Advent renewed
December 9, 2005
Anna Smith
I think this year’s Christmas candy was in stores the day after Halloween. Starbucks has been playing Christmas music and selling their holiday coffees for weeks. The caf and the Cog are decorated. People are starting to have Christmas parties and there are candy canes everywhere.
Every year, all t he fuss and bother makes me wonder, “What’s up with the Christmas season?” Every year it starts earlier; every year it gets more and more commercialized. My family has never placed an emphasis on the commercial aspect of Christmas. Instead, I grew up celebrating Advent. Every day we would read Scripture and sing a song together, focusing on the coming of Jesus. All of it led up to Christmas Day. And although I never believed in Santa Claus, every year I would get super-excited about Christmas.
Then, when I was in grade seven or grade eight, something changed. Christmas-time didn’t feel like Christmas anymore. It felt empty. It became predictable every year: there was no meaning in Christmas for me until Christmas Eve, when, sitting in the darkened sanctuary filled with flickering candles, hearing Scripture readings and Christmas carols, I would suddenly rediscover joy in the Christmas season. It always seemed to happen during a song like “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Advent and Christmas suddenly had their meanings restored.
The Advent season originally began as a time of prayer and fasting for converts before they were baptized on Epiphany. Eventually, this spread to the rest of the church. The focus was on the coming of Christ (hence the name Advent – “coming”). It was a time of preparation for the return of Christ, not unlike Lent.
In recent years, Advent has been stripped of its meaning by retailers, to serve as the time leading up to Christmas when people are supposed to buy stuff. Where is the life in that? Turning Advent into a commercial season takes even more meaning away from Christmas. For many people in our country, which is rapidly becoming more secular, the simple story of a baby born in a manger, a baby who was the Son of God, is far removed from Christmas. The concept of Jesus returning to earth has little or no place at all in modern Christmas festivities.
Yet the songs we sing every Christmas are reminders of what the season once was: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” “Joy to the World, the Lord has Come,” “Silent Night.” Jesus has come. Jesus is coming again. As we remember His birth and His coming in humility, in helplessness, in humanity, we should rejoice that He is to come again, in power, in glory, in majesty.
As we go about our business during the craziness of the Christmas season, buying gifts, studying for finals, figuring out how to get home, and drinking eggnog, let us remember the importance of Advent. If we give our gifts in the memory of the gift God gave to us all those years ago, if we live our lives in constant preparation for His return, won’t that give meaning back to Christmas? Most of the time, the way Christians celebrate Christmas is the same way the world celebrates Christmas. If we allowed the true meaning of the season to influence our lives, would the world look at us and see that there is something deeper to Christmas than merely giving and receiving?
Instead of buying an Advent calendar and opening up the little boxes each day to find pieces of chocolate, why not get together with a group of friends and pray? Do something that has real significance and remember that Christ has come, and Christ will come again.
Now you go...
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