Advent

Advent is a season of expectant waiting and hopeful preparation, as the Church prepares to celebrate the coming (adventus) of Christ in his incarnation at Christmas, and looks ahead to Christ’s final advent when he will come again to judge the world and make all things new. Fleming Rutledge describes how the Advent season draws us into an intentional practice of waiting:

In a very real sense, the Christian community lives in Advent all the time. It can well be called the Time Between, because the people of God live in the time between the first coming of Christ, incognito in the stable in Bethlehem, and his second coming, in glory, to judge the living and the dead…. Advent contains within itself the crucial balance of the now and not-yet that our faith requires…. The disappointment, brokenness, and pain that characterizes life in this present world is held in dynamic tension with the promise of future glory that is yet to come. In that Advent tension, the church lives its life.

Let us hold that advent tension as we wait again for the coming of Christ. He is God-with-us, Emmanuel, and nearer to us than we know. Let every heart prepare him room. 

Resources For Engaging Advent

• Readings for use with advent wreath

• Advent Prayer Guide and optional Jesse Tree Ornament activity

• Advent Reflection Guide from Practicing the Way

• Advent Video Series from the Bible Project (we created a companion discussion guide to help community groups who are using this)

• Written for us weekly advent devotionals, released each Monday of Advent.