The weeks leading up to Christmas can be hectic—Christmas programs, work parties, school events, shopping, wrapping, cooking, baking, cleaning the house, preparing to travel. The list of things to do at this time of year can seem endless. What’s more, the mad dash toward Christmas seems to start earlier and earlier every year. It can be exhausting and overwhelming, and it’s tempting to just put your head down and barrel through the Christmas season.
This is not what the Advent season was supposed to be! The birth of Christ is something we should remember, rejoice over, and celebrate, but when we rush past Advent to Christmas day, our celebrations can miss the depth that comes from Advent’s call to faithfully live in anticipation of the coming of Christ.
The Basics
Advent, which literally means “coming” or “arrival” falls at the beginning of the Christian calendar and is the first season of our spiritual “new year.” Beginning on the 4th Sunday before Christmas and lasting until Christmas Eve, the Advent season is meant to prepare believers in anticipation of the “coming” of Christ. It is a season of waiting and preparation, but what are we waiting for and why? In her book, Advent: The Season of Hope, Tish Warren astutely observes,
We begin our Christian year in waiting. We do not begin with our own frenetic effort or energy. We do not begin with the merriment of Christ or the triumph of Easter. We do not begin with the work of the church or the mandate of the Great Commission. Instead, we begin in a place of yearning. We wait for our king to come.
Waiting on Jesus Christ during Advent grounds us in our need for salvation, reminds us of the magnificence of God’s gift to us in Jesus Christ, and points our eyes forward to the fullness of restoration when Christ returns.
Past, Present, and Future
Advent likely wasn’t an established season in the earliest days of the church. However, scholars confirm that by the 4th century, Christians had begun engaging in set practices of prayer, confession, and fasting in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Early on, Advent was a season for believers to reconcile themselves with God, and for new believers to prepare for baptism. However, there seemed to be little connection with Christmas.
Over time, the connection with Christmas became more pronounced—and Advent became a season for believers to prepare their hearts for the celebration of the first coming of Christ. By the Middle Ages, Advent had an additional focus—not only preparing believers for the celebration of Christ’s birth but preparing them for the second coming and glory of Christ’s return. Advent evolved into a season for Christians to both remember that “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many;” and to anticipate that “…he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:28).
Today, Christians around the world continue to observe Advent. How they do so varies from place to place and tradition to tradition. However, at the core of every Advent practice is the shared focus on the “comings” of Christ. In her book Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ, Flemming Rutledge suggests that during Advent, Christians are called to celebrate and prepare for not just two, but three “advents.” The advent of redemption (the birth and death of Christ), the advent of sanctification (the presence of Christ with believers in communion and the Word of God), and the advent of glory (the future coming of Christ on the last day). These three “advents” have a past, present, and future orientation.
During Advent, Christians are invited to participate in shared and individual practices such as Bible reading, prayer, and reflection to help them engage all three advents. Together believers look back and remember the darkness of the world (and their lives) before Christ and acknowledge the light that Christ’s salvation brought to both. Together they consider their present reality and give thanks for Immanuel, God with us, yet today. And finally they look forward, in hopeful anticipation of Christ’s coming glory.
Advent calls Christians to hold in balance the past, present, and future realities of God’s love for his people. It reminds us of God’s big story, and how he continues to work out his plan for his people and his world. Advent is a wonderful way for Christians to begin their spiritual new year because “in a very real sense, the Christian community lives in Advent all the time….Advent contains within itself the crucial balance of the now and the not-yet that out faith requires…[and] in that Advent tension, the church lives its life” (Rutledge, p. 7).
Advent Resources
If you are looking to kick off your spiritual new year by observing Advent, there are several ways to do so. Many churches already use Advent Scripture readings and prayers in their worship and sermon planning. For some Christians, it may be as simple as intentionally paying attention to what is already going on in your corporate worship. For those interested in establishing personal Advent traditions in your home, I encourage you to consider the possibility of using either an Advent wreath or Advent calendar (for more information on these traditions, check out What is Advent?). Finally, there are also loads of Advent devotional books and even email series, like Words of Hope’s “Names of Jesus.” Whatever resource or practice you decide to engage in this Advent season, we hope it will prepare you for the year ahead and remind you of God’s ever active love for you.
Explore more downloadable Advent Bible readings, adult devotional guides, and family devotional time (including crafts!) with Words of Hope.
