A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance… Ecclesiastes 3:4
Some of the most important moments we have in life are the moments we realize we are woefully and unforgivable ignorant of something we should have no excuse of being ignorant of. A few years ago I learned just how ignorant I was of Advent, and seeing I am an ordained minister, it makes it all the more inexcusable.
I always had some basic knowledge of Advent. As a kid, I knew it was the time I got to open the doors on my Santa Clause calendar, where each day I got the surprize of eating a tiny piece of nearly inedible chocolate. I also grew up in the church, and knew there was some religious meaning behind Advent too, but only simplistically so. I knew it was the time leading up to Christmas, and had something to do with waiting — because of my chocolate calendars, I figured it was some ‘sort-of’ countdown clock towards Christmas. I also knew Advent was four weeks, because some years at church we put up a wreathe and every Sunday service we lit either a pink or purple candle (*someone should have told Advent planners, “Pink and purple are so NOT Christmas colours!”), and a white candle on Christmas Eve for baby Jesus. Finally, I knew the candles each meant something such as, Hope, Love, Joy, Peace and baby Jesus. This was about the depth of my understanding; just pieces, just sentimental signposts pointing us towards Christmas. Advent was simply the religious name we branded to the period leading up to Christmas, giving us a worthwhile and holy excuse to justify all the hectic chaos we fill our lives with as we prep for the big day. This is why, when I finally took a little time a few years back to investigate the origins, meaning, and traditions of Advent, I realized how backwards my understanding was, and what an irredeemable mess our world, and tragically the church too, has made of this sacred season.
Today, I am still woefully ignorant of Advent, but now have enough knowledge to be shamefully aware of how guilty I am in dishonouring it. Sadly, I am also part of a church tradition (Baptist) that generally gives lip service to Advent in name, but decimates its intentions and invalidates its existence. This may sound harsh, but one has to have some inkling of what Advent is meant to be, and also what it was never intended to be.
What is Advent?
A full answer, including the history and the traditional practices of Advent are well beyond the scope of this short reflection, but here are few basics:
First — A Definition: Advent simply means, “to come,” or “to arrive.” It implies, we are currently in a period of expectation of someone and something special about to take place. The someone, is the coming of the promised Messiah; and the something, is the anticipation of the realized promises of LOVE, HOPE, JOY and PEACE coming to a wanting world starved of these realities.
Second — A Picture: Advent, for the church, is to be far more concerned about Christ’s second coming than it is about his first coming. During Advent, the church is to symbolically place itself in the place of ancient Israel: Seeing itself in tatters and in exile, clinging to the promise of God’s coming Messiah being revealed to a sin-soaked world. To long for the coming of a new kind of King, drawn from the ancient line of David, who will arrive on the scene, providing a pathway of peace and restoration for Israel. Likewise, the church now yearns that same Messiah’s return, bringing with him, mercy and justice to heal and make whole his people and his creation.
In light of this understanding, the 28 days of Advent (*not 24, and in some traditions 40 days) are intended for the church to embrace and practice the following:
- Advent Is A Time of Fasting Not Feasting. A time to intentionally go without, to purposefully experience and join in the hardship of others who surround us.
- Advent Is A Time Simplicity Not Decadence. Advent is not a time for parties or pageantry. It was never meant to be a time with filled calendars and overwhelming obligations. Advent is a time intentionally set aside for us to stop, to sabbath, and to choose stillness over busyness.
- Advent Is A Time Of Solemnness Not Celebration. Advent is the time of year, not to ponder what is right with the world, but to consciously mourn for the brokenness of it . *Fortunately, even Advent has a small reprieve. In the middle of Advent, the sorrow of the season gives a brief and sudden excuse for JOY— a brief break from the fast in order to celebrate a quick feast. Reminding us, life is the mixture of both gut-wrenching heartache and breath-taking happiness!
- Advent Is A Time For Repentance Not Rejoicing. Advent helps us acknowledge the beauty and cost of our salvation in this once arrived yet still awaiting Messiah. It remind us, this Savior needed to save us from something; to pay a debt none of us have the funds to cover. What he saves us from is our own depravity and our own disregard for righteousness. Yes, the debt has been removed, but the grime of sin remains, and Advent calls us forth in thanksgiving to the practices of confession and penitence.
- Finally, Advent Is A Time For Giving Not Receiving. This aspect sounds a little closer to the period before Christmas we are accustomed too, but this is not intended to be the purchasing of gifts to pass along to family and friends. Traditionally, Advent was a heightened time of alms giving (collecting for the poor), where the church intentionally looks for the neglected and the needy, to generously give of its’ resources to lift up the estate of others.
This picture of Advent may not look like the practice of Advent we are familiar with. It may even sound a little bleak, a little depressing, like we might need something beautiful and vibrant to help us burst through the melancholy of Advent? If you are thinking this, you are on the right track. At dusk on December 24th, the doldrums of Advent come to a dramatic end with the joyous Feast of Nativity! The fasting of Advent moves aside to bring us 12 Christmas days of indulgent feasting. With the dawn of Christmas we are now invited to extravagantly celebrate the fulfilment of Christ’s first arrival in Bethlehem, and to dine on the foretaste of what is still promised us in Christ’s culminating second coming. Only when we properly understand the simplicity and sorrow of Advent are we able to fully appreciate the joy and indulgence of Christmas!
A Final Note: Potentially one of the unintended blessings of this pandemic is that it might provide for us this Advent season the forced opportunity to sabbath, to simplify, and to embrace our world’s and our own brokenness. And may this season also cause us to burst in hope-filled celebration as Advent breaks and Christmas dawns anew!
“Advent is the time of promise; it is not yet the time of fulfillment. We are still in the midst of everything and in the logical inexorability and relentlessness of destiny.…Space is still filled with the noise of destruction and annihilation,the shouts of self-assurance and arrogance, the weeping of despair and helplessness. But round about the horizon the eternal realities stand silent in their age-old longing. There shines on them already the first mild light of the radiant fulfillment to come. From afar sound the first notes as of pipes and voices, not yet discernible as a song or melody. It is all far off still, and only just announced and foretold. But it is happening, today.” Alfred Delp (1942)
