Our Worship Arts Pastor invited comments on what we have learned thus far in this Advent season. He has put great effort in to making it an Experience for us and has succeeded so admirably that I have returned to blogging in order to sort out my response to his question.
What have I learned this Advent?
I learned the meaning and purpose of Advent and that if you are sick of Christmas come 25th December, you haven't "done" Advent right.
I learned that decorations in purple, pink, and a bit of white are very pretty.
I also learned that such simple uses of symbolism really pack a punch in triggering my thoughts through the day to think on the deeper meanings of this Season of anticipation.
I learned there are lots of ways to bring contemplation of the upcoming Event into friends' lives, both those who share the anticipation and those who are rather annoyed at all those Nativity scenes.
I learned Ilike love Advent.
But what I've learned is deeper than all that.
First, I learned just how hardened my heart was to this holiday.
I'm recognizing the power of a shared Experience.
I'm quite content to eschew the crowd when it comes to the ritualized practice of my spiritual life. I like the idea of quiet prayer in a dark closet and struggle with the ability to pray out loud. The aforementioned pastor has been diligent in developing a prayer gathering that is so powerful that I am overcoming some of my inhibitions of audible prayer.
Recognizing the power of that process, I committed myself to staying open to the idea of a vibrantly celebrated Christmas season. It marks one of the few times during the year that people's hearts may be a little bit softer to the embracing power of God, while others struggle through this season striving for joy but reflecting on the absent person, the unrelenting difficulties of the year, etc. It is a season that has vast potential for being able to act as witness to God to myriad people; opportunities that are lost if I'm sitting home following my own interpretation and being smarmy about the accuracy of 25th December. Being part of the larger group also provides significantly more opportunities to learn from people much wiser and more compassionate than I; people who are also opening up more because of this particular season.
Finally, I'm internalizing the greater implication of Christmas. It started to sink through my thick head last year, but something about this Advent is really focusing me on why the birth of the Messiah matters so much to us. I find that I not only look forward to meditating Christmas Eve and Morning on the awesome implication of the birth of God in the form of His flesh-and-blood Son, but I'm also looking ahead to Passover and First Fruits and our version of it as Easter. Because Christmas isn't the really the point of the anticipation of Advent, as I see it. Easter is. Christmas is simply the beginning; the first (decidedly amazing) words of a new novel that changes everything. Not a lot of things, not most things. Every thing. Advent is the countdown to the first day of the climax of the greatest story ever told; a story that ends with the invitation to step into the plot line.
I find it all to be terribly exciting, even if I already know how it ends... How can anyone that is given such a gift as a crescendoing Advent Experience do anything but conclude,
What have I learned this Advent?
I learned the meaning and purpose of Advent and that if you are sick of Christmas come 25th December, you haven't "done" Advent right.
I learned that decorations in purple, pink, and a bit of white are very pretty.
I learned there are lots of ways to bring contemplation of the upcoming Event into friends' lives, both those who share the anticipation and those who are rather annoyed at all those Nativity scenes.
I learned I
But what I've learned is deeper than all that.
First, I learned just how hardened my heart was to this holiday.
- I've had to take on the remnant of years of following other gods and the resultant irritation I developed of this holiday "shoving someone else's beliefs down my throat" (aka, all those Nativity scenes in people's yards).
- My tendency towards the doctrinal instead of (rather than balanced with) the heart shows itself in several ways. We can be pretty sure that 25th December was not Jesus' birth day, and I don't like the seemingly arbitrary date choice. I don't like that it's not actually arbitrary but rather, was done to absorb pagans in their worship of their deities on the 25th. I don't like that it's become THE major festival in Christendom while we happily ignore the festivals God actually told us to keep.
- The nearly total secularization of the holiday chafes that yet another aspect of Christian life has been cheapened. I don't like recognizing my own hypocrisy in this (wanting to protect it as holy, yet arguing against its authenticity).
I'm recognizing the power of a shared Experience.
I'm quite content to eschew the crowd when it comes to the ritualized practice of my spiritual life. I like the idea of quiet prayer in a dark closet and struggle with the ability to pray out loud. The aforementioned pastor has been diligent in developing a prayer gathering that is so powerful that I am overcoming some of my inhibitions of audible prayer.
Recognizing the power of that process, I committed myself to staying open to the idea of a vibrantly celebrated Christmas season. It marks one of the few times during the year that people's hearts may be a little bit softer to the embracing power of God, while others struggle through this season striving for joy but reflecting on the absent person, the unrelenting difficulties of the year, etc. It is a season that has vast potential for being able to act as witness to God to myriad people; opportunities that are lost if I'm sitting home following my own interpretation and being smarmy about the accuracy of 25th December. Being part of the larger group also provides significantly more opportunities to learn from people much wiser and more compassionate than I; people who are also opening up more because of this particular season.
Finally, I'm internalizing the greater implication of Christmas. It started to sink through my thick head last year, but something about this Advent is really focusing me on why the birth of the Messiah matters so much to us. I find that I not only look forward to meditating Christmas Eve and Morning on the awesome implication of the birth of God in the form of His flesh-and-blood Son, but I'm also looking ahead to Passover and First Fruits and our version of it as Easter. Because Christmas isn't the really the point of the anticipation of Advent, as I see it. Easter is. Christmas is simply the beginning; the first (decidedly amazing) words of a new novel that changes everything. Not a lot of things, not most things. Every thing. Advent is the countdown to the first day of the climax of the greatest story ever told; a story that ends with the invitation to step into the plot line.I find it all to be terribly exciting, even if I already know how it ends... How can anyone that is given such a gift as a crescendoing Advent Experience do anything but conclude,
"My God is such an awesome God"
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