A Stable Lamp is Lighted
All of us at ELCA World Hunger bring you warm Advent greetings!
This season’s Advent calendar and study guide from ELCA World Hunger invite you to prepare room in your home and hearth for yourself and your loved ones before going into the world to act on behalf of your neighbors. In a time of global suffering and anxiety, Richard Wilbur’s hymn “A Stable Lamp Is Lighted” calls us to embrace the tension of the moment, the natural desire for a place of our own, and our call to care for the stranger:
A stable lamp is lighted
whose glow shall wake the sky;
the stars shall bend their voices,
and every stone shall cry.
The simple act of making a hospitable, warm, cozy place — even in a stable — moves the sky, the stars and the stones to tremble. ELCA World Hunger’s seasonal packet has resources for creating a place of care, rest and reflection for you and your family so that you feel prepared to strengthen your community.
Calendar
The Advent calendar evokes feelings of a welcoming hearth during the harsher months of winter. The activities inside start with a standing nativity scene, ready to be colored throughout the season. Alongside each day’s craft activity, the calendar includes:
- Opportunities from ELCA Good Gifts to generously support the church’s national and global work to end poverty.
- Everything you need to create “Stocking the Streets” bags for your unhoused neighbors.
- Scripture, prayers and hymns for seasonal reflection.
Download or order Advent calendarStudy Guide
This season’s ELCA World Hunger study guide provides reflection questions for engaging the brand-new, ELCA World Hunger–produced short video documentary “Intersections: Justice Ministry With ELCA Partners.” The video and study guide ask viewers to think differently about the root causes of hunger and poverty, making complex issues seem manageable through our collective action as the church.
We prayerfully invite your household and congregation to light your own stable lamp to warm you for your ministry under the starry sky and among the crying stones.
Advent Study Guide
We are thrilled to invite you and your community to learn together this Advent with our new, short video documentary “Intersections: Justice Ministry With ELCA Partners.” The video is designed to introduce people concerned about poverty — people such as you — to some of its overlapping causes, through stories told by ELCA World Hunger companion ministries that are supported by your generosity.
This is a three-session study. Each session focuses on one segment of the video, following a different ELCA partner as it fights hunger at its roots. We welcome you to gather family, neighbors and church members to join in, but you can use the study on your own too. All sessions include:
- A biblical passage appropriate to Advent and the respective video segment.
- A short introduction to the “Intersections” clip and reflection theme.
- Questions for reflection and discussion. We recommend that you prepare by reading the biblical passage, introduction and questions before watching the clip.
- Resources for action and further learning. Let your learning inspire ministry with your community!
The welcoming space you create for reflection will also deepen your discussion. In the spirit of the season and our ELCA World Hunger Advent theme, “A Stable Lamp Is Lighted,” we invite you to make your study environment more hospitable. Share food, welcoming crafts and warm things, and meet in a place where people feel comfortable. This study offers you a chance to rest, learn and grow together before going into the world to do God’s hard gospel work of loving the neighbor.
