The Advent Calendar is a collaborative work by parishioners Randy & Chris Dixon

This Advent calendar imagines the salvation story of Creation, humanities’ De-creation and God’s Re-creation. Here God’s promise to us of a perfect world and a perfect union with the resurrected Christ, is illustrated as a new Heaven, a new Earth and a new Jerusalem, the bride. It is a love story.
In 2014, as we were completing our previous Advent calendar and listening to the prophetic words read through Advent, we got the idea for our Apocalyptic Advent calendar. We thought that an appropriate completion to this series of calendars would be the portrayal of the second coming of Christ found in the book of Revelations. We not only celebrate the historical birth of Jesus, the child who was, but of the Christ born in each of us today, and of the Christ to come.

We began with the readings and consulted our son, Cory, who is a theologian. He advised me of the meanings behind the verses which I’d read, and provided insight into the way that the love relationship God has with us, his people, is making a new world. This is an ongoing discovery we each make as God is revealed to us day by day in our lives.

Starting with sketches for the Apocalytpic Advent Calendar, I developed the final design and made full-scale patterns from which Chris would sew the pieced fabric image.

Creating the colors for the calendar was a fairly involved and time consuming process and required us to employ a number of methods. We used the Japanese technique of Sibori to create the mottled greens for the new earth and a different method to get the shades and shadows for the four heavenly creatures. Dying the background sky in an even gradation from dark to light required us to dye the fifteen-foot length of fabric in a pool of dye gradually dipping in more and more to get the subtle changes of color. The 7-foot moon presented an additional challenge requiring us to use a quilting frame and three colors of dye. We handmixed all of the dyes and applied them to fabrics that included satin, taffeta, and lamé. Once the fabric was dyed and dried, Chris sewed the various pieces together over a three-year period.

The symbols in the image are found in the readings. There are the four living creatures each with six wings, the new earth, the new Jerusalem made of gold and clear as crystal, the great wall made of jasper and other jewels. The river flowing from the yoke of the Second coming of Christ is the water of life with a tree of life on either side. In the palm of Christ are the seven stars representing the seven angels of the seven churches. The unfurled seventh scroll forms the throne on which Christ sits and is shaped in the letter of Omega. With the yellow stole about Christ’s neck forming the letter Alpha, together they form the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end of time. Christ is in pure white and yet, in colors of the rainbow. Like a rainbow, He becomes the new covenant to His people. In the center is the moon upon which the Virgin stands holding the innocent Child. She is bathed in the light of the sun and wears a crown of twelve stars, the twelve tribes of Jerusalem.

Below are the readings from The Book of Revelation as they apply to what is revealed in the Advent calendar each week.

First Sunday of Advent, December 1
Revelation 1:7 Behold, He is coming with the clouds! Every eye shall see Him, and among them those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the world shall lament in remorse. So it shall be. Amen.
Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

Second Sunday of Advent, December 8
Revelation 4:6-8 In the center, round the throne itself, were four living creatures, covered with eyes, in front and behind. The first creature was like a lion, the second like an ox, the third had a human face, the fourth was like an eagle in flight. The four living creatures, each of them with six wings, had eyes all over, inside and out; and by day and by night without a pause they sang: “Holy, holy, holy is God the sovereign Lord of all, who was, and is, and is to come!”
Revelation 21:1-2 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had vanished, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband

Third Sunday of Advent, December 15
Revelation 21:10-18 “Come, and I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb,”… the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God; it had the radiance of some priceless jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great high wall, with twelve gates at which were twelve angels; and on the gates were inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of Israel… The city was built as a square, and was as wide as it was long. It measured … twelve thousand furlongs, its length and breadth and height being equal. Its wall was one hundred and forty-four cubits high…The wall was built of jasper, while the city itself was of pure gold, bright as clear glass.

Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 22
Revelation 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and the One who sat upon it….
Revelation 1:16-20 In His right hand He held seven stars,.. Here is the secret meaning of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and of the seven lamps of gold: the seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches and the seven lamps are the seven churches.
Revelation 21 :22 I saw no temple in the city; for its temple was the sovereign Lord God and Lamb. And the city had no need of sun or moon to shine upon it; for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb.
Revelation 22:1 Then he showed me the river of the water of life, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city’s street. On either side of the river stood a tree of life…

Christmas Eve, December 24
Revelation 12:1 Next appeared a great portent in heaven, a woman robed with the sun, beneath her feet the moon, and on her head a crown of twelve stars,

Christmas Day, December 25
Revelation 12:5 She gave birth to a Child, who is destined to rule all nations with an iron rod.
Revelation 22:13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Revelation 22:14 Happy are those who wash their robes clean! They will have the right to the tree of life and will enter by the gates of the city.
Revelation 22:17 Come forward, you who are thirsty; accept the water of life, a free gift to all who desire it.