Unwrapping Advent Part 1: A Journey Filled with Hope

Welcome to this first episode of the 6th season of Holy Shenanigans. Advent is a time for reflection and new beginnings. This festive season, Tara invites you to slow down and embrace hope. Download a new episode every Tuesday in December for uplifting stories and spiritual insights.

 A sister article to this podcast episode at the Chautauqua Gazette HOPE Edition. 

Transcript

S6 E1 Unwrapping Advent Part 1: A Journey Filled with Hope

Pastor Tara Lamont Eastman: [00:00:00] Advent greetings to you from Holy Shenanigans podcast. I'm your muse, Tara Lamont Eastman, pastor, podcaster, and practitioner of Holy Shenanigans. We are so happy to have you with us to discover the sacred showing up in everyday life and in the season of Advent. What is Advent, you ask? Advent is the first season of the liturgical Christian church year.

Running from December 1st to December 24th. Over the next four weeks of Advent, we'll be reflecting on this holiday season through the lenses of hope, peace, joy, and love. So welcome to the very [00:01:00] first week of Advent, and hope. For a lot of folks, one of the most familiar aspects of Advent is the chocolate Advent calendar.

You know the one. The one that holds 24 pieces of chocolate that are sometimes wrapped in that shiny foil. However, over the years, this advent calendar tradition has expanded to coffee pods, jam, and even Legos. But my introduction to an advent calendar started when I was the parent of young children, when my in laws would give us a chocolate advent calendar.

Each day after lunch, my toddler and I would look carefully for the number of that day, open the little cardboard window and pop out the mini chocolate and peel it out of the foil to savor and enjoy. But one [00:02:00] day before lunch. As my toddler was happily watching their pre lunch shows, I ran upstairs to put some clothes away, and a few minutes passed.

I heard my toddler giggling with great delight. I came downstairs to see her sitting on the floor surrounded by a pile of foil wrappers and an empty cardboard advent calendar frame. They smiled wide with chocolate all over their face and exclaimed with great glee. Mama, candy gone! Now it's Christmas! In all this waiting for Christmas, my toddler ate all the Advent chocolates.

They wanted Christmas to be here now. To their great disappointment, they learned that Christmas can't be hurried. Not even when you eat all of the Advent chocolates. [00:03:00] Advent and the holiday season have a lot of waiting, don't they? Waiting for the cookies, waiting to put up the Christmas tree, and waiting for that gift exchange.

Waiting through Advent for Christmas is hard. Like little children, the anticipation of the holiday can be overwhelming. Sometimes we try to trade our Advent hope to demand the things of Christmas. Now, we all have established holiday traditions and expectations. Each holiday season, we wonder and worry.

How will the cards get sent, the cookies baked, gifts bought and wrapped, and the tree trimmed? Too easily, the holiday season becomes a time of rushing and packing our days with more and more and more things until we feel overwhelmed and [00:04:00] perhaps a bit queasy. If we rush, we can miss the gifts of Advent.

Recently, when I was walking through the grocery store, I overheard a fellow shopper say, I'm all set for the holidays. My lights are up. The gifts are packed and ready to go. I looked at the frozen turkey in my cart and felt overwhelmed. There was so much undone. How would I ever catch up? I hope I can be ready for the holidays.

I hope that, fill in the blank, It's perfect this year. I hope, I hope, I hope for hope. hope like the kind the psalmist sings of. Show me your ways, Lord, [00:05:00] teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me for you are God, my savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love.

For they are from of old. While part of me longs to be prepared for the holiday season like my fellow shopper, these words from Psalm 25 help me to clarify what I truly am hoping for this Advent. Hope. This first week of Advent gives me hope. It invites me to slow down and consider how God is at work in the unfinished spaces of life.

Full of unthawed turkeys and not yet shopped for gifts. This time [00:06:00] calls me to a different kind of practice. By being on the lookout for what is most needed. Hope. Perhaps this Advent season you are looking for something a little bit different too. And so I offer some questions of hope. What do you hope for this Advent season?

How will you celebrate hope this week? Where can you find some time to slow down? A poem for Advent 1, Hope. Hope seems as light as a feather, but sparks all good deep things that are yet to come. Hope is a glimmer of light in the darkest night, even in the [00:07:00] midst of chaos. Hope is the new growth of a fig leaf or bud of the cactus plant, growing slowly to remind us.

But Jesus is nearby. As the solstice draws near, days grow darker and colder, and a single candle of hope shines. A single candle to wake us up to the promise given. A single candle to stoke the cooling embers of the heart. A single candle to give confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

A single candle to do the heavy lifting and give us, help us to be open to the possibilities emerging. Hope. Here are [00:08:00] some suggestions to cultivate hope. Number one, make a plan to attend a local holiday music event. As you listen, take note of how the music makes you feel. If a particular piece of music makes you feel hopeful.

Add it and some other songs to a playlist to accompany your holiday tasks and activities. Number two. Invite a friend to coffee and ask them what they are hoping to experience this holiday season. Share your thoughts as well. And then later on check in with your friend throughout the weeks of Advent to see how their hopes and experiences are coming along.

Number three. Have Read a devotional book with friends or family that will help you focus on these themes of Advent, hope, peace, joy, and [00:09:00] love. Get together and talk about it over a meal. I recommend from Paraclete Press, The Joy of Advent by Rebecca and Stephen Grable. Number four. Set up an Advent wreath at home.

Take time at the end of Hope Week to reflect on where you noticed hope showing up, or how you can cultivate more hope in the days to come. I am your holy shenanigans muse, Tara Lamont Eastman. Thank you for joining us for holy shenanigans that surprise, encourage, redirect, and turn life upside down, all in the name of love.

This is an unpredictable spiritual adventure. That is always sacred, but never stuffy. Thanks to Ian Eastman for sound production and editing. You can support Holy [00:10:00] Shenanigans podcast by contributing at www. buymeacoffee. com backslash Tara L Eastman. If you're looking for a church for Advent season, I invite you to come and visit First Presbyterian Church.

Of Warren, Pennsylvania. Until next week, may you discover Advent Hope and know that you are always Beloved.