Luke 3:1-6. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
And all people will see God’s salvation.’

Advent is the season that invites us to stop, reflect, and lean on the hope that Christ’s arrival promises amid the hopelessness and brokenness of our world. What happens, though, when this hope seems elusive?

Chicana scholar, writer, and activist, Gloria Anzaldúa uses a word that describes that space where hope seems out of reach: nepantla. Nepantla is a Nahuatl word that means “in-between space.” She adopts this term to refer to a psychological, spiritual, and/or material liminal space of potential transformation. (1) Nepantla is where we hold painful realities that may be contradicting—like the seemingly elusive hope in Christ and the deep brokenness of the world around us. Anzaldúa says that, in that space, “we realize that realities clash, authority figures of various groups demand contradictory commitments, and we and others have failed living up to idealized goals.” (2)

The context of Luke 3:1-6 is a place of nepantla. Luke situates John the Baptist in a historical context where different religious rulers and political leaders demanded contradicting commitments from the people of God. John is in the wilderness, a place known in our scriptures as both desolate and yet opportune for personal transformation. It is in this place that John meets God.

After his transformational encounter with God, John preached a message of repentance to those around him. In other words, he invited his audience to intentionally acknowledge and face their failure to live up to what they believed God was calling them to be or do. John encouraged the people to feel the pain that is inherent to nepantla. Rather than flee from the discomfort that these in between spaces often elicit, John encouraged his listeners to stay with the hurt so they might be transformed and renewed.

John’s message is relevant to us during this Advent season. We, like his audience, find ourselves in nepantla as a people of God. We, too, live in a historical context where different rulers and political leaders demand contradicting commitments from us. We live in a time of much political division, wars, socio-economic disparities, and many other personal and social crises. We live in between clashing realities that may be eclipsing our ability to see the hope we are supposed to lean on during Advent. John’s story and message invites us to allow ourselves to feel the pain that being in such a space brings. God is capable and willing to meet and transform us there, especially if feeling the pain is all we can do.

At the center of this reflection is the comfort that it is okay to feel like Christ’s hope feels elusive this Advent season. Like John, we invite you to intentionally embrace the difficulty of living in this space of nepantla. Regardless of what you can believe or hope at this time, know that God is able to meet you wherever you are.

Adriana Soto Acevedo is a student at Princeton Theological Seminary and Intern serving the Presbytery.