Tomorrow, we begin the season of Advent! Each Sunday for the next four weeks, we’ll explore the traditional themes of Advent (hope, peace, joy, and love) with John’s Gospel as our guide.
Contrary to popular cultural and Christian practice, Advent is not a countdown to Christmas. Instead, it is an entirely separate season that actually begins our Christian liturgical year. The English word Advent derives from the Latin Adventus, which means “coming” or “arrival.” Advent returns us to the truth that God is a God who has come to us, who continues to come to us, and who will come to us again in glory.
As the beginning of our Christian year, Advent invites us to enter what Methodist priest and artist Jan Richardson describes as “a deeper awareness of the God who dwells both within and beyond chronological time. As we spiral again and again through the liturgical seasons and holy days, we are called to move more deeply into the story of God…As we move deeper into the story, it moves deeper into us.”
In the already-but-not-yet chapter in which we find ourselves in God’s good story, Advent intentionally grounds us in the tension of experiencing reality with an eternal perspective. We are invited to wait, and as we wait, to learn to live with expectant hope and joy for the coming of our Beloved King.
In expectant joy,
The Teaching Team
(Ally, Charlie, Cari, James, & Stephen)