Advent is here!

The season of Advent is upon us!

Last Sunday was the official beginning of the season of Advent. Over the years, I have heard the term Advent and knew that it had something to do with Christmas and a religious calendar that I associated with Catholics.

Over the past year, however, I have come to understand and rather appreciate what is known as the Ecclesiastical Calendar, as we as the seasons recognized by it. As a born and bred Pentecostal, we never really placed much stock in such things. After all, that was part of some liturgical system that did not lend itself to the free moving Spirit of God. Anything read, orchestrated, or steeped in history was considered a hindrance, and thus, not so good.

Several years ago, after becoming very disillusioned with my Pentecostal heritage, I led my family from our local Assembly of God church to St. Peter's United Methodist Church. Boy, was that a change! But, not a bad one as one might suspect. I began to see that worship did not have to be the same for everyone and that there is value to identifying with our Christian heritage. I am not talking about just the heritage of the reformation of for Pentecostals, the stirrings of the early twentieth century. No, I am talking about a heritage as old as our faith. Seasons recognized by the church of all ages.

Advent has its origin in the birth of Christ and was celebrated as early as the Church itself. A Latin word, Advent simply means coming. While we automatically associate the birth of Christ with the season, the liturgical event is concerned with more than just the first "coming" of Christ. His second coming and millennial reign are truths associated as well. These speak of a futuristic coming of Christ that the church has taught and celebrated as early as New Testament times.

Sometimes, I think we are so concerned with blazing new trails and coveting new experiences with God that we forget our heritage and where we come from. But, our identity has as much to do with where we come from as to where we are going. The Psalmist cried, “if the foundations be destroyed, what will the righteous do?” (Psalms) 11:3 The word translated foundations is a unique word, used only twice in the entire Hebrew bible. The word gives the connotation of support. The idea here is that if you remove fundamental elements of our faith, then you undermine the very support that faith rests upon.

With this said, there is little doubt that the tendency to forget the importance of Advent, or to relegate it to a marginalized position in our hustle and bustle to compete with its commercialized permutation, is an attempt to remove something of extreme value to our faith. Christ coming, both in the past and the future, is essential to our Christian faith.

I will blog about this further in days to come, but Advent should remind us of more than just Christ coming in the flesh 2000 years ago or his eventful coming in the future. There is a sense of His coming in the church. Incarnation is at the heart of what Advent stands for. Christ took upon himself the flesh of a human being when traversing the womb of Mary, making his debut and entrance into the sphere of man’s existence. However, in greater sense, He did the same on the day of Pentecost when He took up residence within the collective of the church.

I will stop now before I lapse into a theological discussion that will last much longer than I have steam this morning (it is late and I have yet to lay down). But, I am so grateful for the Christian calendar that reminds me and allows us to reflect upon these irreducible truths at least once per year. And, as a Christian, I pray that I can learn to allow the Christian calendar to have precedence in the ordering of my year and worship—as opposed to following the secular idea behind times such as Christmas. Does that make sense?

Well, I have opened the door to many issues that can be discussed further. So, why not throw in your two cents?