OMITTING ADVENT
“Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel,
which means ‘God is with us.’”
Matthew 1:23
Recently I was on a high school campus, meeting with a group of mostly Christian teenagers, and I asked them this question: “What is Advent?” The vast majority of them looked at me with a puzzled look on their faces, while a couple of catholic students raised their hands indicating they knew what it was, and to my surprise one young lady was even able to tell me what advent means in latin. What I’ve found as I’ve been asking more and more people around me about advent is that the majority of them don’t really know what advent is let alone observe it with any kind of intentionality.
So let me ask you these same questions:
Do you know what Advent is?
Do you observe it?
Do you know what it means in latin?
Meaning and History of Advent
The word Advent comes from the latin word Adventus which means “arrival” or “coming” and is a translation of the greek word parousia. Does that feel complicated? Well, language is like that sometimes. While advent developed into a time for christians to anticipate the celebration of the arrival of the Christ child on Christmas it began simply as a season of fasting and prayer for new Christians, presumably to recognize and solidify in their hearts that the God who arrived in history had arrived in their hearts. Over time this tradition grew to include the whole month of December and multiple different practices to anticipate not just the arrival of the Christ child at Christmas but the future arrival of Christ the King in the second coming. The first specific reference we have to advent comes out of the council of Sargossa in about AD 380. If you’re not a nerd than you can skip this next part, but for the nerds in the room, one of the main issues the council of Sargossa addressed was a movement called priscillianism, which the church condemned as a heresy believing it to contain gnostic teachings which deemed all physicality to be bad and therefore denied the physicality of Christ especially when it comes to His resurrected form. It makes sense then, that in response to this movement the church would highlight advent, that in Christ, God made Himself physically present in human history.
From these early beginnings advent has sprouted many different practices, from advent calendars, to advent wreaths and candles, to the more modern day advent devotionals and all of it is centered on building anticipation and expectation for the celebration of Immanuel, God with us, on Christmas.
Understanding Advent
To help you understand the intent of advent, think about the last time you had something coming up that had you literally counting down the days until it arrived. Maybe it was a birthday party, a big event, a special trip, or the delivery date for that amazon package. Whatever it was, think about that feeling you had as the date got closer. Meditate on the anticipation and expectation that was building up inside you.
Now ask yourself this question, “do you have that same sense of excitement, anticipation, and expectation leading to the celebration of the Advent of Christ on Christmas and ultimately about the second and ultimate Advent of Christ in the future?”
If your answer is no- then it’s time for you to stop omitting advent.
Re-admitting Advent
In the modern contemporary church movement we have moved pretty much wholesale away from anything that feels too “traditional” or “liturgical”. While I love the engaging and dynamic style and environments of church that I grew up in and am involved in today, one of the mistakes we can make is missing out on the power behind some of the great church traditions, especially the traditions anchored in the church calendar. It is exactly this mistake that has left so many churches and Christians celebrating Christmas but omitting advent. I think it’s time to re-admit advent into the consciousness and practice of the contemporary church. I think the omission of advent has had serious consequences in the way many Christians celebrate Christmas. This is going to sound really serious and feel kind of zero to sixty in no time flat, but I truly believe omitting advent is one of the major factors in the overwhelming commercialization that has consumed the Christmas season. With no practice of Advent to center our Christmas celebrations on Christ, many Christians have just been swept along with the raging current of consumerism that our culture produces around the holidays. Think about this, do you feel stressed out because you haven’t gotten everyone in your life exactly the right gift? Are you exhausted because your calendar is stuffed with office christmas parties, finals deadlines, and who knows what else? Do we really believe that we are properly celebrating the presence of God with us, when we are completely unable to be present ourselves, because we are obsessed with finding presents for others?
No. We need to cut the crazy. We need to slow down. We need to re-admit advent.
Some of the daily practices that you may find ADVENTageous, see what I did there, in this season to help you live more present and engaged in anticipating Christmas are things like a Christian advent calendar or book. Check out amazon for ones you can buy or even pinterest for free printable calendars. I would also recommend you start following along with an advent devotional, My wife and I are going through a really good one together on the youversion bible app that simply called “ADVENT” put together by church of the highlands.
I truly believe if we will make the decision to stop omitting advent and commit to an intentional practice of increasing our awareness of Immanuel, God with us, then this year we will experience an anticipation and expectation leading us to a celebration of Christmas like we’ve never felt before.