A Defiant Advent // Defiant Hope // Kate Murphy

For us, it’s not beginning to look a lot like Christmas. For us, it is the holy season of Advent—and it has never been more important, more healing, to understand the difference.

Of course, we are tired and scared and overwhelmed, which makes it seem like exactly the time to string lights, drink hot chocolate, watch predictable Christmas movies, and buy things for those we love. And there is nothing evil or wrong about any of these things—but they won’t bring us the healing, hope, and peace that our souls are starved for.

We need Advent—these weeks of looking at the world as it is, all creation groaning as if in labor. We need these weeks to name and grieve what is broken. A season, not for shutting out the world and making wishes but, for the Spirit to call us to open our eyes and look soberly at reality—a reality that can’t be fixed with candy canes or even Congress itself.

We hope you’ll join us by listening in to this Advent series. But don’t come expecting choirs of angels singing—come expecting apocalypse. Because, before we can rejoice in what is coming, we first have to see what is. Only then— when we wake up and see how devastatingly complete the Fall is—can we find real hope. The kind of defiant hope that watches and waits for our Savior who has overcome the world and is making all things—ALL THINGS—new.

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