The First Sunday in Advent is next on the liturgical calendar. Advent always begins four Sundays before Christmas. A secondary meaning of advent, when not capitalized: “a coming into being or use.” Advent calendars are often used with children to help in the season of Advent in preparation for Christmas.
When our children were small we had an Advent calendar. We also had one when our grandchildren came along. It had a pocket for storing icons until the time to post the icon of the day. It was a good way for children, graphically to count down the days until Christmas. Done well, the Advent calendar is a good means for helping children learn our Faith, while pacing their days until Santa comes.
I recently learned o a “Chocolate Advent Calendar;” each day offers another gift of chocolate . I am bummed that I didn’t know about that one sooner!! But, then, I’m sure I would be like a friend, who the other day said, “My Chocolate Advent Calendar shows that Christmas is day after tomorrow.”
On a more serious note, I was also late learning about the season of Advent. In Deepstep, our pastor came only one Sunday each month. Advent was not a high priority in worship. During my college years I worked for a pastor who taught me about the Christian year. Under his leadership, I came to appreciate this holy season of the Christian year.
Paige, my late wife, and I both are graduates of Emory University, Candler School of Theology, Atlanta, GA. We emerged with a deep love for the seasons of the Christian year. Unlike mine, her family made a big deal of Christmas. Our two little girls offered a welcomed opportunity to leap full throttle into the Celebration of Advent and Christmas. Jo Carr, a favorite author, wrote a wonderful Advent Celebration for Home and Family, which we used Sundays in Advent.
This year, more than any other, Advent preparation and anticipation of Christmas, sings joy into our hearts. There can be a blessing in this COVID-19 time of slow-pacing-shelter-in-place. It can merge easily into the day-by-day pilgrimage into Christmas. It gives us time to absorb deeper meanings of Joy, Hope, Love, and Peace. Rector of Boston’s Trinity Church, in the late 1800’s, Phillips Brooks, penned this hymn, a cherished icon of Hope:
O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight (emphasis mine).
Even small town churches with preaching every Sunday didn’t do anything much with Advent when I was growing up. Even at Auburn, I was home for Christmas and don’t remember Advent at Auburn Meth. , but maybe wasn’t paying attention. I learned about the Christian year in seminary also. I think I introduced the first Advent Wreaths in at least one of my early pastorates.
I grew up in the Methodist Church in a smallish town in central Washington State. My parents were very strong
Methodists and I don’t recall any attention being paid to Advent. I don’t remember it being important in West Coast Methodist Churches I attended as an adult, either.
Would that have been Tegler Greer Willis.? I sure enjoyed working with him that summer.Sweet family and I learned a lot on that charge.Such nice people lots of good memories from my rural work with home mission board.Met a nice young man name Willis too.Enjoy the Advent season as we prepare for the love and Joy the Christ Child brings into our lives.