Advent Series 2024: Waiting for God in the Climate Crisis - Week 1: Gritty Hope

Please join me for a series of Advent reflections and prayers in our time of climate crisis. Each post arrives on Friday in time for the following Sunday in Advent.

I have written a weekly series of reflections and prayers for Advent this year. Please scroll down to find this week’s offering! 🕯️

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Hello friends, I can hardly believe that it is the end of November and that we are on the cusp of December and the Christmas season. I live in Eastern Ontario (zone 5 for those who know what that means!), and so usually by now, I am getting used to the damp cold that signals late autumn and dealing with freezing rain and snow. However, my roses were still blooming up until a couple of weeks ago, the ground is still soft, and we haven’t seen more than a few flakes in the air that seem more like an urban myth than reality (I haven’t seen them, but my kids say they have!).

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As much as I enjoy the warmer temperatures, this isn’t right. I live in the Ottawa River watershed in which I was born and raised, and can feel in my bones that it isn’t right. I lament the changes in the climate that are here now and rapidly worsening. There is so much more at stake than just having a few extra warm days and maybe a breather in terms of when I can get the snow tires on the car. As we each prepare for the coming of winter and the holiday season, may we stay attentive to the changes in the world around us. May we stay present and notice. This is your weekly nudge.

Frost on the bushes outside the door of the church one Sunday morning in November. That day the forecast called for a high of 10 degrees Celsius.

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ADVENT SERIES 2024:

Waiting for God in the Climate Crisis

Amid the climate and ecological crisis, Advent comes around once again in the Christian calendar. Advent is a time of waiting not just for the birth of Jesus, the incarnation of God in our world, but for that time in the future when Christ has promised to return, when the Kingdom of God will be here in its fullness. We wait for a time when the fullness of hope, peace, joy, and love, known to Christians through Jesus Christ, will fill the Earth community.

For this year’s Advent reflection series, I have chosen the theme of kenosis. Kenosis means self-emptying, about giving of the self for the sake of the other. It is an ancient metaphor and model in Christianity, yet has illuminating potential for today. Kenosis is about the sacrifice that is required of us if we are to effectively respond to the climate and ecological crisis. More, it is in such sacrifice, in our self-emptying that we meet the other and find ourselves.

This Advent series is available to paid subscribers of Faith. Climate Crisis. Action. Upgrade today to receive the full devotional offering (as well as access to the entire archive of this newsletter). Each week includes a reflection on the Gospel reading for that week, questions for you to ponder, and a prayer written by me that you are invited to pray at any time during Advent. I hope that these resources are meaningful to you in this season of holy waiting.

(1) First week of Advent: Gritty Hope