Don't bail out on Advent!

Well, it really is growing near!  One week from today is Christmas Eve.  The end of Advent is steaming toward us.  It would be so easy simply to cash in the chips, to say, “We’ve been at this since November 10.  Let’s do Christmas already."

That’s the best reason to refrain!  Not that the world and its Christmas culture has worn us down.  But rather, there is still much to do.  Because, as we have said here repeatedly, this is not about pre-Christmas.  This is a wondrous, free-standing time that carries its own joys and its own blessings.  If it becomes difficult to focus on the season, perhaps it is time to create some NEW practices, to establish some NEW traditions.

I think this is a great stretch in which to explore the music dedicated to this time.  On November 21 this blog published a long list of Advent titles that appear in the United Methodist Hymnal alone.  What a great time to listen to them, learn them, sing them and even delve into them a bit.  Much of what is unique in Advent is explored at great length in these wonderful pieces of music.

It would be a terrific spiritual discipline to take some of the days we have left and immerse ourselves in the prophets who spoke so eloquently of hope and of the coming of God’s Christ.  We reduce these prophesies to single verses or carol-phrases often.  Instead of looking up the verse that contains “sun of righteousness” or “God with us,” what if we studied the chapter – or the book – in which the verse resides?

I would venture that there are representatives of other cultural expressions of Advent within easy driving distance of your own home.  You could visit these establishments or exhibits or even see how folks from different places decorate their yards and homes. “What is that?  Where does that come from?”  Write down a description.  Take a picture.  Go back home, conjure up some hot chocolate and Google what you have seen.  Marvel at how others "do Advent."

 I don’t know if there is enough time for it all.