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Re-inventing Advent

I have mixed feelings about Advent, as I suspect have many others – if they know what the religious jargon means at all.

So what is Advent?

It is a period starting on the fourth Sunday before Christmas (i.e. about November 30th) to December 24th. Christians look forward jointly to celebrating the anniversary of Jesus birth (Christmas – his first coming) and the return from heaven that he promised when he was alive (his second coming).

The historical development of Advent is shrouded in mystery, with various claims and counter-claims, but it appears to have been celebrated at least as early as 480 A.D.

So what problems do I, as a Christian, have about Advent. Here’s a list!

• Churchy jargon
• Two mixed up messages
• Four sub-themes (John the Baptist; Mary, Jesus’ mother, the prophets; and the universal church) Wow! Complicated, yes?
• Pre-Christmas mania – shops, TV ads, piped music… You can be sick of Christmas before it even happens. Does the church have to join in the universal plot to have a great big lead up to Christmas followed by a giant anticlimax?
• Post-Christmas non-mania. The church celebrates Christmas long after the Boxing Day Sales are over. Weird or mega-weird? There are 12 days of Christmas after the big day itself followed by yet another fancy, religiosity period, Epiphany. You’re not supposed to have Three Kings at Christmas – they have to wait almost a fortnight!

I look forward to Christmas. It’s hard work writing cards and choosing presents but, excluding a few done out of sheer duty, it’s a chance to express love and appreciation.

It helps keep in contact with people I might otherwise not write to. Maybe I should call Advent ‘Distant friends remembering time’? As a Christian I try and send cards that tell the Christmas story, not robins or snowmen.

Amid all the pre-Christmas froth and glitz, I do remember pregnant Mary, with Joseph, slogging along on foot (sorry, no donkey) because a foreign power said they had to be registered. Along with the tree and decorations, we do have a crib scene – and my wife insists the baby isn’t there until Christmas morning!

About the second coming – for most people this is just weird. Even if they concede Jesus was a historical person, they probably don’t think he rose from the dead after crucifixion. Why would they think he will come back yet again?

Fact is, he did say he would but he also said no one, not even he himself, knew when it would happen. It might be this year, next year or in a hundred years. It might happen at Easter or Lent or on August Bank holiday. Only God knows. It’s also deep topic that needs explaining in its own right, not mixed up with Christmas.

My recipe for a Happy Christmas? Keep it simple. Be loving. Go to church on Christmas Day if you can and, as Tiny Tim says in ‘A Christmas Carol’: “God bless us, everyone.”

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