Quiet

Advent is a quiet season, meant for reflection, for glimpsing light in the darkness.

This week we’ll host our annual Longest Night worship gathering.  This is a time for quiet, to claim the grief we feel this season, to sit in the darkness, to recognize the pain we hold, and to name our struggles. We’ve been hosting these services for years now, and the need for them seems to be ever growing.  We get lots of people who come and who we never see again, but like so much of our work that’s enough. It’s enough to offer light one night. It’s enough to host a place where people can come and seek peace in the quiet.

We’ve always been clear at SFC that success for us doesn’t mean huge numbers, a big building, or tons of money. Success for us looks like this, space on a quiet evening for a gathered few. It’s transformation and change on a small level, that over time builds a revolution of hope, peace, and joy.

This sense of who we are and what it means to be God’s people this advent are captured for me so beautifully in these words for worship written by Scottish minister Roddy Hamilton:

it is solstice night
it is the death of darkness

for an age
light has been slipping away
but now
no further

it shall return

and in the hearing of the darkness
the light says:
arise
shine
for your light has come

the promise frees itself from the frost
and long nights

there is an awakening
and in the hearing of the darkness
the light says:
the people who have walked in darkness
have seen a great light

the day now
shrunken yet
is filled with hope
and begins to stretch
pushing at the edges of darkness
scraping it away
with hope of new life

and in the hearing of the darkness
the light says:
for unto you a child is born
unto you a son is given

this is a darkness greater than any night
and the light more than the day

right in the heart of the deeper, human darkness
a manger is ready
as the age of brightness returns

the advent promise
has found a place
to chase the darkness
and make room for the light

May your longest night be a place of quiet, where you can trust in knowing the light is coming.

-Eilidh