Organ pipes in the Sanctuary of First Church in Cambridge. A wrought iron chandelier hangs in the foreground.

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The Light That Shines in the Darkness: Spiritual Practices for Advent 2020

November 29, 2020

As the days grow shorter and the shadows of these immensely challenging times seem to lengthen all around us, please join our online worship, study and prayer this season as we wait and watch for the light of Christmas!

John’s Gospel reminds us that the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it! This is a good and needed word for these times—one to remember, ponder and pray. And yet, how does having only negative connotations of darkness relate to our current moment of racial reckoning? How do negative connotations of darkness shape our experience of the pandemic and post-election moment we will be living through in December! Can we find goodness and blessing in the dark and the light, in the knowledge that God created the day and the night and called them both good? In darkness and in light, how can we wait, and labor
and prepare for the light and joy and new birth that come at Christmas? In looming darkness and dawning light, how can we hold the light of the Christ child, a Light unto the world?