Advent waiting

"Do/can we sing Christmas carols during Advent?"  That's the perennial question in many congregations this time of year.  In the liturgical calendar of the Church year it is Advent, but it obviously is the Christmas season everyplace else we look, isn't it?

The word "advent" means "coming" or "appearing."  It is the time in the Church's life when we stand at our theological and historical crossroads... looking back to the time of the coming of God into human form in Jesus the Holy Child, and looking forward to the time of the coming of God in all fullness and completeness in the form of Jesus the Mighty Ruler.  Looking in either direction, we know that these few weeks of Advent are a time of preparation and anticipation, of holy waiting and wondering at all of the implications of the meaning of Immanuel:  "God with us."

There are so many, many traditions regarding the observance and celebration of Advent. At the center of it all, of course, is the Advent wreath of four colored candles, one lighted each Sunday of the season, surrounding a white candle symbolizing Christ. Depending upon a congregation's own tradition, the colors of the four candles might be blue... or purple... or three purple and one rose/pink.

Each of the four Sundays has different meanings and names associated with them:

·      Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love

·      Prophecy, Bethlehem, Shepherd, and Angel

·      Waiting: for the Shepherd, for forgiveness, for joy, for the Son

If we were in a more structured, rigid ecclesiastical tradition, one might view all this as mere chaos.  Yet isn't the very un-structuredness of all this freeing, and perhaps even descriptive of Advent itself?  Our world, and all-too-often our own lives, are chaotic.  I for one can so easily see myself in the words of the Apostle Paul:

"I do not  understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." (Romans 7:15)

It is into the very midst of our broken, fallen, vulnerable, amazing, beautiful, delicate, fragile, and, yes, chaotic world that God came to us in Jesus, and continues to come to us, and will come to us once again.

This, for me, is the wonder, mystery, and joy of this time of Advent waiting.  And there is so much in this for me that it's fine with me that Christmas Carols can wait... you know, like until Christmas?  And after all, we'll have twelve days in the Church's calendar to celebrate Christmas!