December newsletter article

THINKING ABOUT ADVENT

Stir up your power, O Lord, and come. Protect us by your strength and save us from the threatening dangers of our sins, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (collect, 1st Sun. of Advent)

By the time this article is printed and the newsletter hits your mailbox (or inbox), Advent will have begun. Advent—a time of wreaths, lighting colored candles, and sweating the few remaining “shopping days” till Christmas. But is that all it’s about? Have you ever wondered what the purpose of Advent is, or why we bother?
As it happens, the season of Advent has meant various things at various times throughout the course of Church history. The scholar Francis X. Weiser, S.J., for instance, tells us that initially it had a penitential nature. He says: “Since it [Christmas] was one of the main feasts of the Christian year, a spiritual preparation soon began to be held. From the Church in Gaul comes the first news about a definite period prescribed for this preparation. Bishop Perpetuus of Tours (490) issued the regulation that a fast should be held on three days of every week from the Feast of St. Martin (Nov 11th) to Christmas. [Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs]” And while this preparatory period was not yet called Advent, it certainly constitutes something of a ‘proto-Advent’ period in the life of the Church.
Over time, however, the penitential nature of the season has given way to other themes. The Catholic scholar Adrian Nocent concentrates heavily on the theme of “hope” during Advent, saying: “The Church realizes full well how difficult Christian hope is. That is why over the centuries she has fashioned a special liturgy that, beyond other liturgies, is a liturgy of hope, of waiting IN hope [The Liturgical Year].” The Lutheran liturgical scholar Philip Pfatteicher agrees, stating: “The traditional color of Advent is purple…but the preferred color in the LBW is blue. Blue suggests hope, a primary theme of Advent [Manual on the Liturgy].”
The point of these citations has merely been to illustrate that Advent has had various themes and concentrations over time. One lasting theme, however, and the theme I’d like to concentrate on at this point is the theme of the Lord’s coming--as the collect for the 1st Sunday of Advent began: “Stir up your power, O Lord, and come. The theme of the Lord’s coming is also taken up by the traditional Advent hymns. The 10th century office hymn Verbum supernum prodiens is a perfect example. Note that as the hymn progresses through the first three verses, each of the three ‘comings’ of the Lord are highlighted:

Verse 1, The Lord’s coming in history 2,000 years ago:
O heavenly Word of God on high,
Whose love has brought salvation nigh,
And from the Father’s heart didst come
To save a race by sin undone.

Verse 2, The Lord’s coming into our hearts by faith:
Our minds enlighten from above,
And kindle with the fire of love,
That as we hear thy gospel read,
All sinful thoughts may flee in dread.

Verse 3, The Lord’s coming as Judge at the end of time:
So, when thou comest at the last,
And earth’s long history is past,
May we be set at thy right hand,
And with thine own glory stand.
[Translation from New English Hymnal]

In other words, as tempting as it is for each of us to become slightly sentimental during this season, there’s really some pretty deep stuff at work. Those images of baby Jesus in the manger may not be quite as omnipresent as they were thirty, forty or fifty years ago, but they’re still out there. WHEN we see them, our minds should be stirred by the fact that since the Lord has come, there is a call to respond. Each person is called to open the manger of his or her own heart, that the Lord may come to them personally by grace through faith. And this call of response is urgent, pressing, for in confessing that he came once in history, we also confess that he is coming again to judge the living and the dead.
So, as you’re making your list and checking it twice, as you’re hanging the lights on your house and in your shrubs, as you’re noting that the blue paraments are up in church, as you’re trying hard not to become a victim of “parking-lot rage” at the mall, hopefully you’ll also take a little time to concentrate on the wonderful Advent theme of the Lord’s coming.
He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (Rev. 22:20).
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Pastor Manwell