Signs and Faithfulness

Mary is pregnant; Joseph comes up with a contingency plan, and an angel throws new information into the mix that changes everything. Do you feel the frenzy in the story? That underlying sense that if one thing goes wrong, the entire narrative will erupt into chaos? Or is that just the Christmas Eve anxiety seeping in?

In these last few days before Christmas Eve, we, like Joseph, receive a call to faithfulness, to notice the signs before us, listen to the messengers among us, and follow. We must wonder when the significance of the choice to believe and follow the angel’s directions sank in with Joseph. Clearly, he acted immediately, but when did the action gain meaning for him, for Mary, for the world?

In the Northern Hemisphere, this Sunday is also the longest night of the year, a time when many communities offer a Blue Christmas or Longest Night service. This year, consider how the themes of Blue Christmas might also be incorporated into the Sunday morning service. What does faithfulness look like in the face of grief? How do we follow the signs God gives us when our hearts are heavy with sadness? How does God dwell among us in the midst of the heartbreak in our individual lives, our communities, and our world? Perhaps the greatest gift we can give, the best answer we can offer to these hard questions, is the opportunity to rest in love and compassion, to pray together without insisting that we must be happy and carefree. The joy of last week does not negate the difficulty of living faithfully in a broken world. On this final Sunday of Advent, place an angel on the altar. Light the candle of love. Pray for the hurts of the world. Encourage one another to faithfulness with the assurance that God will guide us, like Joseph, with signs and messengers to live ready to welcome Emmanuel, God with us.