Engaging With Advent
By now most of us are familiar with, “Advent” as a general concept. You can go to any target and find themed Advent calendars: coffee, dogs, wine. In college I broke my foot seeing a hardcore band of the same name…but that’s a story for another time. It’s similarly common for churches to begin Advent sermon series around this time of year, even those that don’t engage with the wider cycle of the liturgical calendar.
The point is that because we throw this term around a lot, we might have a bit of a, “princess bride syndrome” surrounding the concept of Advent, “You keep using that word, but I don’t think it means what you think it means.”
So what is Advent, and how do we enter in?
The late Fr. Thomas McKenzie puts it like this:
“The word Advent comes from the latin adventus, which means coming. Members of the church prepared for the first coming of Christ, when he visited us as an infant in a manger. But they also made ready for the second coming of Christ,. This normally meant entering into a time of fasting, prayer, and special acts of devotion.”
Advent is about preparation for an arrival, primarily it is about the preparation of our own souls for the second coming of Christ. But we use our anticipation for Christmas, and Christ’s first Advent as a doorway to enter in to this deeper contemplation. Around the holidays, we often have guests into our home, and we all know the frantic preparations that come as we anticipate their arrival: scrubbing the bathroom last minute, throwing dirty clothes in the closet, lighting candles so that our homes smell immaculate.
Unlike our hurried preparations, I would encourage you to use Advent as a time to slow down. To create the margin necessary for reflection. Towards that end, there are a few disciplines that our family cultivates during Advent.
1.) Delete social media and limit your time on your phone. Saturday evening I’m switching my SIM card into my lite phone (think a kindle that can make phone calls.) The time that we spend hypnotized by our glowing screens is precious, and we want to take Advent to be present to those who are in the closest proximity to us. Use these 30 days as an opportunity to reclaim the margin so often stolen from you by technology
2.) Read something to help you process the Advent season. There are a whole host of resources that can accompany you as you journey through Advent. Here’s a few!
Waiting on The Word: A Poem a Day for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany
Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus
3.) Make time to be present to those in need. In Advent we anticipate the return of Christ to set the world right. We can cultivate a hopeful longing for that day by pressing in to the needs of the world, which Christ will mend. That could include serving at our church food pantry, giving away meal kits at our Christmas party, or committing to finding ways to bless those in your life who are struggling.
4.) Commit To Prayer. Prayer is one of the traditional disciplines cultivated in Advent. Take these thirty days to commit to a more regular time of prayer, and seeking the Lord. This could include a time of stillness before bed, prayer as a family before meals, or you could join us for one of our Morning and Evening prayer gatherings that take place every week
All of these are only suggestions, but I hope they help you begin to develop an imagination for how this season can serve as a point of entry into contemplating the deeper realities of Christ’s return. All of this is not meant to be done in isolation. So, I’d encourage you to chat with some folks in the pew next to you on Sunday, and consider entering into these disciplines together as we await the coming of the king.