Faith Works 12-5-2025
Jeff Gill
Advent continues week by week
___
Advent, the season leading up to Christmas, is a time of preparation for the arrival of Christ child in many Christian churches.
There are four weeks, four Sundays of Advent, and this Sunday is the second.
While a more contemporary pattern of observance has the second Sunday theme as "Peace," there's an ancient model for using the Advent season as a penitential discipline I find interesting. Not the more familiar "hope, peace, joy, and love" but an older pattern, challenging us to spend time in reflection through Advent of "the four last things." These last things are death, judgment, hell, and heaven. Sounds Christmasy, right?
Or perhaps not so much, but this is the challenge of Advent. Not just a countdown to Christmas, but a true preparation of the heart for a new beginning, a fresh start, an end to what was for allowing what might yet be.
We talked about death last week. In this second week, what of judgment?
In my interactions with people about faith, one objection I often hear is how religion is blamed for the experience of guilt. Do religions traffic in guilt on occasion? I would be foolish to say it doesn't happen.
But as an advocate for faith and belief and reflection on last things for the opportunity to turn to God's new creation, I would suggest this in response: is it really the case that, if all religion were to disappear, no one would experience guilt? Or regret? Second thoughts about what has been, and how we should be?
I would argue that there's an aspect of judgment which is part of the human experience. We know what we should do, and we don't. We're aware of better choices than the ones we've made, and when we think about why we made the ones we did, there's something that arises in us that can only be called guilt. We could have done better, and we didn't. Now what?
One of the reasons the ancient church commended reflection on "the four last things" is because we need to see clearly what God is up to in matters such as judgment. Christian faith doesn't teach that we get to skip judgment, or say it doesn't matter; rather, it tells us that we need not fear judgment. In fact, we should welcome it. Because with judgment comes clarity, and perhaps even resolution.
There are guilts and sorrows and secrets that can only be relieved by confessing them, and then knowing they do not have to define us or control our destiny. Maybe they are small and stupid; as a pastor, I know not a few of us have deeper, more tragic reasons to grieve our past choices. In Advent, in worship in many ways, we have a chance to set those burdens before God, who has promised in Christ Jesus himself to carry them away for us, and let us enter our future, our forever even, without having to hold onto them.
The classic phrase in scripture, from Psalm 103, is that our sins are removed from us "as far as the east is from the west." What a beautiful image. As far as we can imagine, and then some. This is what judgment is, in faith. We acknowledge our guilt, and let God take it away "as far as the east is from the west."
Judgment is not to be feared. Advent's reflection on judgement is about how God has promised to resolve, not create, our guilt. The gift of forgiveness and hope is Christmas gift we might all hope for.
If we've considered death and judgment, though, in the ancient model for Advent, that means next week asks us to contemplate… Hell. In the Christmas season, no less. Seems hard, doesn't it? But if I can get ahead a bit, think about "A Christmas Carol," or that modern echo of it, "Scrooged." It might not be such an odd fit after all.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's a big Dickens fan along with the Bible. Tell him how you prepare for Christmas joy at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads or Bluesky.
Jeff Gill
Advent continues week by week
___
Advent, the season leading up to Christmas, is a time of preparation for the arrival of Christ child in many Christian churches.
There are four weeks, four Sundays of Advent, and this Sunday is the second.
While a more contemporary pattern of observance has the second Sunday theme as "Peace," there's an ancient model for using the Advent season as a penitential discipline I find interesting. Not the more familiar "hope, peace, joy, and love" but an older pattern, challenging us to spend time in reflection through Advent of "the four last things." These last things are death, judgment, hell, and heaven. Sounds Christmasy, right?
Or perhaps not so much, but this is the challenge of Advent. Not just a countdown to Christmas, but a true preparation of the heart for a new beginning, a fresh start, an end to what was for allowing what might yet be.
We talked about death last week. In this second week, what of judgment?
In my interactions with people about faith, one objection I often hear is how religion is blamed for the experience of guilt. Do religions traffic in guilt on occasion? I would be foolish to say it doesn't happen.
But as an advocate for faith and belief and reflection on last things for the opportunity to turn to God's new creation, I would suggest this in response: is it really the case that, if all religion were to disappear, no one would experience guilt? Or regret? Second thoughts about what has been, and how we should be?
I would argue that there's an aspect of judgment which is part of the human experience. We know what we should do, and we don't. We're aware of better choices than the ones we've made, and when we think about why we made the ones we did, there's something that arises in us that can only be called guilt. We could have done better, and we didn't. Now what?
One of the reasons the ancient church commended reflection on "the four last things" is because we need to see clearly what God is up to in matters such as judgment. Christian faith doesn't teach that we get to skip judgment, or say it doesn't matter; rather, it tells us that we need not fear judgment. In fact, we should welcome it. Because with judgment comes clarity, and perhaps even resolution.
There are guilts and sorrows and secrets that can only be relieved by confessing them, and then knowing they do not have to define us or control our destiny. Maybe they are small and stupid; as a pastor, I know not a few of us have deeper, more tragic reasons to grieve our past choices. In Advent, in worship in many ways, we have a chance to set those burdens before God, who has promised in Christ Jesus himself to carry them away for us, and let us enter our future, our forever even, without having to hold onto them.
The classic phrase in scripture, from Psalm 103, is that our sins are removed from us "as far as the east is from the west." What a beautiful image. As far as we can imagine, and then some. This is what judgment is, in faith. We acknowledge our guilt, and let God take it away "as far as the east is from the west."
Judgment is not to be feared. Advent's reflection on judgement is about how God has promised to resolve, not create, our guilt. The gift of forgiveness and hope is Christmas gift we might all hope for.
If we've considered death and judgment, though, in the ancient model for Advent, that means next week asks us to contemplate… Hell. In the Christmas season, no less. Seems hard, doesn't it? But if I can get ahead a bit, think about "A Christmas Carol," or that modern echo of it, "Scrooged." It might not be such an odd fit after all.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's a big Dickens fan along with the Bible. Tell him how you prepare for Christmas joy at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads or Bluesky.
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