Keep Advent in Christmas!

John the Baptist proclaiming the coming of the Lord

Every year, you will inevitably hear someone complaining that Christmas is too commercialized, that the radio stations start playing Christmas music too early, and that we need to keep Christ in Christmas.  I don't actually disagree with any of those statements; however, I'd argue that some of that could be eliminated or at least curtailed if we would learn to keep Advent in Christmas.  What I mean is that our Christmas celebrations would be immeasurably enriched if we would mark Advent as a distinct season with its own recognizable rhythm and soundtrack instead of shopping madly on Black Friday and rushing headlong into singing Christmas carols.

We need Advent in our hurried-up world. Advent is the season that kicks off the liturgical year, a season that summons us into the darkness, into the waiting, into the not-yet.  For the four Sundays prior to Christmas, we are invited into a counter-cultural celebration of the coming of Christ, not merely as a run-up to Christmas and its emphasis on his humble birth, but on Christ's Second Coming in glory.  Advent is meant to be a time of reflection and renewal and of penitence and patience as we watch and wait and witness to what God has already done, to what God is doing right now, and to what God has promised to do in the future.  It is a time to think about eschatology, that big theological term meaning the last things, the end times, the completion and restoration of all things.  In the United Methodist liturgy, we refer to this every time we celebration communion, praying that we will be "made one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet."

One of the key players in the Advent cycle of lectionary readings is John the Baptist.  Wild-eyed, shaggy-haired, earthy-smelling, plain-speaking John.  He gets the spotlight on the second Sunday of the season as he greets us with such heart-warming messages as "Repent, the kingdom is at hand!" and "You brood of vipers!"  In his own inimitable way, John is trying to prepare the hearts and minds of his listeners for the arrival of the long-expected Jesus, though in words decidedly less poetic or singable than Charles Wesley's immortal hymn "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus." 

In some ways, Charles Wesley lived in a world not unlike our own, not unlike that of John the Baptist.  It was and is a world of sharp contrast between the rich and the poor, a world of political upheaval and civic unrest, a world in which people were yearning for hope, for peace, for joy, for love.  With hearts grown heavy with sorrow, they waited in the darkness for the light to break forth upon them, and in Advent, we wait, too.  But we wait in confidence, and we wait in hope.  Keep Advent in your home and in your heart this year, and let Charles Wesley's beloved hymn be your prayer as you await the coming of Christ with expectation and joy, and may the long-expected Jesus come to rule in your heart and mine, and over all the earth, now and forever.

Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
Born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find out rest in thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By thine all-sufficient merit,
Raise us to thy glorious throne.