Welcome to Living Hope’s third year of providing an Advent booklet! This year it will look a little different again. Our hope is that you can use this booklet to deepen your appreciation for Jesus’ arrival and that you can do this through the liturgies found beginning on page 8.

Advent is about arrival!

John 1:14 reminds us that God became flesh – he arrived on earth – to live with us. As we lead up to Christmas, we put ourselves into the shoes of those who are waiting, anticipating, hoping for this arrival. This year, we are going to do that through looking more deeply at John chapter 1.

A key theme in John 1 is that Jesus comes as light within darkness. In a world that can fixate on darkness and get stuck in ruts of hopelessness, we are called to be people attentive to the light. In focusing on Jesus and his first arrival and the light that he brought, we are also preparing ourselves for Jesus’ second coming. This is a dimension of Advent that isn’t focused on as much, but you are invited to see it in the hymns and the carols, to see it as something that has been present in the Advent tradition. We share with Israel in being a people waiting for the light of the world to come and set things right.

In this Advent booklet you will find a liturgy that has been put together by Pastor Ben Wimmers that will help us appreciate more deeply the themes of light and darkness that we will be exploring on Sunday mornings. You will also find an explanation of our series by Alyssa Berkenpas, our interim worship coordinator, as well as an introduction to our series in John as a whole from Pastor Steve Berkenpas.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

– John 1:14