ADULT EDUCATION

The Four Last Things: Death, Judgement, Heaven, & Hell

Tuesday Evenings December 3, 10, & 17 at 6:30pm.

Digitally via Zoom.

Zoom links posted below.

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Beginning on Tuesday evening December 3rd, at 6:30pm, we will engage our Advent study on The Four Last Things. Over the centuries, these four theological topics, Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell, have been used as a means for both neophyte and seasoned Christians to engage their faith. 

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During the Advent season, in which we anxiously await the coming of God in Christ on Christmas, we will engage these four theological concepts, and the centuries of art that surround them, as a means to prepare not only for Christ's first advent as Christmas, but, for his Second Coming at the end of days. Advent's theological focus has always been on both Christ's first advent and his second. 

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If you'd like to join us for this class, the Zoom links are below. 

 

December 3rd, 6:30pm Zoom Link.

December 10th, 6:30pm Zoom Link.

December 17th, 6:30pm Zoom Link.

 

 

ADVENT DAILY EMAIL DEVOTIONALS

The First Sunday of Advent, December 1st to the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2025. 

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Click here to sign up for the Daily Advent Devotional.

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"Like a kid on Christmas morning." We use this simile to conjure up a sense of pure-hearted and breathless excitement. For a child, waking to find a pile of presents beneath the Christmas tree’s softly glowing lights. Christmas Morning is the epitome of joy, the grand finale of a season filled with whimsy and wonderment. For those of us lucky to have this experience in childhood, the memory still seems cloaked in an otherworldly warmth. Oh to be a child at Christmastime! 

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For grown-ups, however, the joy of the season is dimmed. At best ,the frantic rush of preparing for family dinners and finding the perfect gifts for friends and family casts a shadow of stress over the month of December. At worst, glad tidings seem like a cruel joke to those for whom the piercing sadness of a missing seat at the table and the nagging ache of loss is made only more apparent by the saccharine sentimentalities in every advertisement and overplayed rendition of "I'll be Home for Christmas." 

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Rushing, celebrating, stressing, grieving, toasting, mourning, laughing and exchanging gifts around the hearth eventually give way to New Years Day. January comes, leaving us with boxes to return and three more months of bleak, short, winter days. Have we grown closer to God? The rush of December obscures the liturgical purpose of Advent. You see, like Lent, Advent is a penitential season. It is meant to be a quiet time, an opportunity to clear one’s heart and prepare, like an expectant mother, for the birth of Emmanuel in our lives. God with us. The wonderment of Christmas morning is not exclusively for children. Our rich theological tradition provides us with something far more awe-inspiring than the tales of Santa and his elves. 

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What if, through intentional meditation on the reason for the season, we arrived on December 25th with some of that same childlike wonder? Only this time, the wonder didn't dissipate, tossed to the curb with scraps of crumpled wrapping paper and a dried-out pine tree. If we center our Christmas season around the reality of Christ, the magic will linger. The wonder of Christ will be more than the superficial trappings of the holiday season- it will be the reality of God's gift to us. Take this as an invitation to journey with me through the beauty of Advent with daily reflections on the scriptures. Each day, from the first Sunday of Advent to Epiphany, pause for a moment and savor (as we would a square of chocolate from an advent calendar) the gospel passage offered in our Episcopal lectionary and a theological reflection on the implications of incarnation. It is my prayer that through these daily reflections your love for Christ will deepen, and you will wake on Christmas morning with anticipatory excitement for the coming fullness of God’s love in our lives. "

 

Click here to sign up for the Daily Advent Devotionals beginning on Sunday December 1st, the First Sunday of Advent. ​