Over the last couple of weeks I have had the privilege of teaching on the meaning and practice of Advent to the congregation at West Side Presbyterian Church. I have appreciated the ways in which the people there engaged. As I reflect on the Advent Season again this year, I am keenly aware of the tensions of faithfully celebrating Advent. Advent invites us to celebrate by remembering and anticipating.
Advent invites us to remember the 1st Coming of Jesus Christ while also inviting us to anticipate the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ. Both movements of Advent call us to be prepared. So much of the way we enter this season is to prepare...for family and friends who share the season with us, for the decorations, food and other liturgies of the season...and for what? A season of hurry, stress, etc. etc. When all is done on Christmas Day, what remains? Often we are more tired than renewed...more depressed than hopeful...more in debt than set free...more focused on stuff than relationships...Everyone says "It won't be like this next year...but when next year comes around we automatically just turn and do it again. Everyone knows something is wrong, but what and deeper still what can I do about it.
The early church, when it finally chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in the late 4th or early 5th centuries, celebrated the season emphasizing anticipation of the 2nd Coming rather than the 1st Coming of Jesus Christ in its liturgies. Why have we reversed that perspective?
I am convinced that the major barrier to celebrating the Advent/Christmas Season well is not only the rampant consumerism which has blasphemed the season, but even more so is the seductive nature of "sentimentality" around the season. We want to recapture or even worse invoke an experience of Advent/Christmas that we longed for in our younger days. Thus, in my opinion, the great enemy for God's People celebrating Advent/Christmas well is not consumerism but sentimentality. We want to (re)capture the experiences of our past Advent/Christmas celebrations rather than anticipate/hope and prepare for the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ. Yet we are called to prepare by remembering but remembering well...which should lead us to gratitude not sentimentality. And we are called to prepare by anticipating with hope a God-filled future...which should lead us to a holy dissatisfaction with the status quo of this world and to hope-filled action which bears witness to the Kingdom of God and its coming. As Christians, both remembering with gratitude and anticipating with hope are active not passive, active but not busy disciplines of the season, so we will be prepared to celebrate Christmas well and live into the future well.
So the Advent Conspiracy Movement (www.adventconspiracy.org) invites us to the following:
WORSHIP FULLY
SPEND LESS
GIVE MORE
LOVE ALL
This can be adapted to individually and corporately among Christians this season. Go to church. Give one less gift this year. Give to something that will make a real difference. Speak and act with love to someone who need to know and experience the love of God in Jesus Christ...Stay open to how God may want you to be the presence of Jesus Christ to another person in this season. Rather than focusing on what present you will give, choose to be the presence of Christ to others. Personally, continually reflect upon and give thanks for:
How Christ has come to you in the past...
How Christ is coming to you in this season (the present)..
How Christ will come to you and desires to come to others in this season and beyond (the future)...
May the Love, Peace, Hope of Jesus Christ meet you and the world in this Advent/Christmas Season.
PS: I would love to hear how God is encountering you this Advent Season or How you are celebrating Advent in your life, relationships and communities of faith...
We LOVE Advent Conspiracy. The past couple years we haven't bought our older nieces and nephew anything material, instead we planned a secret special outing with Aunt Sarah & Uncle Chuck and took them on scavenger hunts around town and out to lunch and a movie. They STILL talk about that (the past year we've had to mail gifts long distance which makes it a bit harder to give time). When we can't give time with ourselves we try to give gift cards to our siblings and parents so they can go on date nights with their spouses and spend quality time together on us. This year with moving and the baby coming in a few weeks I'm failing miserably at anything Advent/Christmas related and just bought random stuff on Amazon and haven't decorated a thing (unless you count unpacking boxes from our move!) Next year we want to come up with a meaningful Advent family tradition to begin implementing. Great post Bryan! We miss you!
Posted by: Sarah Kennedy | December 08, 2011 at 08:28 AM