The Christian season of Advent is upon us. Many older
Protestant churches adopted the practice of Advent in the last few generations.
Many Christian churches do not acknowledge it. Our culture does not. Christmas
stations started before thanksgiving this year.
Then we have some conflict in churches when we should start singing
Christmas carols. Basically the culture call off Christmas at December 26, but
that is when the season just starts in the church year.
It is ancient, but it does depend on the firm dating of
Christmas on December 25th, so it took a while to be adopted. Its
preparation was basically a call to fasting and prayer prior to the great day. Please recall that Christmas was barely
celebrated in this country until the mid 19th century, with a wave
of German immigration. The frosty asceticism had started to wear away from our
Puritan culture.
Advent means arrival, especially in the sense of a great
person moving in a grand procession. In
current tradition, it points first to the Second Advent of Christ, that time
when god’s vision for the world comes to fruition. Given the childish views of
most of us on this great promise, reflection on this theme could well mature
our faith. On the Third Sunday we shift gears and look toward a consideration
of the first Advent, the birth of Jesus Christ. Again, the Incarnation is a
pillar of the faith, but we scarcely consider it but merely salute it and move
on past.
Some churches have adopted the use of candles to mark each
Sunday. Typically, Protestants have made this a free expression of the
untethered religious sentimental imagination, so the candles often represent
whatever themes the church wishes to present. Unwilling to even consider that
Advent could be a call to radical repentance; many churches have chosen royal
blue as a color for the candles, to push Lent into the only season of
discipline in the church year.
Many of us have adopted the relatively recent German practice of the
Advent calendar. Alton
High School
Let me clear. I hope I do not sound like the Christmas
Grinch. I have no issues with the spectacle of Christmas. I do ask for respect
for religious traditions. I do hope that we prepare our souls with some of the
attention we lavish on Martha Stewart decorations and labor-intensive goodies.
In a time of anger being stoked into simmering rage day
after day, we can all use a sense of Christmas inner peace. Possessed of the
power of inner peace, we can face down our violent impulses. We can find a
center to do work of putting Christ back into being Christian, let alone
Christmas.
This year the readings from Isaiah have a decided focus on
peace. It is always an appropriate focus.
This year I am praying for an element of the advent of peac3e: the
reduction in violence. We have enjoyed a long period of a reduction in violent
crime and losses in war time in our country. At the same time, its pall casts
gloom on those its cold hand touches. The host of heaven turned into a
non-violent choir making the fields an arena for worship in the very teeth of
power not far away in Jerusalem .
