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2024 Advent Guide: Second Sunday

by Rev. Dr. Arlecia Simmons, Partners in Health and Wholeness East Regional Associate Director

Excerpted from 2024 Advent Guide: Hope is Near, an Advent Guide for Lectionary Year C from the North Carolina Council of Churches.

Philippians 1:3-11

I thank my God for every remembrance of you, always in every one of my prayers for all of you, praying with joy for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because I hold you in my heart, for all of you are my partners in God’s grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the tender affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

After a turbulent political season, the destruction of Hurricane Helene, a lengthy recovery needed for our Western North Carolina neighbors, and an economy that for some may result in fewer gifts under the tree, the Apostle Paul’s words invite us to recalibrate. While we are enduring life’s trials, it can be hard to fill the “joy tank” Paul so eloquently writes about and encourages the church to refill as it carries out its mission.

Whether we enter this season with the weight of communal or personal burdens, Paul’s letter to the Philippians reminds us that we are seen and remembered by God, “and the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion” (v. 6). Even when it seems harder this year to fa-la-la-la-la and decorate our houses, Paul reminds us that our joy cannot be framed by what is happening around us. Our joy exists because we know the end of the story. Our confidence is in God’s work through Christ.

Although we may be tempted to sit out this season, we are invited to allow our joy to overflow and to share it with those who may need a reminder that God is still working in and through us. Joy is still the gift that keeps giving.

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About Rev. Dr. Arlecia Simmons, Partners in Health and Wholeness East Regional Associate Director

A native of South Carolina, Arlecia has previously called North Carolina home and started her professional career off in the state as a journalist in Eden. She was a journalism educator in Charlotte and later served as a minister in Durham while attending Duke Divinity School, where she earned her Master of Divinity. She is an ordained Baptist minister and formerly served as a senior pastor in the United Church of Christ. She has earned a Health Minister Certificate from Wesley Theological Seminary. Before joining the Council in August 2022, she taught at Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C., and directed a project to provide professional development to clergy and lay leaders pivoting during COVID-19. Her interest in health and wellness developed as a newspaper reporter covering health issues and new legislation such as HIPAA. Her convictions are rooted in experiences ranging from seeing members of her family and community plagued by the many comorbidities amplified during the pandemic. She is invested in how systemic issues such as gentrification and food and housing insecurity impact health and wholeness and prevent BIPOC people and those in rural communities from thriving. Arlecia is based in Fayetteville, and she enjoys educating people on her Gullah Geechee culture and publishing books and digital content that she hopes will lead to emotional healing and spiritual renewal.