Are you looking for a particular day or are you looking for a person? Yes, Dec. 25 is Christmas; so after all of the gifts are opened and the living room is cleaned up, it is like; so what do we do now? Many do suffer a little from post-Christmas downheartedness and become a little visionless. Days come and go, but people are with us for a lifetime.
Christmas should be an exciting time of year and like the song says; “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” People seem to be kinder, a bit more charitable to the downtrodden and those in need; even Ole Ebenezer Scrooge has a changed heart and a sense of charity. Is it giving or receiving gifts, Christmas decorations, Christmas carols, Christmas bonuses from our job or a sense of expectation? I would suggest that it goes much deeper than the expectation of a day or material benefits, this unexplained expectation can be found buried deep in the treasures of the Season of Advent.
What is Advent? How does it relate to Christmas? Many expressions of Christianity throughout the world still use the ancient Liturgical calendar, which is a series of religious feasts and seasons celebrated year round. The early New Testament Church inherited many of these feasts and celebrations from ancient Jewish customs, traditions, ancestry, feasts and celebrated events between mankind and the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the Promise Land of Israel. The Christian Liturgical calendar begins each year with Advent, then Christmas, Ordinary Time, Lent, Easter, then Ordinary Time again and then it starts all over again.
The Latin word for Advent is adventus, which means arrival or appearance. Advent is the arrival of a notable person. It is also a season observed by many expressions of Christianity worldwide, which is a time of expectancy, anticipation, preparation for the Nativity of Jesus and also the return of Jesus known as the second coming. This Season begins four Sundays before Christmas. The Season of Christmas according to the Liturgical calendar begins on Christmas Eve and this year goes through January 13th which is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. In reality, Christmas should not be just confined to one day. We will take a look at the Season of Christmas later on.
When we use computers, deeply embedded below the surface of our work on the screen is all of this code language written by computer experts that makes our software run. Deeply embedded into God’s plan and the core of our foundation during this time of year is an unwritten code for a time of expectancy, looking to the future with an excitement and the hope of better days ahead. The promise to the Old Testament prophets was a new King; redeemer of man’s sin was going to come, a Messiah, which means Christ in Greek.
The New Testament story began when an engaged virgin named Mary was visited by an angel of the Lord named Gabriel. He startled her with a life changing message; she was chosen as the only woman on earth to conceive a child by the Holy Spirit and would bear a son and his name would be Emmanuel, which means, “God With US.” God later appeared to Joseph her husband in a dream and calmed his anxiety about her expecting a child outside of wedlock and told Joseph he would have a son and he shall be named Jesus and he would save his people from their sins. Talk about expectancy; Jesus, Emanuel, God with us was to be borne by a virgin and would be the redeemer or savior of the world. If we ever needed redemption in our life, here it is, as we wait with great expectation of the coming of the savior of the world.
Advent is also symbolized by the Advent wreath, which is a long standing Christian tradition that symbolizes the four weeks leading up to the coming of our savior. It started in Germany among German Lutherans in the 16th century. It is a horizontal wreath made from greenery with four candles which are lit one at the time each Sunday. The circular wreath symbolizes God’s infinite love for us and the greenery symbolizes the evergreen hope of eternal life. The candles lit each week are symbolic of the light of Christ: Week One – Hope, Week Two – Peace, Week Three – Joy and Week Four – Love. Generally all of the candles are the same color except on Week – Three, which is pink symbolizing Gaudete Sunday, which means in Latin to “rejoice” for he is almost here.
Advent is also a celebration of the expectancy of his second coming. For the redeemed, Advent is a time of prayer and fasting serving as a reminder of his nativity birth, but looking with great anticipation of his promised return. While there are many biblical accounts citing this second coming, Jesus told the parable about the Ten Virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. The bible refers to the redeemed (saved) as the bride of Christ; so these Ten Virgins are symbolic of you and I and meeting the bridegroom in his second coming. Five were prudent and took additional oil with them and the other five were not prudent and did not have staying power, waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom. When the announcement came that the bridegroom had arrived, five made it and five did not.
During this Season of Advent, let’s go deeper than the surface of a particular day, Christmas decorations, parades and gifts. Let’s be aware of those around us who need a touch, smile, encouragement, hand up or a note. Let’s also be givers and not takers. Traditionally over time, we have been encouraged to pray and fast, with the expectation of his arrival. Truefully speaking; the oil in the parable of the Ten Virgins is the Holy Spirit; so when we pray for others and fast our opportunities to help others will soar and our lamps will be filled to over flowing. The Holy Spirit is this deeply embedded code that urges us to be charitable, kind and sympathetic to others.
So this Season of Advent leading up to Christmas, try and recalibrate our thinking from a particular day to a particular person.
May God richly bless you and your family during this special Season of Advent.
