This coming Sunday marks the beginning of Advent, the season when we prepare our hearts and souls for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. This will be my 22nd Advent as a pastor and in all of those years, I doubt a December has ever come and gone without someone asking why we, in the Church, cannot get along with the early celebration of Christmas. Everywhere else you look, the Christmas season is well underway, the halls are decked, the bells are ringing, the mistletoe is hanging and chestnuts are roasting over open fires. So why aren’t we signing Christmas carols in church? Why are we bedecked in purple when the rest of the world is festooned in colors as white as Frosty’s cheeks and as red as Rudolph’s nose?
There are at least two reasons we observe Advent. First, we want church to be a place of refuge from the pressures and expectations of the secular celebration. For many people, the cultural celebrations of Christmas—already well underway—are a source of comfort and joy, but for a lot of folks, this is a challenging and difficult time of year, fraught with emotional burdens that must be carried though a dark night of the soul over rough spiritual ground.
An observation of Advent acknowledges that a significant portion of our population walk in darkness this time of year, and while the Advent promise is that “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light” it is important to remember the darkness and to create safe spiritual spaces for those waiting to know the warmth of light.
Second, the observation of Advent is an exercise in delayed gratification that ends up being an act of resistance against the market forces that forever are trying to commodify the joy of Christmas. Advent is not for sale. It’s hard to put a price on the practice of spiritual patience. This makes Advent something everyone can afford. The angels of Advent turn no one away.
So I bid you a happy Advent, and I look forward to anticipating the joy of Christmas in your company.
Peace,
Ben