I always look forward to Christmas, and the whole holiday season, but this year I found myself particularly looking forward to Advent itself -to joining with Christians everywhere and throughout the ages in eager anticipation of our coming Christ. I was genuinely excited for this day to come. So, out of my excitement, I decided to try something new this year. Each week I'll post a (hopefully) short reflection on that week's theme, as well as a picture and playlist that fits. Today's post will be a tad longer since I thought it might be a good idea to give a very quick overview of the Advent season for anyone who isn't familiar with it.
Advent is a part of the Christian church (liturgical) calendar which begins a countdown of sorts until Christmas. It officially begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas (November 30 this year), and is a season of waiting, expectation, and joy. The word "advent" means "coming" and Christians celebrate both the first coming of Christ at Christmas, as well as look forward to His second coming in the future. Each week of Advent has a particular theme. These are hope, peace (or faith), joy, and love. There is a little variation between churches as to which themes are celebrated on which weeks, but the four themes remain the same. Some Christians use an Advent wreath (made up of four candles in a circle surrounding one large candle) during this time and each week they light a new candle until Christmas day when the four outside candles and the central candle are all lit. Typically each candle in the wreath represents one of the themes of Advent, but they can also be associated with different characters in the Christmas story, such as the prophets, wisemen, shepherds, angels, and Mary and Joseph. The candles help serve as a reminder not simply of the themes of the week or that Christmas is approaching, but that the first Christmas was the moment when Christ, our Light, became human and entered our world, becoming the fulfillment of the name "Emmanuel" -"God with us.
Hopefully this quick overview helped. Now on to week one: hope.
Advent is a season of waiting, and I find it fitting that the theme of the first week is hope. Surely waiting, which can be rather difficult, feels more worthwhile and endurable when there is hope that someday the wait will be over. The thing is though, hope is not simply optimism or wishful thinking. It may often be used that way today, but hope is more accurately seen as the expectation of something, specifically something you know will happen. Merriam-Webster says the definition of the verb "to hope" is "to expect with confidence." On this first day of Advent, we are reminded of the Jews who waited many centuries for their coming Messiah. They could wait with hope, because they knew that God fulfills His promises, but this did not necessarily mean that the waiting was easy.
Advent is a part of the Christian church (liturgical) calendar which begins a countdown of sorts until Christmas. It officially begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas (November 30 this year), and is a season of waiting, expectation, and joy. The word "advent" means "coming" and Christians celebrate both the first coming of Christ at Christmas, as well as look forward to His second coming in the future. Each week of Advent has a particular theme. These are hope, peace (or faith), joy, and love. There is a little variation between churches as to which themes are celebrated on which weeks, but the four themes remain the same. Some Christians use an Advent wreath (made up of four candles in a circle surrounding one large candle) during this time and each week they light a new candle until Christmas day when the four outside candles and the central candle are all lit. Typically each candle in the wreath represents one of the themes of Advent, but they can also be associated with different characters in the Christmas story, such as the prophets, wisemen, shepherds, angels, and Mary and Joseph. The candles help serve as a reminder not simply of the themes of the week or that Christmas is approaching, but that the first Christmas was the moment when Christ, our Light, became human and entered our world, becoming the fulfillment of the name "Emmanuel" -"God with us.
Hopefully this quick overview helped. Now on to week one: hope.
Advent is a season of waiting, and I find it fitting that the theme of the first week is hope. Surely waiting, which can be rather difficult, feels more worthwhile and endurable when there is hope that someday the wait will be over. The thing is though, hope is not simply optimism or wishful thinking. It may often be used that way today, but hope is more accurately seen as the expectation of something, specifically something you know will happen. Merriam-Webster says the definition of the verb "to hope" is "to expect with confidence." On this first day of Advent, we are reminded of the Jews who waited many centuries for their coming Messiah. They could wait with hope, because they knew that God fulfills His promises, but this did not necessarily mean that the waiting was easy.
The carol commonly associated with this first week is "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." The first verse speaks from the perspective of the Israelites, "groaning" in exile while waiting for their Messiah. The exile the song speaks of was not even the end of their waiting as it was followed by approximately 4 centuries of seeming silence from God. I guarantee that there were days when it was very difficult to hold on to hope, to trust in the promise that the Messiah would come. I'm sure some gave up; some decided that they'd been waiting too long. The dark beauty of this carol, which is written in a minor key, speaks to their anguish. For others though, perhaps it was only the hope of the coming Messiah that kept them going day to day. Ultimately the chorus reminds us that the Messiah did indeed come, and this is cause for great rejoicing. However, to get to the celebration, you have to make it through the groaning.
This week as Advent begins, the story of the Jews reminds me of three lessons I want to remember this season. 1) Sometimes waiting is hard. There's no way around it. There will be times of tears and anguish and groaning. There is comfort for the trying times though when we know that our hope has a firm foundation. 2) Hope doesn't necessarily mean that we get exactly what we want. The Jews of Jesus' time expected a Warrior King who'd overthrow the Romans and release them from oppression. They did not expect a unknown peasant from a backwater town. 3) Some things are worth the wait. Jesus may not have matched the expectations of the Jews, but what Jesus brought was so much more beautiful, and certainly much better. Rather than simply taking care of the immediate physical salvation of the Jews, Jesus came to bring them eternal, spiritual salvation. Furthermore, the salvation Jesus brought was not just for the Jews, but for the whole world. It was the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham that "all nations on earth will be blessed" through his offspring (Gen. 22:18). The realization of the hope of the Jews, ultimately brought hope for everyone, and that is indeed reason for rejoicing.
This week as Advent begins, the story of the Jews reminds me of three lessons I want to remember this season. 1) Sometimes waiting is hard. There's no way around it. There will be times of tears and anguish and groaning. There is comfort for the trying times though when we know that our hope has a firm foundation. 2) Hope doesn't necessarily mean that we get exactly what we want. The Jews of Jesus' time expected a Warrior King who'd overthrow the Romans and release them from oppression. They did not expect a unknown peasant from a backwater town. 3) Some things are worth the wait. Jesus may not have matched the expectations of the Jews, but what Jesus brought was so much more beautiful, and certainly much better. Rather than simply taking care of the immediate physical salvation of the Jews, Jesus came to bring them eternal, spiritual salvation. Furthermore, the salvation Jesus brought was not just for the Jews, but for the whole world. It was the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham that "all nations on earth will be blessed" through his offspring (Gen. 22:18). The realization of the hope of the Jews, ultimately brought hope for everyone, and that is indeed reason for rejoicing.
If you're looking for suggestions of ways to celebrate this Christmas season, Rachel Held Evans has 26 Ideas for Advent. Besides this post, I'm going to try doing a daily devotional this year, like this one from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary or this one from Luther Seminary. For anyone wanting to know more about the liturgical calendar, here's Mark D. Robert's Introduction to the Christian Year.
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