Join facilitator Sheri Brown this Advent to explore what faith is making of you this Advent season … and to practice making a few gifts for the world in response. Our Advent of Making will be a season of making peace, making hope, making comfort, and making joy.
Join the Spirit community for a scant hour on Sundays at 4pm MST, 5pm PST. Weekly themes and program details here. The four programs are free of charge, but donations are welcome.
WEEKLY THEMES
MAKING PEACE, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT: November 27
We’re hard-wired with everything we need to handle stress. Trouble is, after nearly three years in a world gone topsy-turvy, our nerves are frazzled. Most of us are more tired than we realize. Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord, that we may walk in the path of peace (and quiet)!
MAKING HOPE, SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT: December 4
“Lift up your hearts!”
“We lift them, Lord, to thee.”
Or maybe we can’t just yet, heavy as our hearts are with loss, with lament. And yet, writes Cole Arthur Riles, “Lament IS a form of hope. It is an innate awareness that what is should not be.” Perhaps we can make hope only as much as we can make lament. Let’s find out.
MAKING COMFORT, THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT: December 11
Addiction is a terrible disease. We all know someone who is addicted to alcohol or other drugs, to sex, to work. What we often don’t realize is how addicted WE are to our own patterns of discontent, to a mindset that makes us unhappy. “Most people,” said Abraham Lincoln, “are as miserable as they make up their minds to be.” Making comfort is learnable. But it’s probably the hardest gift to master because, well, addiction to making ourselves miserable is a terrible disease.
MAKING JOY, FOURTH WEEK OF ADVENT: December 18
To work from the inside out, as we have practiced doing through this series, is to practice noticing where the Christ is finding room to enter in. We complete our series marveling at how this cradle of chaos – our lives! the world! – is the place where God chooses to dwell, seeking to make in and with us a sanctuary of peace, hope, comfort, and yes, even joy.