Travelling home yesterday we passed a shop that had Christmas trees for sale leaning against the wall.
I reckon that those trees will hardly have a pine needle left on them come Christmas Day! I also noticed that the first version of the iconic John Lewis advert had landed before the end of October.
I was interested in both these things because yesterday morning I led a seminar on how to preach at Advent and Christmas.
Had you asked me about Advent 25 years ago I might well have shrugged and wondered what you were talking about. Some churches do not really think of Advent at all but simply launch into Christmas themes at some point in December. Other churches are careful to distinguish between three distinct seasons: Advent on the four Sundays before Christmas, Christmas itself, which begins at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve and concludes with Epiphany on 6th January.
The 6th of January marks the conclusion of the twelve days of Christmas. In some of the latter churches no carols are sung until Christmas Day itself. This leaves room for some distinctive Advent hymns like O Come, O Come Immanuel. The more I have thought about preaching, the more I appreciate the rhythms of the church year, especially the prolonged periods of preparation during Lent and Advent.
What are the benefits of using the four Sundays of Advent to preach on themes that prepare a congregation for the message of Christmas?
1 There is the joy of anticipation.
We live in a generation that has largely forgotten delayed gratification. When I receive a new hardback book, I love to turn it over in my hands, admire the cover, scan the contents page and smell the newness of the paper. There is a joy in anticipating finding a quiet moment to dive into the book. Likewise, Advent helps me to build up a sense of anticipation of the Good News of the Word become flesh.
2 There is a lesson on how to wait.
I was interested to hear that Generation Z (probably due to Covid and lockdowns) did not know how to queue at a bar! They tend to queue in a straight line rather than in a series of rows facing the bar with customers jockeying to catch the attention of the server at the bar. Preachers need to use Advent to help Christians to learn how to wait.
Samuel Wells puts it like this:
“Advent isn’t an escape. It’s an encounter with the time that is deeper than our time, a time we call eternal life. It’s a discovery of a longing that’s deeper than our longing, the longing we call God’s waiting for us. It’s an experience deep down and through the bottom of our experience, a place where grief is no longer isolating but companionable, where alienating hurt becomes tender wisdom, where unfulfilled longing becomes the sculpting of a greater hole for grace.”
I like that final idea that Advent sculpts a greater hole for grace. It is a time to prepare us to fully celebrate the coming of Jesus the saviour because we have given time to remember why we need one.
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