is given. Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Our ever-present hope this year and always.
As you enter into this Advent season, one we could never have imagined, may you know the richness and fullness of the hope of Jesus.
May you behold, not just believe, in the suffering saviour who is the hope of our actual, current and present world.
In this Advent season, as you slow down, reassess and reimagine, may you come to know the hope that is present to us today, abides within us and through our hands and feet, is ready to be shown and known as the hope of the world.
Elle is the Program Manager and a founding member of The New Leaf Network, a collaborative missional organization that helps support and equip church planters, spiritual entrepreneurs and missional practitioners to start something new here in post-Christian Canada. She is a sought-after speaker at churches and conferences focusing on innovation in church planting, re-imagining existing congregations and pioneering fresh expressions of church. Elle calls Waterloo home where she lives with her family, friends & a very fluffy puppy. She loves a good cup of strong coffee and a long day by the Lake.