In praise of Advent
‘O come O come Emanuel’ is probably the most famous Advent carol, though not I think popular as a carol. Advent is both the process of change and the period of change, moving from an age of judgement on Advent Sunday, to an age of new birth and new beginnings on Christmas Day. Four weeks of prayerful waiting in-between.
We hardly do Advent in our country. We are not comfortable with God judging us, even a just God rightly judging us, and we are much too impatient to get to the fun of Christmas. In our culture we don’t do transitions well. The day after an election a new government is formed. Contrast that with across the Atlantic. There, after an election, the transition of power takes two months. Two and a half months of power slipping away from a ‘lame duck’ President, until power is passed on to the next President, who is all too eager to enact novel policies onto an anxious world.
I think we find Advent troubling because Advent is about the end times as much as about a future hope. End times: the talk of dramatic global environmental change, the constant pictures of a violent world, so much poverty and riches side by side; all these things seem out of control. Yet the God of Advent is out there, almighty and all-powerful. He will bring injustice and wickedness to an end.
In contrast to the Advent God, the God of the Christmas story is strangely hidden and vulnerable; He is not ending time, but beginning a life with us. The paradox of God in the ordinary.
The two Gospel figures who do Advent well are John the Baptist and Mary. John the Baptist is a voice crying in the wilderness, calling on us to prepare for the coming king by changing our ways. We must align our character with the one who comes with a winnowing fork and fire. John’s Advent message of transition is hard talk, strong medicine. John calls us to reverse the direction of the lives we lead. To make ready our lives for the coming king.
Mary’s Advent transition involves nine months of pregnancy, with an archangel visiting her in March, an exchange of pregnancy notes on a visit to cousin Elizabeth in September, and finally the long 80 mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The last bit of the story is the only bit of Advent we really do, and it happens in school nativity plays. Mary’s story resonates in the world of little ones.
Other European cultures make more of Christmas than we do. Epiphany comes on the twelfth day of Christmas with the visit of the wise men to the stable. With the New Year coming six days after Christmas, six days before Epiphany, somehow Christians in our culture fail to live the delight of Epiphany, for by January 2nd everything feels a bit sore and flat.
Perhaps if we were to prepare well in Advent, the New Year will be spiritually alive for us, as we offer our gifts of holiness on Epiphany to the promised King.
Baptism in December
11am Sunday 22nd December at Staunton Church of Matilda Middlecote, parents Lucy and James. We offer our prayers and congratulations.
United Services in December/January – do join us!
11am Sunday 1st December at Staunton Church – Advent Sunday Communion
11am Sunday 29th December at Ashleworth Church – BIG church
11am Sunday 5th January at Corse Church – Epiphany Communion