I Hope I Never Forget:

“Anything that one imagines of God apart from Christ is only useless thinking and vain idolatry.”- Martin Luther

Monday, November 19, 2007

WHY ADVENT- A BRIEF AND INADEQUATE EXPLANATION


The weeks that are approaching are among the busiest of the year. My family ends up being swept away by the hurry that characterizes everyone else. We’re busy, yet accomplish nothing distinctively Christian. Our home tends to look like every other home- both believing and unbelieving.

This can’t be right… at any time of the year. It’s especially sad at Christmastide because we are those who are formed by the story of the God who dared to put on his own creation. And this is the season where that clothing is celebrated. The Word became flesh! God and Creation were united together, distinctly yet without division. God and world together…and yet we can travel through the coming weeks while barely thinking of God at all.

I've done it, and I suspect you have, too.

We don’t mean to leave God out; we simply make no preparation to include him. Without an intentional incarnation, our best motives and ideals end up being about something other than what we intended. They just do...almost everytime. That’s the point of the Christian understanding of time. We don’t follow our Lord in a vague, general way. We follow him actually and concretely by tracing his steps (regardless of where we happen to be) across our planet, each and every year.

The season of Advent and its traditions can help our families overcome the constant tendency to distraction. It provides a focus- daily, if we’ll let it- of the truth of Christmas morning: Emmanuel, God is with us.

Mother church is so very wise. It’s not simply that Advent helps with the happenstance indifference that can creep into our busy days; rather Advent is about that inevitable worldy indifference that constantly soaks into the fabric of our lives from the puddles of unbelief we are called to walk through.

Israel became distracted and unprepared for the first coming of her Messiah; today’s world is busy buying and selling, and so ill prepared for her King’s return. These two periods of time are the focal points of Advent. We, however, are to be different. We inhabit the same chronological time as our distracted brothers and neighbors, but we make a different use of it. We do this by living in a different liturgical time.

Everyone makes ready for something, but we make ready for Christ. Everyone looks forward, but we look forward to his coming. We prepare and long for the time when his blessings will flow “far as the curse is found.” In other words, we keep Advent.

Four distinct traditions go into keeping Advent in the James house:
1. The Advent Wreath
2. A Jessie Tree
3. St. Nicholas Day
4. and what Essie calls our “floor banging” liturgy

We’ve already described what St. Nicholas Day looks like around here. If all of this seems a bit overwhelming, let me encourage you start simply this year by adding an Advent Wreath to your evening dinners.

Here’s another suggestion: for every intentionally Christian tradition you add, drop a secular one.

I’ll post some resources on each of our four traditions. We’re adding something new with our manger scene this year, or that’s the plan, anyway. I’ll let you know how that goes, too.

Would love to hear your ideas…and if this is helpful or a waste of time. Leave me a comment.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Helpful! Helpful helpful helpful!!! Please, please don't stop; you are providing much direction and opportunity for dialogue for our family. When my mind is running a million miles a minute, I never know what to comment! But I don't want you to stop sharing your thoughts and family's observance of the calendar (which I am new to)... helpful!!!

Phil James said...

Thank you for taking the time for the encouragement, Stephanie! Are ya'll planning to begin with Advent this year?

Unknown said...

We have done Advent twice before, but I've always felt like we didn't put enough meaning into it. After hearing your thoughts at the retreat and reading here how your family celebrates Advent, I've finally realized we were trying to celebrate it outside of the larger seasonal context of the church calendar. I also had been trying to combat something with nothing in that I concentrated more on the sacrifice than the celebration; and then I wondered why my kids weren't excited :P I can't wait to kick off the liturgical year and start bringing Something to the legacy I'm passing on to my children! Did I already thank you?