(More) Thoughts on Advent
In the reading for December 7 entitled The Penitential Season (pp. 102-106 in Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas, Orbis Books, 2001), William Stringfellow begins with the following:
"We live now, in the United States, in a culture so profoundly pagan that Advent is no longer noticed, much less observed. The commercial acceleration of seasons, whereby the promotion of Christmas begins even before there is an opportunity to enjoy Halloween, is superficially, a reason for the vanishment of Advent. But a more significant cause is that the churches have become so utterly secularized that they no longer remember the topic of Advent. This situation cannot be blamed merely upon... the electronic preachers and talkers, or the other assorted peddlers of religion that so clutter the ethos of this society, any more than it can be said, simplistically, to be mainly the fault of American merchandising and consumerism."
I was introduced to Advent in my graduate studies years when my wife and I joined the Methodist Church in Michigan. Having been "raised" as a Southern Baptist, I had no idea of what Advent meant, for the church of my youth did not recognize the season nor do they today. So over the years since, I have "celebrated" this season and the Christmastide season and even though it has been 30 years since that time, I still find its remembrance helpful in my walk.
The meaning and emphasis during Advent changes every year. As I struggled this year in how I would remember and live during this Advent, one of my daughters related the subject of the sermon this past First Sunday of Advent at her Indiana church. The topic was Advent and Fasting, two topics that I had failed to see any relationship. (I had always thought Lent equals Fasting.) However, a Google search quickly revealed that fasting had been a common practice during Advent in the early church and there were many churches today, primarily Greek Orthodox, that still practice this tradition.
Last year, when I wrote, I felt the call to "rise up and follow". Yet, this year, perhaps I will have to look further into tradition as I seem am repeatedly directed to a different reaction during this Advent. Recent articles (Christianity Today and the Palm Beach Post) seem to further reinforce these feelings. Stringfellow went on to discuss the first Advent and how John the Baptist is considered a primary Advent figure and his message was repentance. He further writes concerning on how we now are in the second Advent and asks how we should act knowing that sometime, Jesus comes back as the judge. I think, as followers of Christ, we all recognize that there is something so unChristian about Christmas. Perhaps the voices which cry against our holiday celebrations during this time are valid.
David G
"We live now, in the United States, in a culture so profoundly pagan that Advent is no longer noticed, much less observed. The commercial acceleration of seasons, whereby the promotion of Christmas begins even before there is an opportunity to enjoy Halloween, is superficially, a reason for the vanishment of Advent. But a more significant cause is that the churches have become so utterly secularized that they no longer remember the topic of Advent. This situation cannot be blamed merely upon... the electronic preachers and talkers, or the other assorted peddlers of religion that so clutter the ethos of this society, any more than it can be said, simplistically, to be mainly the fault of American merchandising and consumerism."
I was introduced to Advent in my graduate studies years when my wife and I joined the Methodist Church in Michigan. Having been "raised" as a Southern Baptist, I had no idea of what Advent meant, for the church of my youth did not recognize the season nor do they today. So over the years since, I have "celebrated" this season and the Christmastide season and even though it has been 30 years since that time, I still find its remembrance helpful in my walk.
The meaning and emphasis during Advent changes every year. As I struggled this year in how I would remember and live during this Advent, one of my daughters related the subject of the sermon this past First Sunday of Advent at her Indiana church. The topic was Advent and Fasting, two topics that I had failed to see any relationship. (I had always thought Lent equals Fasting.) However, a Google search quickly revealed that fasting had been a common practice during Advent in the early church and there were many churches today, primarily Greek Orthodox, that still practice this tradition.
Last year, when I wrote, I felt the call to "rise up and follow". Yet, this year, perhaps I will have to look further into tradition as I seem am repeatedly directed to a different reaction during this Advent. Recent articles (Christianity Today and the Palm Beach Post) seem to further reinforce these feelings. Stringfellow went on to discuss the first Advent and how John the Baptist is considered a primary Advent figure and his message was repentance. He further writes concerning on how we now are in the second Advent and asks how we should act knowing that sometime, Jesus comes back as the judge. I think, as followers of Christ, we all recognize that there is something so unChristian about Christmas. Perhaps the voices which cry against our holiday celebrations during this time are valid.
David G
Labels: Advent
posted by David at 10:40 PM
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