The Four Themes of Advent

While many denominations are not staunch traditionalist of Advent, there are some denominations that observe Christmas celebrations to include it. I did this page for those of us who wish to go a little deeper while musing upon the reason we celebrate this season. Four short videos in layman’s terms so that even the youngest viewers can understand

Advent is primarily observed in Christian churches that follow an ecclesiastical calendar of liturgical seasons to determine feasts, memorials, fasts and holy days:

Advent Word Study Series | The Bible Project

For centuries, Christians around the world have used the four weeks leading up to Christmas to prepare themselves for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. It’s a time when we observe his first coming while we also look forward to his second coming. Each of the four weeks leading up to Advent is focused on hope, peace, joy, and love respectively. Hope can be described as an eager expectation for good. It carries the connotation of waiting. Peace, in the Bible, is not just the absence of conflict but the presence of something much more significant. The third key themes of the Bible is joy, which is an inner sense of well-being. Love, the most of these, is not just something that God shows, it is something that he is; it’s a part of his nature and character.

  • Catholic.
  • Orthodox.
  • Anglican / Episcopalian.
  • Lutheran.
  • Methodist.
  • Presbyterian.  

Courtesy of Thought.com  https://www.thoughtco.com/meaning-of-advent-700455

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT – HOPE

Hope: Waiting for God to bring about good in our lives. It’s different than optimism, which looks for the silver lining in the cloud of circumstance. Instead, biblical hope chooses to wait expectantly for God to bring his goodness to bear in our future regardless of how dark our circumstances are. This hope comes from God’s past faithfulness. At Advent, we look backward in order to look forward to a better future. Our hope is that God will liberate humanity, and the entire universe, from evil.

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT – PEACE

Peace: Biblical peace means to make complete or to restore to a state of wholeness. The Advent of Jesus is the arrival of peace. He not only made peace with God for us, but he became our peace. Through The Advent of Jesus, not only are we no longer in conflict with God, but much more God has restored us to a state of wholeness.

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT – JOY

Joy: Biblically, it is an attitude that God’s people adopt, not because of good circumstances but because of God’s love and promises. It’s our future destiny, not our current struggles that determine our joy as we anticipate our future redemption. But joy isn’t about ignoring the negative aspects of life, but rather it’s a profound decision of faith and hope in Jesus’ life and love.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT – LOVE

Love: It’s a kind of love that seeks the well-being of others, even enemies, without looking for anything in return. The magnitude of God’s love was revealed in The Advent, life, and death of Jesus. The heart of the Christian faith is a trust that at the center of the universe is a being that is overflowing with love for this world and that our primary purpose is to receive his love and express it back to others.

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