Advent
The holiday season is now in full swing. Neighborhoods twinkle with light displays, newly purchased Christmas trees sit atop cars on their way to their temporary home, delivery trucks roam the streets from before dawn to late into the night and holiday music plays everywhere we go.
As much as I enjoy all of this — and I really do love it — very little of the holiday season has anything to do with the season of Advent which begins on Sunday, December 3. While you and I will spend a lot of our time and energy this month preparing for Christmas, the brief liturgical season of Advent — only 22 days this year — reminds us of our continual need to prepare for the coming of Christ. As Henri Nouwen wrote, “The Lord is coming, always coming. When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize him at any moment in your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord.”
There are many ways to prepare our hearts and souls for the coming of Christ. For example, Church Publishing offers a variety of books and resources with Advent reflections for all ages. Kate Bowler offers a free daily devotional, Bless this Advent, which you can follow online or download to print. You might try a simple daily meditation centered on the Advent prayer, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.” Using the prayer as a mantra, say it in your mind as you inhale. As you exhale, let go of all other thoughts, worries, and distractions. Then repeat for a minute or two or however long you wish.
This year at St. Paul’s, the Rev. Beth Scriven, Associate Rector, and Laurie Pierce, Director of Children, Youth, and Family Ministry, created a simple booklet with weekly prayers and reflection questions for our use as we light the candles on our Advent wreaths. The prayers are the same ones we’ll pray during Sunday worship. The reflection questions will be presented during Sunday School and the Adult Forum. As we move through the season, we’ll collect your responses to the questions on sticky notes, using them to create an Advent wreath full of your reflections. Wherever the focus of this Advent intention — at home, at church, or in both places — the prayers and questions will invite us to prepare for the coming of Christ together as a community. (The booklets are available in Burrows Commons or click here to view a digital copy; if you don’t have an Advent wreath, you can make one during the All-Parish Coffee Hour on December 3.)
Lighting candles, saying prayers, and reflecting on questions will not immediately solve the problems of the world or resolve the challenges in our own lives. But this doesn’t mean the spiritual practices of Advent (or any other season) are empty rituals without purpose or meaning. I’m reminded of an ancient story — as told by Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE in a sermon a few years ago— about a spiritual seeker who desires wisdom from a master.
“Master, is there anything I can do to make myself enlightened?”
The master replies, “As little as you can do to make the sun rise in the morning.”
“Then what use are the spiritual practices you prescribe?”
“To make sure you are not asleep when the sun begins to rise.”
As we wait for Jesus to come, Jesus waits, as Nouwen put it, for our “ears to hear and our eyes to see.” The intentional focus of Advent prepares us to recognize and receive the Holy One who comes in each moment of our lives, to love us, save us, call us, and equip us to be the light of Christ in the world.
