Advent — from the Latin adventus, “coming” — is the season leading up to Christmas in which the church remembers Christ's first coming as a child in Bethlehem while it watches for his second coming as reigning King. It is not simply the lead-up to a holiday; it is a deliberately unhurried season of expectant waiting, one that refuses to rush past longing straight to celebration. The traditional themes of hope, peace, joy, and love name the posture of a people living between promise and fulfillment—told how the story ends but still living in the middle chapters.

This is exactly the posture Revelation asks of its first readers. “Waiting” does double duty across this series: it is the Advent church waiting for Christmas to arrive, and it is the persecuted church of Revelation waiting for the Lamb's victory — already won, not yet fully seen — to be revealed. In both cases, the church's answer to the wait is not silence but song. Advent, rightly kept, is not merely nostalgia for a first coming already accomplished; it is present-tense hope, sung out loud, for a King who is coming again.

• Sun, Nov 29 | Hope | Rev 4:8–11 | Holy, Holy, Holy: An Anthem of Hope

• Dec 6 | Peace | Rev. 11:15-18 | The Kingdom Has Come: An Anthem of Peace

• Dec 13 | Joy | Rev. 7:9-12 | A Joy No One Can Take: An Anthem of Joy

• Dec 20 | Love | Rev. 5:9-14 | Worthy Is The Lamb: An Anthem of Love

• Dec 24 | Hallelujah | Rev. 19:1-8 | Hallelujah: The Wedding Has Come