Advent: What's It All About?

We’re closing in on the end of the Church or liturgical year. For liturgical purposes, the first Sunday in the new year is the first Sunday of Advent, which is 2 December this year. Sundays after Pentecost—the longest season of the year—was twenty-six weeks this year! The Sundays after Pentecost are also known as Ordinary Time. What this points to is the fact that between Pentecost and Christmas, there are no major feast days, so the time is…ordinary.

The word “Advent” derives from a Latin word that means “coming” or “arrival.” So the season of Advent, which is four Sundays ending on Christmas Eve, is a celebration of Jesus’ first Advent, that is, his birth. But the season also has another meaning: we anticipate Jesus’ Second Coming or Advent sometime in the future.

With the focus on the first Advent, we don’t just remember the birth story of Jesus—though it seems that way sometimes. The season is about celebrating something more; it’s about God’s breaking into history in order to reconcile all of creation. Our theology tells us that Jesus was the ultimate revelation of God’s love for each of us and for all creation. At the same time, we focus on a reality. That reality is that creation is not yet all God intends, and we are not yet all God intends. With Jesus’ second Advent, God’s ultimate will shall be realized and all will be made right.

We don’t know exactly when Advent began in the history of the Church. Christians until the fourth century didn’t have a universal feast for the birth of Jesus. In 380, a group of bishops required believers to be absent from church between 17 Dec and the Feast of the Epiphany in early January. There are a couple of sermons from the sixth century that mention a preparation for the birthday of Jesus.

For many centuries, Advent—even before it was called that—was viewed as a penitential season very much like Lent. Fasts and abstinence from 15 November, were the norm. The color purple, the Lenten color, was also the color of Advent. In more recent times, with the shift to the future, the emphasis is more on anticipation of God’s promise fulfilled. Some parishes, including St. Mary’s, have adopted Sarum Blue, or light blue, as the color rather than purple in order to move us toward anticipation and promise.

In the same way many of us view the beginning of the secular year as a time for making resolutions for the year ahead, Advent can be seen as a similar time. As we anticipate the Second Advent, we remember we have some role in preparing for God’s coming Kingdom. We can examine our lives to find ways to be more faithful and more about the Kingdom to come. Our prayer during Advent can be less about our sinfulness and more about our devotion, our commitment, our renewed determination to be living examples of the Kingdom to come.

Enjoy Advent as it builds toward Christmas, but move well beyond shopping, cooking, travel, cards and carols and move toward our hope in Jesus.

Peace, Jerry