As the weather cools, the days shorten, the stores and malls remind us how quickly it is that time passes. And Christmas is coming. In these fall days before we have even had our Thanksgiving Turkey feasts, the stores remind us that the reason for the season is spending money on Holiday Decorations. They don’t even use the word Christmas that much anymore.
But we who celebrate the true reason for the season, the visit to the Shepherds, the trek to Bethlehem, the birth in the manger of the wee Christ child, also know that we travel through Advent before we get to that precious day.
Wikipedia says: “in the Anglican, Lutheran, Moravian, Presbyterian, and Methodist calendars, Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas (the Sunday that falls on or closest to November 30, always between November 27 and December 3; it is the Sunday between the last Thursday of November and the first Thursday of December), and ends by Christmas Eve on December 24. In the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, Advent begins with the First Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent and ends with the Deus, in adiutorium of the First Vespers of Christmas.” This is like calculating the celebration of Easter, to simplify — I will just tell you that this year, we celebrate the Reign of Christ on Sunday, November 23 and the first Sunday of Advent on Monday, November 20.
Begun early in the first years CE, Advent is a time for preparation. A time to prepare for the great feast of Christmas, to prepare for the coming of the Christ Child, and the second coming of the person of Jesus the Christ, and of course the beginning of the new liturgical year. Like all of the high festivals of the church, preparation means fasting, praying, and it is a time of penitence.
In modern times we often think of this sort of preparation only at Lent where people do fast, or give up some practice rather than food — a time where people will give up alcohol or smoking, or people will invest more time spent on prayers, scripture reading or devotions as a means of preparation. In the early church, there were people who fasted each and every day of Advent, others who fasted three days a week, and now? I am not sure I know anyone who fasts throughout advent, the rules about fasting seem to have been much relaxed, but it is a time to prepare, a time to wait, a time to reflect and a time to perhaps — ponder.
It seems to me that this time of sober preparation for Advent is not taken quite as seriously as it once was. One needs only to go about one’s business in the cities and towns and notice that the world feels like a time of preparation for the arrival of Santa Claus. At the time of writing, we’re in the brink of October, and there are Christmas decorations in the stores. Soon, all too soon, there will be Christmas music being broadcast everywhere — and I mean Christmas seasonal music, Holly Jolly, Deck the Halls, Suzie Snowflake and the like. Nowhere in the secular world will you hear “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus,” or “Comfort, Comfort Ye my People.” If you happen to attend a Carol Festival, if your town still has one, you may get a Silent Night along with the Jingle Bells.
But a meaningful time of Advent will not happen without a determined effort. Advent quiet days, Advent prayer days, Advent wreath making, Advent Calendars seem to be less and less used as ways to mark the days — fewer people attend these sorts of events — and maybe this is something that suffers because of those not so long ago dark days of COVID isolation. But Advent really is a useful way of marking the days, of building some anticipation of the coming days of Christmas.
When my kids were small, they would ask, “Is it my birthday today?” And I would have to tell them time and time again, “Not yet, we just have to wait.” “Is it Christmas yet?” “No, my darling, we just have to wait.” “Is Grandma coming yet?” “No my sweetness, we just have to wait.”
We live in a very fast paced world. A world where things happen instantly, it is, indeed, hard to wait. Information accessed at a few taps of a keyboard, meals out of the microwave in minutes, drive through banking, we’re all in a hurry. No one really wants to wait for anything.
But the waiting is the point. The anticipation of something happening can be very profound. The opening of each Advent Calendar window, brings us closer and closer to the Holy Night. The lighting of our Advent Candles week by week, moving us from darkness, closer and closer to the Dayspring. As we make our way through the season of Advent, edging closer and closer to hope, to light, to renewal, and to love. Let us wait! No Christmas Crackers! No Joy to the World! Until the Saviour of the world comes.
When he does come, the story will reach its fullness all over again in our lives. Our hearts rejoicing at the new possibilities, just as they did that night in Bethlehem long, long ago. The ancient promise fulfilled, and the innumerable host of heaven singing their song, and something measureless welling up within us.
And what is it? It is Love. Having come to be the new hope, the new light, the new Christ Child, the Alpha and the Omega. Joy to the World Reminding us every day, the Lord is coming.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall Come to you. Alleluia!!
