Episode 24: Why are we getting sad before Christmas?
We start off with some questions from our Sunday meetings YouTube chat. Someone asked on our livestream: how do we forgive someone when they aren’t sorry? Forgiveness is always a miracle but it involves leaning on Jesus to forgive someone who isn’t sorry or repenting. Repentance is the idea of turning around: Julie thinks about it like her neighborhood trash truck that has to turn around at a dead-end road. There’s some deeper convo here about guilt and shame, and Jonny shares about the context of the shame culture that he grew up in. Tune in to hear more.
Later, pastors discuss the season of Advent and Christmas and what it truly means. This year, especially, we live it with feelings of grief and lament. Advent gives us space to just be real, and acknowledge what’s real, and what’s real is that life is hard but that Jesus is coming into the midst of it. His birth story isn’t a precious moment, but one of displaced people, of refugees fleeing governmental forces. Advent isn’t shallow joy. The coming of Jesus is all the more real to us when we can be real about naming what is wrong about what suffering is happening right now.
Ending with a little Spiritual Show and Tell: our Lamentations of Right Now events and Art Bucher’s story of a little chestnut; the book Honest Advent by Scott Erickson; Miroslav Wolf; and the new meanings of a worship space in this time of separation.
Show Notes
Main section Why are we getting sad before Christmas?
- Luke 1: Jesus is not born into a merry place
- Over The Rhine songs: White Horse | The Trumpet Child
Spiritual Show and Tell
- Ben Shared: The Lamentations of Loneliness | Lamentations of Climate Change
- Julie Shared: A quote from Exclusion and Embrace by Miroslav Volf
- Rachel Shared: Honest Advent by Scott Erickson
- Jonny Shared: A story about experiencing the first At-Home Sunday meeting of Advent
Join us for Advent
https://www.circleofhope.net/Advent
About this Podcast
Resist and Restore is a podcast by Circle of Hope. We’re extending the table of our dialogue! Tune in bi-weekly as the Circle of Hope pastors—Rachel, Ben, Julie, and Jonny—sit down to dialogue about faith, God, Jesus, the spiritual life, and everything in between. Available on Spotify, iTunes/Apple Music, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.
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