During Advent and leading up to Christmas 2024, the Methodist Church is calling us all to ‘Hush the Noise.’ This phrase is taken from the carol ‘It Came Upon the Midnight Clear’, and I am using this phrase in the ministers’ letter for December.

When I was a Religious Studies teacher, many students would ask me what I wanted for Christmas. I always gave the same answer each year, which was, there is just one thing I would like at Christmas, and that is peace and quiet, something I rarely had!

Today there are so many voices telling us how to celebrate at Christmas, what to wear, what to eat and drink, what to watch on TV and what to buy. Instead, this Christmas we’re inviting everyone to ‘hush the noise’ so that we can listen for the love song that the angels bring, year after year. They sang it for the first time more than 2,000 years ago, and it is still relevant today.

Advent is the start of the Church’s liturgical calendar, and the main Gospel used in the lectionary is Luke. In this first Sunday in Advent, we begin with a rather cryptic warning that we are going to explore through the lens of hushing the noise.

The picture for the first week of advent is a picture of roaring waves. This text is a continuation of Luke’s account of Jesus’ speech about the end times, the advent of the Son of Man and the coming of redemption. However, you interpret the Bible … the roaring of the sea and the waves… give us a picture of power and noise.
Over the years I have spent time watching the sea and how a storm can impact on the waves. Waves can be calming but also devastating, causing chaos, destroying homes, infrastructure and leaving people without homes, feeling lost and confused.

Today we can make the connection to the theme of this week to hush the noise around us. Jesus encourages us to note the chaos around us, and rather than being overwhelmed by it, to respond to it in a way that recognises what is truly important. In that way the noise is, in effect, hushed.

Dr Andrew Root (a theologian interested in ministry, culture and younger generations) writes that we are in a time of unprecedented contemporary cultural acceleration. We see this in rapid changes in technology, in changing social ethics, and in the general pace of life speeding up. Root claims that this causes disorientation, since we cannot realistically keep up with all the changes around us, it leads to alienation and depression; a state of uncertainty brought on this roaring sea of contemporary change. For Root, drawing on the work of sociologist Hartmut Rosa, the answer is to seek moments of ‘resonance’: times when we feel connected to our bodies, to our friends and to God.

It is my prayer during this advent we might seek to take time as the writer of Psalm 46 and verse 10 reminds us to, ‘be still and know that I am God’. In this advent season may we be gentle, kind, taking time to remind ourselves that we can worship our Lord through all the noise going on around us.

Finally, I would like to share a hymn from a group called Rend Collective, who wrote a song called ‘My Lighthouse.’ Below is one of the verses reminding us that God is our peace through difficult circumstances.  May we use the lines below as a personal prayer during this advent season of 2024.

In the silence, you won’t let go in my questions, your truth will hold Your great love will lead me through you are my peace in the troubled sea.

Songwriters: Chris Llewellyn / Gareth Gilkeson My Lighthouse lyrics, © Thankyou Music, Thank You Music Ltd.