Celebrate the Holidays with Middle Church

What does it mean to proclaim hope in a broken world? Can our vulnerability really make a difference? Is love enough to save us? These aren’t idle concerns; in a year rocked by relentless death, they’re absolutely crucial. The immediacy of this pain shouldn’t make us forget, however, that these questions aren’t new: They are the backdrop to the Christmas story.

Art by Middle Member Anastasia Magloire Williams

Born in occupied territory to a family in forced migration, the particularities of Jesus’ birth are intentional: God chooses to be incarnated not among the powerful but in the middle of trembling shepherds, born to a teenager who gets pregnant shrouded by scandal. He comes not as a conquering army, but as a tender infant—daring to promise in his embodiment that somehow fierce love is enough to save us. Indeed, it’s the only thing that can.

This birth proclaims that tenderness matters—testifies that vulnerability can overcome violence. It’s not an anemic hope of static waiting, but faith lacing up its boots to march toward beloved community. It’s a reminder to people whose home has burned: God was born in wilderness—and God will lead us through it.

This season, join a story about a different kind of triumph. Dare to let it claim you.

Advent and Christmas tell the story of God’s radically in-breaking love. From parents conceiving who had lost all hope, to defying an emperor and Christ’s own incarnation in vulnerable, refugee Afro-semitic baby flesh, we proclaim the birth of holiness against all efforts to stop it. As we move through a season in which we so badly need fierce love to be born again in our midst, join a collective study about what it means to celebrate a just Christmas. Each week will feature a different Middle clergy reflecting on that week’s Advent theme, and how we see it embodied in the gospel.

November 28: Hope with Rev. Natalie Renee Perkins

December 5: Peace with Rev. Benjamin Perry

December 12: Joy with Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis

December 19: Love with Rev. Mira Sawlani-Joyner

Advent & Christmas Events (All Times ET):

Sunday, November 27, 11:45 a.m.: First Sunday in Advent Worship Celebration

Monday, November 28, 7:00 p.m.: Advent Bible Study, HOPE

Sunday, December 4, 11:45 a.m.: Second Sunday in Advent and Anniversary of Middle Fire Worship

Monday, December 5, 7:00 p.m.: Advent Bible Study, PEACE

Wednesday, December 7, 8:00 a.m.: Pray to Rise

Sunday, December 11, 11:45 a.m.: Third Sunday in Advent Worship Celebration

Sunday, December 11, 2:00 p.m.: The Middle Players Present: The Power of Gifts and the Nativity