Hi COTC Family! 

I hope you’ve had a great holiday week! 

“Christ will come again.” Each week we make this proclamation in our worship. It’s among the most important claims of the Christian faith and perhaps, in the full sense of the word, the most difficult to believe. Whenever we announce this in worship, our celebrant usually clenches their fists as a sign of grasping or clinging to this basic hope. 

The season of Advent is about to start. Beginning with this Sunday, we’ll spend the next four weeks moving through this season of expectation and preparation. More than an entree into the season of Christmas, the Advent season reminds us that we are made for and long after another world; the world of Christ’s second coming. 

As an annual reminder of our hope and expectation, these weeks present an opportunity to prepare ourselves for Christ’s return. That preparation involves reminding ourselves of all that Christ’s return means, fixing our hearts and minds on it, and that we are made for something beyond what we see and touch here and now. 

Here a couple of ways you might engage in this season of preparation:

1. Participate in the church’s worship. Through these next four Sundays, the readings, the liturgy and songs, and the whole of our corporate worship is intended to guide us through the themes of this season. In the church's worship we brought into contact with the eternal things for which we long and hope after.

2. Engage with Scripture and God. There is no shortage of resources related to this season. One even produced by the Taylors of COTC! Choose one and use it as a guide through the themes of judgment, hope and expectation related to this season. Use the Advent bags that Sarah R. has so helpfully prepared!

3. Say “no” to yourself. An aspect of Advent preparation is repentance. Denying ourselves through fasts or some other discipline of omission can help to turn us away from distractions, pointing us towards what we truly hunger for. Engaging the practice of confession, with a priest or a spiritual friend, is also a form of self-denial, as we put to death the illusions of our self-sufficiency.

4. Say “yes” to the need of others. Our culture mostly emphasizes our own needs and desires during the Christmas season. Yet a major component of preparation for Christ’s second advent is remembering and caring for others. As we care for others, we put on the self-giving love that distinguishes the life of our soon-coming king. Consider giving to help the poor. Consider finding a way to devote time to others. We long for Christ’s return of perfect shalom but, as this timely piece written by our starting-this-week executive pastor, Kimberly Deckel, reminds us, we prepare for that return by taking up the work of justice and peace in His name.

Christ will come again. Let us take full advantage of this season and allow the Holy Spirit to shape us for His return. 

With you in expectation, 

Peter+

Ps. We'll be communicating more about the season of Christmastide, a full 12 days of celebrating the Incarnation, but see below for details related to our Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Boxing Day services. Also, please remember that all year end giving must be in to the church by December 31st. We'll be communicating more about this in the weeks to come as well.