Dear Friends of Harvard-Epworth,

This semester I am blessed to teach a confirmation class to a small group of amazing young humans. Each Sunday morning I watch them as they come into the Pastors’ Office. They often look exhausted from an inordinately full schedule of sports, homework, and social stressors I can’t even imagine. (I grew up in primitive times when social media was a local school’s gossip-mill of corded phones and stage-whispers in the lunch room.)

One of the ways we create a safe and holy space with the youth is by lighting a candle and sharing a prayer. I have them do the lighting.  And as a group we quickly found out that the gentle skill of striking a paper match is not being passed down from generation to generation. I’ve shown a few techniques from my wayward adolescence (how I never burned down may parents’ garage is still a mystery/miracle), and over  a several weeks everyone is getting more confident with striking the easily bent, fragile little matches. And getting more confident in getting our candle lit to create a space set apart from the strain of school and social expectations.

The stressors of our adult world are also exhausting, and certainly play on a grander scale. The news of crass politics, war, crime, anxiety, environmental destruction, and human dignity being threatened anew are all around us. They form a cacophonous spiritual background noise from which we need regular respite or we will go mad.  Or worse, we will get accustomed to it.

So this Advent and Christmas season make a space to light a candle against the noise and the madness.  Re-learn how to strike a paper match. Create a quiet, holy space set apart. And share the words of civil-rights activist and mystic Howard Thurman:

I will light candles this Christmas.

Candles of joy, despite all the sadness.

Candles of hope where despair keeps watch.

Candles of courage where fear is ever present.

Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days.

Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens.

Candles of love to inspire all of my living.

Candles that will burn all the year long.

Blessed Advent, everyone!

Pastor Mitch