What is Reddit's opinion of Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ?

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Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ by Fleming Rutledge

Fleming Rutledge: <em>Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ</em>

Christopher L. Webber, ed.: <em>Advent with Evelyn Underhill</em>

Adventword.org

I LOVE ADVENT!!!

Yeah, the candles are relatively new, their meanings a little arbitrary. Protestant and Catholic resources alike often say things like "This candle means Joy" without really explaining why or where the tradition supposedly comes from. It's good church bulletin fodder, but it always strikes me as vague and not all that connected with other aspects of the liturgical experience.

That said, there is plenty of other material you can use to mark the weeks of a holy Advent. My favorites are:

• the collects for each week. For starters, check this out: https://bcponline.org/Collects/seasonsc.html#advent
• If you scroll down to the Proper 27 collect, you'll see that there's a kind of "pre-Advent" moment in which the theme of the end of the world (that is, the "Christ will come again" of Advent) begins to pop up in the collects in early November.
• the Sunday lectionary readings for each week. We have three annual patterns for reading scripture at church, labeled Year A, Year B, and Year C, and Advent is actually the start of each lectionary year. This year, Advent will kick off Year B. Each week's lectionary readings point to major themes of Advent, and to some extent they tie into the collects as well. One resource (among many) for accessing these readings is: http://lectionarypage.net/
• Like the collects, the lectionary readings begin to have an eschatological Christ-returning "flavor" on the Sunday of Proper 27, so if you want, now's already a good time to think purple.
• There's so much Advent and Advent-compatible music out there to mark the season. This Spotify list is not a bad start, but there's plenty more out there: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6eySVfzgF7Tjb2d0ugXFBf?si=PDZgVWCPR92DtgAUqIpyjA
• Since a lot of the meaning of Advent is imbedded in the lectionary readings, you might enjoy looking up worship planning resources based on the lectionary ideas. This, for example, is a United Methodist website with hymn suggestions and other notes for each week of all three lectionary years: https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning
• For devotional readings, there's a lot of fluff out there, in my opinion. However, this book is absolutely incredible. https://www.amazon.com/Advent-Future-Coming-Jesus-Christ/dp/0802876196

Like I said, I really love Advent, and I can't wait to read others' suggestions.