how can this weary world rejoice?

 

In the midst of this advent season, reflecting on words like hope, peace, joy, love. Feels different this year. There has been so much upheaval, death, and pain. We are weary, how can we rejoice? And yet, I’ve sensed a general air of my community being a little more eager to enter the “Christmas spirit”. Walking around my neighborhood the day after thanksgiving, I couldn’t help but notice more people than usual decking the halls, trimming their trees, doing their best to make things merry in bright in the midst of darkness.

While it seems like the events of this year- Covid, wildfires, economic turmoil, high rates of domestic violence and suicides- stark reminders of the reality of suffering would blot out the hope of the season—I think they’ve actually strengthened it.

Maybe that’s the point we’ve so often missed with advent. In the throes of consumerism, we’ve missed the message. It’s easy to sing out ‘the weary world rejoices’ and go about our to-do lists when the world mostly seems “merry and bright”. But it’s a whole different thing to sing those words in the midst of darkness. When merry and bright are the last two descriptors that come to mind. Maybe this year is also an invitation- to dig into the message and to sing with new perspective our need for the Emmanuel to Come, to “disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and deaths dark shadows put to flight”—in a way we couldn’t understand before 2020.

We need the hope, love, peace, and joy of advent this year. The weary world can rejoice more fully when we acknowledge our weariness, our fear, our pain. We can rejoice in the hope of a savior, of the God with us. O come, o Come Emmanuel, and this year’s dark shadows put to flight-rejoice!