November 30

Mariame Kaba, an abolitionist organizer and author, has studied the neuroscience of both incarceration and abolition. Her work shows us that it is easier for us, neurologically, to accept and live in a story that is known – even if it is horrible and tragic – than it is for us to hold and live into possibility that is uncertain. It is simpler, more comfortable, and less demanding on our emotional brains to subscribe to the idea that punishment, in the form of prisons and detention centers for example, is the right response to crime, as much as it was for those who thought chattel slavery was necessary for economic profit.  Holding uncertainty, living with uncertainty, is a capacity we must build. A living, changing world demands that we lean into uncertainty so that we can imagine new possibilities for flourishing life beyond what is easy and comfortable.

The good news is that the practice of our faith, when woven with play, preparedness, and prophetic imaginings, can do that! Advent itself is a practice of preparing, hoping, expecting the inbreaking of God’s love and justice in ever new and life-changing ways.  The Gospel text for this day in Advent implores us to, “Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” To be “awake” is to stay present in the possibility and promise of God’s love, even if it also requires us to hold and live in uncertainty.  This uncertainty, this not-knowing, is the precisely the place where hope is born.

Prayer

God who is All-Possibility, open our hearts, minds and bodies beyond what we see right now.
Keep us awake to the new paths that emerge from the unknown,
as you call us to be love incarnate in this ever-changing world.
Make our hope so audacious that we grow in comfort with uncertainty
as a place where your new day dawns.  Amen.