The Week of Hope…stream of consciousness ramblings from the first week of advent

In case you hadn’t noticed, Thanksgiving has passed. Which means of course that Christmas is here. Well, that’s what secular culture and most evangelicals tell us. However, Christmas Day is not until the 25th. True, Christmas is a season, not just a day, but it is the season initiated on the 25th and lasting for 12 days. From December 25 until January 6, we celebrate the birth of Christ.

The coming of Christ certainly means that there is much preparation to be made. And that is where Advent comes in. For the four weeks leading up to Christmas, we celebrate Advent. As a child I had no notion of Advent. I knew that we couldn’t prepare for Christmas until December 3rd (because Adam’s birthday is December 2nd). I also knew that Christmas was coming because hanging on the back of the front door was a long strip of red felt with many pieces of candy tied carefully by small lengths of green yarn. Each day we got to have a piece of candy. On Christmas morning, we ate our final Tootsie Roll and knew that Christ had come. I didn’t realize it, but we were celebrating Advent.

Perhaps our children have a much better grasp on Advent than we do. They just can’t wait for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, they can’t sleep. We all remember waking Mom and Dad at some obscene hour on Christmas morning, and all of us without children have vowed to ourselves to lay down the law and lock our kids into their rooms that one night each year so we can get some sleep.

So how do we celebrate Advent? It is a question I struggle to answer. One easy criticism is that we sing Christmas songs way too early. We never sing “Up from the grave He arose” until Sunrise Service. To do otherwise would offend our sensibilities. But it is quite OK to sing “Joy to the world the Lord is come” before Christmas? Perhaps part of the problem is that for the 12 days of Christmas (including 2 Sundays) there are 28 songs in the hymnal, but for the four weeks of Advent (including 4 Sundays) there are only 5. How do you all differentiate between Advent and Christmas in your churches?

Another difficulty is that we think the Holy Days are a time to spend less time at church rather than more. For the first time in recent years (since I am now a pastor), I understand that feeling. However, I despise the fact that I would rather not have a Christmas morning service. What kind of Christian am I? I wake to the church bells starting morning Mass at the Catholic church next door every morning at 7:30am. The other RCC in town has a Mass every morning at 6:30am. And we complain about too much church at Christmas time? Last year there was a huge debate about whether churches would have worship on Christmas day because it was a Sunday. This year I have actually heard people debating whether or not they should cancel Christmas Eve service. In one breath church leaders discuss canceling a Christmas Eve service so people can stay home, and in the next breath they complain about Christmas being taken over by corporate greed. It was not taken over – it was given over!

But Advent is a season for hope. Despite our inadequacies. Despite our faults. Despite our failures. No matter how badly we botch our preparations, Christ still comes. He came that Holy Night in Bethlehem and he comes daily to be born anew in us every day. Our hope is Christ. And nothing we can do, or fail to do, can keep him from coming to us. And so we pray: Come, Lord Jesus, come!