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November 26, 2005
Make room for Advent
The television, the radio, the stores at the mall, and even the music at Starbucks, all are unanimous in proclaiming the "Christmas Season." But the church invented Christmas (with some help from the pagans) and the church has a different idea about when it starts.
In fact the four weeks prior to Christmas are properly called Advent, a nearly forgotten but now resurgent holiday season that can make the true Christmas (the one at the end of December,) much more meaningful.
The word "advent" means "coming" or "arrival", but the season of Advent is more about expectation, anticipation and preparation. This short season is marked by a shift in our scriptural readings. During these weeks we recall the ancient prophesies of a savior, and the yearning of the Jewish people for re-connection to their God. The events leading up to Jesus' birth are also reviewed. We are encouraged to recapture some of the eagerness, excitement and honest fear that the people of that time experienced. Something beyond human understanding was about to occur.
“Keep Awake”
Today, some two millennia after the events of the first Advent, the holiday can become entirely backwards looking, a historical review. This is happy history, of course, and yet it is distant. The better approach to Advent is to overlay on the story of Christ's first coming, an awareness of our anticipation of his second. The gospel reading from the first Sunday in Advent urges us to be ready.
’Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’
So there is our forward-looking aspect to Advent, a time to "wake up" and prepare ourselves for God's arrival. In the earliest Christian traditions of the holiday it was a period of fasting and penitence. The festive atmosphere of Christmas (and the Roman pagan mid-winter festival) intruded into the solemn mood early on, and the preparation has become "sweetened" with a feeling of eagerness and joyful anticipation. Even a penitent people are eager for the arrival of the judge who forgives, anticipating the arrival of the loving king.
Traditions
The most noted Advent traditions are the Advent Wreath and the Advent Calendar. The wreaths are reported to be a tradition out of Germany, where images from pagan festivals like pine trees and pine circles were absorbed into the Christian context. The Advent Wreath is a horizontal circle of greens from which four candles are mounted. The candles are traditionally purple or blue, except for one which is pink (or "rose".) The first candle is lit on the evening before the first Advent Sunday, and another candle is added each week. The rose colored candle is lit on the third week.
This is "Gaudete" or Joyful Sunday, the week when the joyous aspect of the anticipated event is remembered. Ideally, the lighting of an Advent candle is accompanied by readings of scripture or other texts related to the Advent themes.
In the center of the wreath many place a larger, white candle, the "Christ Candle". As you may have guessed, this one is lit on Christmas day.
The feast celebrating Christ’s nativity was moved to the mid-winter period to Christianize the popular pagan festival, which marked the turn in the Sun's decline, and the beginning of the long solar climb back to summer. The people had feasted at the solstice for centuries, celebrating the "birth of the light." Early Christians reasoned that the return of the life-giving light in the sky was God's celestial metaphor for the coming of the savior, and re-purposed the mid-winter feast to commemorate the birth of the holy light. The Christ candle should continue to be lit each evening until Epiphany (the famous "12 days of Christmas.")
The Advent Calendar is a much simpler affair, especially popular with children. Their eager anticipation of Christmas day may be rooted in "other desires" rather than spiritual fulfillment, but it mirrors the eager anticipation of all Christians for the arrival of God into our world.
In another popular Advent tradition the crèche-scene is displayed. At Trinity we set up, at the back of the church, a large scene of countryside and stable, populated with animals and shepherds. As the weeks go by the scene evolves and the characters are slowly drawn in towards the central scene. On Christmas the scene is complete, with the arrival of a child who attracts the reverent attention of both man and beast. Like the Advent calendar, the goal is to remind us of the story, especially to draw children away from those "other desires" and teach them the true meaning of the season, and to build anticipation.
Be Surprised at Christmas
Using these weeks for a prayerful preparation of our hearts, for the recalling of the ancient prophesy, serves to sharpen and deepen the emotional release of Christmas. We can experience for ourselves the utter shock of the wise and learned, trembling to meet a great king, who find themselves in awe before an infant; a king who will change the world, lodged in a crude barn. The importance of this surprise is too easily lost on folks who already know how the story ends. We must allow ourselve to be drawn into the spirit of waiting and anticipation, and experience the wonder of Christmas.
The danger of the modern "Christmas Season" is that wonder is replaced by exhaustion, anticipation gives way to stress, and preparation for selflessness drowns in selfishness. Do your part to resist this trend by lighting your Advent candles, reading the Advent readings, and by wishing friends and acquaintances a “Joyous Advent!” Keep the joy of Christmas, like the Christmas presents, wrapped-up until the 25th, you’ll enjoy it all the more!
