Advent
begins this Sunday. Advent includes the
four Sundays before Christmas. It is a
season of preparation for the coming of Christ.
Advent also marks the beginning of the New Church Year. The color of Advent is purple which signifies
that this is a season of fasting and repentance. Our culture has diverted its original
intentions to a focus on food, parties, decorations galore, and red and
green. I learned from my friends in
England that even the church liturgy reminds them when to start their Christmas
pudding. On the last Sunday before
Advent, the prayer begins “Stir up, we beseech thee, Oh Lord the wills of thy
faithful people.” This prayer reminds
parishioners to start their pudding that Sunday. In the 14th century this pudding
was a soup that was used for the days of fasting before Christmas. By the 19th century it became a
fermented sweet Christmas delight that required five weeks before ready.
I love
the cultural parts of the season and how people become more generous and
focused on the people who are suffering.
I have grown to long for the spiritual side of Advent and have learned
to love it even more than the cute side of Christmas.
Advent is
really about love. It is the love God
has for His creation. Leave it to St
John Chrysostom, the golden-mouthed preacher, to describe the ultimate reality
of Advent. He preached: “A virgin, a
tree and a death were the symbols of our defeat. The virgin was Eve; she had not yet known
man; the tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and the death was
Adam’s penalty. But behold again a
Virgin and a tree and a death, those symbols of defeat, become the symbols of
his victory. For in place of Eve there is Mary; in place of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, the tree of the Cross; in place of the death of
Adam, the death of Christ.”
Advent is ultimately about
intimacy. It is a season that hold many
opportunities to draw closer to God by becoming more in awe of Him. Can you imagine what He did at Christmas by
sending His Son—a part of Himself—to earth to become first an embryo then a
full human baby born at Christmas? What
kind of love made Christmas? What moved
God to become one of us? The only answer
we can fathom is love. Matthew 1:23
says: “The virgin will
conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means
“God with us”).
God is with us. The question is: Are we with God? Advent is a good time to ask that question of
myself. As I begin the New Church Year
on December 2, I can ponder—how can I use this season of Advent and the coming
year to turn my soul more toward God and I am with the trappings of the
world? How can I set up my year to align
more with His purposes for me? What ways
am I resisting following Him more fully?
I want to enjoy all the Christmas
season has to offer. I will love the
Christmas music, lights, gifts, kindness—I will avoid the shopping traffic
whenever possible and thank God for the season of extravagant love and
miracles. I will set my heart to prepare for the spiritual
Christmas by seeking to widen my heart to the love of God that made Christmas.
Copyright © 2018. Deborah R. Newman teatimeforyoursoul.com All Rights Reserved.
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