Links for the Weekend (12/4/2020)

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Advent in a Global Pandemic

David Mathis writes about the themes of darkness and light as they relate to this year and the Advent season. The bottom line? “But Advent looks darkness square in the eye and issues this great promise for our season of waiting: darkness will not overcome the Light.”

Advent, the season of waiting and preparation before the high feast of Christmas, is a chance to regain spiritual sanity, and create fresh and healthier rhythms personally and as a family and as churches. As we enter the six darkest weeks of the year in this hemisphere, we will pivot midway to mark the greatest and brightest turning point in all history: the birth of Christ. And perhaps this Advent will begin restoring what the locusts have taken this year.

An Advent Series on Christmas Carols

The Daily Grace Podcast is doing a series during Advent which examines Christmas carols. There will be a new carol explored each week (new podcasts are posted on Tuesday mornings) including a performance by an artist, history on the background of the song, and reminders of the gospel message throughout. Here’s a link to the first episode in this series—the subject is the song “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”

Older Women, Young Churches Need You

Hannah Nation explains why older women are such a crucial part of local churches, especially churches with lots of younger members. She also explains how younger women can benefit from relationships with their elders in the faith.

These concerns bring to mind the words Paul wrote to Titus. He writes that older women “are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled” (2:3–5). Older women who mentor, disciple, and care for younger women are an essential part of a biblical community.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article by Sarah Wisniewski called Quarantine, Regret, and the Gospel. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Thanks to Maggie A and Sarah W for their help in rounding up links this week.

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here.