Monday, November 19, 2018

We Celebrate Advent


We Celebrate Advent
"How proper it is that Christmas should follow Advent. For him who looks toward the future, the manger is situated on Golgotha, and the cross has already been raised in Bethlehem." --Dag Hammarskjold
Covenant Church celebrates Advent. We decorate the building, sing the songs, gather for special food and treats, and work hard to celebrate the great redemptive act of God – the Incarnation and birth of Jesus.
We treat Advent as a season of preparation. For centuries Christians have devoted the month prior to Christmas day as a season to prepare their hearts and homes for the great festival, the celebration of Christ’s incarnation.
We busy ourselves with a good bit of bustling about between Thanksgiving and Christmas – we shop, compile guest lists, mail cards, decorate our homes, prepare our favorite foods, and host or attend parties. All that is a part of the celebration. Yet all those things can become traps and ends in themselves if we are not careful.
Is that the kind of preparation to which Advent calls? Traditionally, that is, for most of Christian history, Advent has been a time of quiet introspection, personal examination, and repentance – a season of fasting, prayer, confession, and reconciliation. All the great Advent stories, hymns, customs, and rituals point to those practices as the best means of preparation.
Celebrating Advent is a tradition at Covenant Church. We see that as a good thing. We try to make the things we do to the glory of Christ.
Edith Schaeffer spent her entire adult life cultivating community and hospitality at L'Abri Fellowship in Huemoz, Switzerland. She emphasized the importance of building traditions as an integral part of family and community:
There is something about saying, ‘We always do this,’ which helps keep the years together. Time is such an elusive thing that if we keep on meaning to do something interesting, but never do it, year would follow year with no special thoughtfulness being expressed in making gifts, surprises, charming table settings, and familiar, favorite food. Tradition is a good gift intended to guard the best gifts.” Edith Schaeffer.
(Inspired by “The Whip of Advent” in Grantian Florilegium, November 29, 2008)










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