1. De-(Senti/Santa)mentalizing Advent-Christmas Rick Wright Church of the Nations 1 st Sunday of Advent (B)

2. Women in the Marine Corps 100 women Tough enough for ground combat? 7% of Marines are women Many fail basic infantry training People want a difficult challenge!

3. Isaiah 64 But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9 Be not so terribly angry, O LORD, and do not remember wrongdoing forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.

4. Strange way to start Christmas!?! Different from how culture celebrates(?) Christmas 1 st Sunday of Advent Emphasizes eschatology – Study of last things Begin with Jesus appears again – Greek parousia God (Jesus) will judge the world and everyone Mark 13 and need to be awake!

5. Isaiah 64 People of God in exile Pray for God to come and punish enemies We are unclean… do not care… We are clay – you are the potter This is how we begin Advent-Christmas Sentimentality of Christmas (Stephen Freeman) Soft warm comfortable feelings

6. Stephen Freeman As such, it should be recognized for what it is – a spiritual struggle that begs to be joined… / The struggle is not about Christmas – it is about the passions. The cultural treatment of Christ’s incarnation is only an occasion of temptation. Christians angry about the abuse of Christmas does nothing for the world and only impedes the gospel. Orthodox Christians fast + pray Feast of the Nativity

7. De-Sentimentalizing Advent-Christmas Embrace season as challenge! People looking for Christian faith that demands something from us Life = spiritual struggle World = spiritual battlefield God gives us 37 days – Four weeks + Christmas + 12 days of Epiphany

8. Rod Dreher It’s hard. It’s really hard. It’s supposed to be hard. But I’ve spent a long time with the other thing, and believe me, I’ll take hard, because it’s real. And it’s consequential, in that it’s the kind of faith that compels you to accept that fact that this stuff matters, and matters eternally.