ADVENT POEMS Hope Love Joy Peace Christmas HOPE

ADVENT POEMS Hope, Love, Joy, Peace, Christmas

HOPE On the way to new birth, there is labor. And in the midst of labor, there is much waiting. Much waiting. Agonizing, painful, teeth-gritting waiting. For the one who waits, words slip away, time dissolves, and expansive existence is reduced to this moment, this existence, this pain, breath by ragged breath.

HOPE Direction, purpose, goal. . . all fades, is forgotten in the urgency of not going under, not drowning, right here and now. This, my brothers and sisters, is when we carry the hope for each other. This is when we who wait with whisper hope to those whose sight is obscured by their pain. The Body of Christ is communal. When one suffers, all are affected. To live in opposition to this truth is to deceive oneself.

HOPE When members of the Body hurt, are oppressed, are ignored, are targeted, the time for business as usual has passed, and the time has arrived for supporting, risking, speaking up, and entering into deep, full companionship. The labor is slow. The progress is uncertain. The suffering lament how long. . . so we join our hearts and souls together, place our hope in the promises of God, and midwife each other towards the light, towards the kindom, towards the new life about to be born.

LOVE When I was small, love was small, too. Not small as in limited, but small as in contained, tidy, not farflung. I knew exactly whom I loved and who loved me, and it felt a certain way without variation: safe, warm, pleasant. I could draw love – crayon hearts around my family, my friends, my pets. Very defined, very good, very straightforward. That was love when I was small.

LOVE I am no longer small, and neither is love. Love bears but a vestige of what it once looked like to me. Love is now wide-ranging, all-encompassing, challenging, and occasionally downright uncomfortable. The One for whom we wait this Advent season began as a baby. Responding to a baby is easy. Adoration of an infant is understandable. It happens all the time.

LOVE But this Savior, for whom we wait, grew up, and we must grow up with him, and our love must be wide-ranging all-encompassing, must evolve from a feeling to an action, in order for us to be the hands, feet and voice of the Love that so relentlessly sought the least, the last, and the lost. As we prepare ourselves anew for the fresh inbreaking of God incarnate, let us not be dismayed by the stretching and discomfort that come with love lived out loud.

LOVE It isn’t small, and it isn’t tidy, and it isn’t always comfortable, but love that goes beyond itself to those on the margins is what the baby in the manger grew to embody. Go, tell it on the mountain! Love is big, and God has drawn a heart around everyone.

LOVE It isn’t small, and it isn’t tidy, and it isn’t always comfortable, but love that goes beyond itself to those on the margins is what the baby in the manger grew to embody. Go, tell it on the mountain! Love is big, and God has drawn a heart around everyone.

JOY Children sing I’ve got the joy, joy down in my heart! and I agree with that sentiment. There is a lot of joy available, worthy of being mentioned four times, but the down part is true, too. Very often, the joy is buried deep below the surface, hidden under layers of information and distraction, a polished stone under a stack of old newspapers. So much negative in the world today, so much trash, so much fear. We bury our faces in our phones because machines are much easier than people, and the garbage keeps piling on, and the joy becomes more and more a distant memory.

JOY But joy is our birthright. The angels told the shepherds they were bringing good news of a great joy that will be to all people. The good news is for us, but we have to make room for it. Our minds are busier than a guest house in Bethlehem during a census -too full for one more family, even a small one. The birth is coming, the joy is promised. May we make ready, may we make room. May we join together, help each other, and sanctify space for God’s great gift of joy.

PEACE God, we are your people, made in your holy image. We come before you this day joined in prayer for peace. Our sin, both individual and institutional, as well as the adept way we turn a blind eye to it, has caught up with us. Our world seems to be imploding, and we are turning on each other, destroying one other, and riding a wave of fear to a most tragic conclusion. We are in need of you, O God. We are in desperate need of all that you are.

PEACE We ask now for your peace, and we ask to be your peace in a world that so urgently needs it. In this season of Advent, as we remember the astounding event of your birth among us, lead us to our own self-emptying, that we may be filled with your Spirit and reach out to our fellow travelers with the gentle hands of Jesus, bringing his loving acceptance to our every encounter.

PEACE Help us remember, God, that no act is too small to matter. Every smile, every prayer, every practical offer of aid, every major leap of faith – all count, all are used, all add power to the groundswell of goodness and justice and mercy that is your Spirit moving in the world today. Fill us with your peace, O God. Peace be in our hands. Peace be in our voices. Peace be in our action. Peace be in our stillness.

PEACE As one flame, shared candle to candle, can fill a sanctuary with light, so be it with your peace, from one heart to another, one interaction at a time, until no place in the world is without your light. Amen

CHRISTMAS We wake this morning to a brand-new world. In the depths of the night, amid toil and travail, blood, sweat and tears, Christ has been born. The biggest move God ever made. Setting aside glory and magnitude and certainty, voluntarily becoming less and less until starting afresh with us, taking in that first cold breath of air as a naked, flailing infant. Aside from Resurrection, it does not get any more remarkable than that.

CHRISTMAS The intensity of God’s love for us cannot be put into words. But snatches of it can be felt through creation – the love of people, the beauty of nature the amazing wonder of being, at all. Life is beautiful. Life hurts. God has experienced both the beauty and the pain as one of us.

CHRISTMAS As we live out this day and all the days to come, God is with us, closer to us than our own breath, imparting comfort and strength, giving us heart, promising that love will, in fact, win. Be not afraid. Unto us is born this day, in the city of David, a savior. Alleluia, Amen!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: LINDY THOMPSON Lindy Thompson is a poet and lyricist whose work seeks to shine fresh light on the sacred truth that all people are beloved children of God. Her poetry has been published by Alive Now, Reconciling Ministries Network, and the General Commission on Religion and Race. She has written lyrics for composer Mark Miller for many choral anthems and congregational songs including “I Choose Love” and “Teach Me to Fly, ” both published by Choristers Guild. She lives in Franklin, TN with her husband three children where they are all very active members of Christ UMC. She blogs her poetry at lindythompson. net and posts information and updates on facebook. com/lindythompsonwrites.