We live in unsettling times, and this is a time for unsettling the domesticated idea of the Christmas story. That’s what the daily devotionals in the Unsettling Advent series from Word&Way aim to do. Starting for the 2024 year on Dec. 1 and running through Christmas Eve, join more than 20 writers as they help us with this meaningfully journey of considering an Advent in unusual times
This is not a safe set of reflections that warms your heart by the fire like. Rather, we’ll be challenging readers to engage this period of waiting in a different way because our current circumstances oddly offer echoes of the first Advent. We will ponder together the lessons of God coming 2,000 years ago and God working in our context today of rulers clinging to power, dangerous pregnancies, and violence in Lebanon.
For Unsettling Advent in 2021, we considered Advent in a time of death/COVID, racial injustices, and insurrection. In 2022, we explored Advent in a time of war (in Ukraine), refugees, and (gun) violence. Last year, we reflected on Advent in a time of state executions, political anxieties, and bloodshed in Israel. All three years the devotionals have won top awards from the Associated Church Press and Religion Communicators Council. And they led to a Lenten devotional book in 2023.
