The First Sunday of Advent

We come to the beginning of a new year.  Not the calendar year, of course.  2019 will be upon us quickly enough.  December 2 marks the beginning of the Christian Liturgical Year.  The Western Church reckons time a little differently than secular observers.  So, we start a new year four Sundays before December 25 – Christmas.

Advent literally means “to come” (from the Latin advenio).  The season is a many-layered period.  The church, all at the same time, anticipates the physical birth of Jesus, placing him in time and space.  The community of faith also begins the yer-long observance of the coming of the Savior of the world into human history.  In addition, believers look forward to the return of the exalted Son of Man in glory.  Lawrence Hull Stookey (Calendar: Christ’s Time for the Church, Nashville, Abingdon 1996) observes, “What may seem to be an anomaly is a very important theological point.  The beginning pf the liturgical year takes our thinking to the very end of things.” (p. 121)

The friction in this time is that this is not the “Christmas Season.”  The retailers have been huckstering STUFF since the Fifth of July.  But the church does things differently.  Advent is a time of introspection.  It is a time of expectancy.  It is a time of not getting in a hurry.

Time will pass quickly enough.  I look to enjoy the anticipation.

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A devotion at the lighting of an Advent wreath

The First Sunday of Advent

December 2

(Light one of the purple candles)

In Scripture, one of the great symbols used to describe the fallen nature of human beings is darkness.  In John's gospel, the evangelist says:

"and this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.  For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed."

During the season of Advent, we once again rehearse the movement of human beings out of the darkness of ignorance and sin and into the light of Christ's presence.  Today, on the first Sunday of the season, we light a lone candle on the wreath.  As it awaits its Savior, creation is still largely in darkness.  However, there is ever a spark of hope in the world.  The light of this single candle is a reminder that the time is coming when the light of righteousness will overcome the darkness.

Prayer:   Almighty God,

kindle in each of us the light of fresh hope;

that in the face of darkness

we might not despair.

In the name of Jesus Christ, who is our light.  Amen.