December 18 Sunday Preview, from The Rev. Kaji Douša

Dear Church:

It’s happening: the nights are getting longer, the darkness around us is growing. One of the most wonderful things about Advent in New York City is that the city organically provides a counternarrative to the “darkness is bad” assumption. Because any New Yorker can attest to our ability to turn the dark nights of December into…magic. For us, there is almost never an opportunity for the absence of light. In this time we shimmer.

Not always, of course. Always almost never applies, really. And while the city shimmers, someone is lonely. Someone is hungry. Someone is afraid. Our faith teaches us to confront this both/and. To see darkness as an opportunity to look at the light that otherwise might not be clear to us. To see the hungry, lonely, afraid and: love boldly.

In all of this, the music grows louder, the chorus of God’s angels grows stronger, we learn that, no matter what, God’s magnificence and glory can reach every corner of God’s earth – here in our city, there at home, yonder at the corner of the world’s most profound intersections. Here at The Park, we mean this literally. The choir has been preparing for what promises to be an inspiring Christmas Concert on Thursday (which is free to the public and you should most definitely come.)

The Fourth Sunday of Advent is a day that gathers the previous Advent disciplines: hope, peace and joy and celebrates the most powerful force behind each of them: love.

Join us as we grow, together, in God’s love. And bring many friends. It is, after all, the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

Pax Christi,
Kaji