11th December 2025

At age 16, leaving my forebears’ faith, I was drawn strongly to Christ. I was especially excited about his second coming. Looking back 50 years, it certainly has been an adventure! Adventure’s etymology is rooted in the Latin adventura, meaning ‘that which must happen’ or ‘what is about to happen’. My passion for Christ’s coming was real but immature. I desired to know when Christ would come. I take comfort that the disciples asked the same question: “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6 NRSVUE).

We are right to be kingdom focused. As we mature in how we live out the reality and hope of the kingdom, the Advent season helps us focus and is an opportunity for growth. What can help us and be a blessing in our celebration of the four Sundays of Advent? Here are some thoughts:

It took time for me to learn that I needed to also ‘know’ and be passionate about Jesus’s first coming (the Incarnation) and about his work in this age through his Spirit in his Body. I’m grateful that we can now celebrate the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, reign, and the ‘soon coming’ return of Jesus in our annual worship calendar. The direction of our Advent and Christmas celebrations moves from the future to the past. Here’s how author Laurence Hull Stookey describes it: ‘We start the Advent observances with the future. “The reign of God is coming. Prepare!” We end with the past: “Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. Rejoice!” … that the sacred story, to be understood aright, has to be read backward. Just as the birth and ministry of Jesus are incomprehensible until we know the Lord’s death and resurrection, so too the whole of the past is muddled unless first we have a grasp on the nature of the future.’ ¹

Allow me to draw your attention to one very important formational practice: communion. Communion is a sacrament that takes on special meaning during Advent. The Eucharist is a unique blessing in the Advent season because of its past, present, and future connotations. For this season, meditate on the following quote from author Rowan Williams: ‘In the Eucharist we are at the centre of the world: we are where Christ, the Son, gives his life to his Father in the Spirit. And in the Eucharist we are at the end of the world: we are seeing how the world’s calling is fulfilled in advance; we are seeing ourselves and our world as they really are, contemplating them in the depths of God, finding their meaning in relation to God. … “With you is the fountain of life”, says the psalm; and it is that fountain that we drink from in Holy Communion. ²

Wishing you an adventurous Advent season! 

¹ Laurence Hull Stookey, Calendar: Christ’s Time for the Church (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), p 121.
² Rowan Williams, Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014), p 59.

This is an edited study that was first published in the 1 October 2025 edition of the Equipper publication.

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