Advent 1A
November 30, 2025
St. Dunstan’s
The Rev. Patricia Templeton
On this first Sunday of Advent, the first day of the church year, we begin worship with this prayer: “Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
Advent could well be called the season of darkness.
This time of the year I find myself thinking of the dark, both literally and figuratively. Literally, we know that the days are growing shorter. It may well be dark when we leave the house in the morning and dark when we arrive home in the evening.
I don’t like the long hours of darkness much, but I know they are short lived. It is the figurative darkness that concerns me.
This year seems particularly dark to many. As we watch our Constitution ignored, our democracy crumbling, the people Jesus commands us to love being treated with cruelty, it is easy to feel the darkness is overwhelming.
But the truth is we are always called to cast away the works of darkness. Advent and Christmas remind us that even in the darkest of times we are not alone.
We symbolize that with the Advent wreath, growing in light each week. The meaning of the candles gives us a hint of how we can shine light in the darkness.
The first candle, the one lit today, symbolizes faith. The kind of faith that casts out darkness is not subscribing to certain dogmas or a list of things in which one must believe.
It is an active faith, grounded in the knowledge of God’s interactions with the world throughout history.
Even a cursory reading of scripture belies the notion that faith has nothing to do with politics. Biblical faith is a political faith, the story of a God who is concerned about how power is used and abused, and how society’s most vulnerable are treated.
A God who liberates people from slavery is a political God.
This kind of faith was at the heart of the Civil Rights movement. The foot soldiers who stood up to the evil of white supremacy in Selma knew scripture inside and out.
They knew how God had liberated God’s people in the past, and they knew without a doubt that same God was with them in the present.
Faith gave them courage to confront the darkness.
The second candle symbolizes hope. Hope may seem hard to come by these days, but if we look carefully it is there. We saw it in Portland, where people in inflatable frog suits stood face to face with armed troops, making the frog an unlikely symbol of resistance.
We see it in Chicago and Charlotte, where churches underwent training in how to thwart ICE and protect our neighbors who came to this country seeking better lives for their families. We see it when ordinary citizens line up in a perimeter around a school so that ICE can’t drag children out of their cars or take away their parents.
We saw it when 8 million people across the country took to the streets to stand up for democracy.
All these acts of resistance, small and large, give us hope. Hope is contagious. It gives us courage to face the darkness, knowing we are not alone.
The wreath’s third candle symbolizes joy. That may seem a stretch. Joy in the face of fear and darkness? The forces of darkness live a joyless existence. But Mary shows us joy in uncertain times.
We often forget how terrified Mary must have been at the news that she would bear the Messiah. Everything in her life changes in an instant.
Young, unmarried, unexpectantly pregnant. Surely she must have been anxious and worried. Would she become the object of gossip? Would Joseph reject her and her family disown her?
But Mary does not give into fear. Instead she bursts into a song of joy, praising a God who brings down the powerful from their thrones and lifts up the lowly, who fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty.
Mary’s joy gives her courage to face the uncertainty ahead of her.
The fourth candle of Advent symbolizes love. Biblical love is not only an emotion. It is active, an embodiment of faith.
It is a love that stands up to evil. A love in solidarity with those on society’s margins. A love that is not silent in the face of injustice. A love that defeats hate.
This kind of love is a strength, not a weakness. It gives us the courage to face the darkness, knowing that the God of love is with us.
This Advent we pray that God will give us faith. Give us hope. Give us joy and love.
Give us the grace and courage to cast away the works of darkness, whenever and wherever they occur.
Amen.