Welcome to Resilient Faith the podcast . Opportunities to find deeper resilience within ourselves can come when life seems most challenging . This podcast is to help you develop that resilience and connection with God . Being resilient and having power starts with faith . Welcome , friends , to another episode of the Resilient Faith podcast .
I truly hope that you enjoyed our sermon series on the Gospel according to Taylor Swift . We certainly had a lot of fun doing that and leading our community in worship inspired by the music of Taylor Swift and , of course , tying it to the themes in our scripture and in the very important issues and conversations in our world today .
And yet now we are towards the tail end of Advent . Advent is the four Sundays leading up to Christmas Eve .
This year we have a bit of a unique situation , since the fourth Sunday of Advent also just happens to be Christmas Eve , and so we will be celebrating the fourth Sunday of Advent lighting the candle of love on the Advent wreath and then also lighting the Christ candle , celebrating the birth of Christ once again in our world , in our hearts , in our lives .
So I wanted to share a blessing with you . You'll know how much I enjoy sharing poetry and blessings and things that I find that I really enjoy and that are meaningful to me and therefore I hope and pray will be meaningful to you .
So I know that I have shared the work of Kate Bowler in the past , but this is a blessing for Christmas Eve from Kate Bowler , so I'm sharing this with you as we draw closer to this season of Advent , this season of anticipation and hopeful expectation for the birth of Christ for Christmas .
So here's what she wrote for this blessing you are here , what a wonder . Robed in the everyday majesty of a newborn so beautiful , so soft , so new , perfect , in the terrifying fragility that thrills every parent . Watch his head , look at those tiny fingernails .
God become human , blinking at strange new surroundings , full wisdom and power poured into a smallness that knows hunger and gravity and unseeing urgency for your mother's skin .
And Mary , so newly parted from you , turns her thoughts to the impossible angelic visitation that promised you'd come and she knew somehow , staring at your eyelashes , that you were a great reversal here to put all things right . Blessed are we when our hearts warm with her .
You're here and we are too Newly come to worship with kings and shepherds and barn animals and angels as you light up the world on this holiest , loveliest night .
Well , friends , I do hope and pray that , as we are approaching this finish line of Advent , as we are getting closer to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day , that you will all feel surrounded by God's presence and God's love as we look with gratitude towards the end of 2023 , that we will also look with gratitude and hopeful expectation into 2024 , not that the world
will somehow miraculously be different than it is or people will miraculously be different than we are , although we can always hope for that but that we will continue to feel a sense of God's presence with us and us among us , through all that we do , through all that we experience , no matter what . May God bless you today , tomorrow and always Amen .
You've been listening to Resilient Faith . The podcast Resilient Faith is sponsored by Brentwood Presbyterian Church in West Los Angeles . You can follow our church and this podcast on Facebook at BPCTeam and Instagram at BPC underscore USA . Make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform , and thanks for listening .