In my living room is an Advent wreath. It is a suspended from a table-top stand made by my father. In years past the red ribbons suspended a wreath made of genuine evergreen branches. The red candles would be lit beginning on the first Sunday of Advent, with one more on each of the four Sundays of Advent. As kids the Advent wreath fascinated us. It was a count down until Christmas, and the more candles were burning, the closer the big day was. I can remember that as a family we would sing “Advent” carols (not Christmas carols!) – at least not until the fourth Sunday. This was all done in German, and the Advent carols came from a songbook called the “Singvögelein” (song bird) which was the songbook we used in Sunday School.
Advent means “Arrival”. As kids the arrival that concerned us was Dec 24 and 25. As we matured, we learned that the Advent season represented the waiting time for Messiah’s appearance, and is a time of preparation for the celebration of the incarnation. Since we live in New Testament times, Advent also reminds us of Jesus’ Second Coming, not as a babe in the manger, but in power and glory, and that we must be prepared for that event.
As kids we also each received an Advent calendar. It had 24 doors on it, one for each day starting December 1. Behind the door, when it was opened, a Bible verse, or a picture (or nowadays chocolate!) would be visible. The door that was marked “24” was usually a double door behind which the nativity scene was visible.
In early church history, in other words in pre-reformation times, Advent was a solemn time of fasting and spiritual examination. The fast was in anticipation of the feasting that took place at Christmas time.
Evangelical Christians have generally not paid much attention to Advent, but fortunately, that is changing. In the church that I attend, we light an Advent candle on each Sunday of Advent. I was glad to note that one of our pastors gave us an explanation of the meaning of Advent, as well as the meaning of that particular Sunday, as the Advent Sundays represent Hope–Peace–Joy–Love respectively. Some churches change that order. In liturgical churches each candle has a distinctive colour, although red is the choice of colour for some. In our church the candles are blue. I’m not sure why that colour was chosen, but blue does happen to be the new liturgical colour for Advent, to distinguish it from the purple or violet of lent. Usually there is a somewhat larger white candle in the middle, which is lit either Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day.
As one raised in the free-church tradition, I never felt a need to be bound to the rigours of the liturgical calendar. In other words rather than be restricted to preaching about the meaning of each particular Sunday, I felt free to preach whatever Scripture I was inspired to choose for a particular Sunday. However the calendar is not without usefulness. Observing Advent for example, helps me to build in my own life the joy of celebrating the Birth of Christ. The same applies to lent, the weeks that lead up to Easter.
At a time when Christmas music surrounds us from mid November, it might be useful to learn to anticipate and hope once again. In our home in which i grew up, the Christmas tree did not appear until about December 23 or so. We also did not throw it out to the curb on December 26 like many still do. It stayed up until mid January, or at least until the feast of the Epiphany was over.
Whatever your tradition might be, for today I will say Happy Advent. But not yet Merry Christmas. That comes later.
