By Pastor Al Lewis,
Zion Lutheran Church
The calendar year ends Dec. 31 and begins Jan. 1. However, the Church year ends with the last Sunday in the Church year near the end of November and begins with the first Sunday in Advent somewhere between Nov. 27 and Dec. 3 inclusive. Unlike the calendar year, which forms a line with a beginning and end, the Church year is cyclical and continuous. Advent flows as smoothly and logically out of the end of the last Sundays in the Church year, with its emphasis on Christ’s second coming, as it flows into Christmas and Epiphany.
Advent, from the Latin word ‘adventus,’ meaning ‘coming,’ was first celebrated in Rome in the 6th century, though it already had a place in the worship life in Gaul and Spain by the end of the 4th century. It was a time of fasting and prayer in preparation for the feasts of Christmas and Epiphany, in much the same way that Lent was a fast before the feast of Easter.
Advent is a time to cultivate faithful perseverance and patience. We seem to always be running around in December, fuelled by amplified expectations of holiday cheer. We have feasts, devoid of fasts, a form of gluttony that is healthy for neither body nor soul. Sadly, our consumer culture has had more influence in the Church than the Church has had on her culture.
The austere season of Advent has been swallowed up by the feeding frenzy of the ‘holiday season,’ one uninterrupted feast from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. Christmas carols, decorations, Christmas trees, and parties really belong to the 12 days of Christmas — 25 Dec. 25 to Jan. 6 — not to Advent.
Advent is a time of personal reflection. The popular saying, ‘Jesus is the reason for the season’ is not entirely accurate. Better to say, ‘Sin is the reason for the season.’ If the human race had not rebelled against God beginning with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they took a bite out of the forbidden fruit and continuing down to our day — meaning you and me — there would have been no need for Christmas nor Good Friday nor Easter. God would not have needed to send His only Son into human history taking on human flesh and blood becoming a man. Jesus assumed human nature and was a man so that he could be the Saviour of all who were under the law — again you and me.
His life, His teachings, His ministry, His death and resurrection, followed by His ascension, rests upon the fact that God’s Son assumed human nature, took our place under the law, kept the law perfectly for us, took our place on Calvary’s cross taking our sin, our guilt, and our punishment on Himself. In the God-Man, God was reconciling a sinful world to Himself, not counting our sins against us. All who, by faith, trust in Jesus as their Saviour have forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Advent is a time for each of us to reflect that God sent His Son to be my Saviour.
Advent is a season of preparation of the first coming of our Lord Jesus as the Babe of Bethlehem to be our Saviour. Advent is a time to reflect that our Lord Jesus still comes to us in His holy Word and in the Lord’s Supper. It is a time of preparing for His second coming at the end of time as Lord of lord and King of kings raise us from the dead and give eternal life in the new heavens and the new earth to all who believe in Him as their Saviour.
What a great and glorious day that will be!