The Advent Season - 2nd December 2007

Today is the start of the liturgical year sometimes also known as the Christian year, so Happy New Year.

Within the Church the seasons are celebrated with different colours and festivals, moods and prayers. The Church year starts with the season of Advent.

The word Advent comes from Advenio which in latin means to come and the season is all about the coming of Christ the King.

The colour for the advent season is purple, it’s the royal season, as we wait for the King of Kings.

The Advent wreath has its roots in the pre-Christian practices of northern Europe. People sought the return of the sun in the dark time of the year (at the winter solstice) by lighting candles and fires. As early as the Middle Ages, Christians used fire and light to represent Christ's coming into the world. Using this same symbolism, the Advent wreath developed a few centuries ago in Germany as a sign of the waiting and hopeful expectation of the return in glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The wreath, a circle, came to represent the eternal victory over death through Jesus Christ. The evergreens were a sign of the faithfulness of God to God’s people, even in death, and the lighted candles were a reminder of the light of Christ brought into the world.

Different Church traditions have different understanding about the symbolism of each candle in the wreath.
The first candle can represent the Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the founders of Judaism – and part of our waiting is remembering Israel’s hope for the coming of God’s messiah or saviour into the world.
The second candle can represent the prophets, who spoke of the coming Messiah over the Christmas period we often hear readings from the Prophets particularly Isaiah.
The third candle can represent John the Baptist, who came ahead of Jesus preparing the way for Him.
The fourth candle can represent the Virgin Mary, who was obedient to God and became the mother of Christ.

Whatever understanding we believe about the symbolism of the candles the most significant thing is that we’re part of a story that has gone before us for hundreds of years. Lighting the candles obviously symbolises light coming into the world, and also declares that we’re part of this story.

Now we enter this season a period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the birth of Christ.

If we take Advent seriously it can be a time to properly prepare to celebrate the coming of Christ. It’s appropriate to consider fasting as a personal preparation for Christmas.

Advent is a time of waiting and practically I’d encourage you when you’re queuing to pay for something over this period (of which I’m sure there’ll be one or two times) you think about what or who is it that you are you really waiting for.

Advent is about getting our perspective back about this season – the best things in life are not things.

The other element of the waiting and watching is our belief is that one day Jesus will return, there will be a second coming, and advent is also about remembering that and being prepared for his return.

I hope for all of us at ENC and for our friends and families that this is a wonderful Christmas season, the best Christmas yet, I hope that we can really enjoy the next few weeks as we prepare to celebrate and in this season of Advent.

• We remember Israel's hope for the coming of God's Messiah to save, to forgive, and to restore them.
• We remember our hope for the second coming of Jesus.
• We remember our need for a Saviour to save us from our sins.
• We prepare to welcome Christ at Christmas into our world . . . and into our hearts.

Simon Kirby, 04/12/2007