What is Advent?
For many Christians unfamiliar with the liturgical year, there may be some confusion surrounding the meaning of the Advent season. Some people may know that the Advent season focuses on expectation and think that it serves as an anticipation of Christ%u2019s birth in the season leading up to Christmas. This is part of the story, but there%u2019s more to Advent.
The word %u201CAdvent%u201D is derived from the Latin word adventus, meaning %u201Ccoming,%u201D which is a translation of the Greek word parousia. Scholars believe that during the 4th and 5th centuries in Spain and Gaul, Advent was a season of preparation for the baptism of new Christians at the January feast of Epiphany, the celebration of God%u2019s incarnation represented by the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus (Matthew 2:1), his baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist (John 1:29), and his first miracle at Cana (John 2:1). During this season of preparation, Christians would spend 40 days in penance, prayer, and fasting to prepare for this celebration; originally, there was little connection between Advent and Christmas.
By the 6th century, however, Roman Christians had tied Advent to the coming of Christ. But the %u201Ccoming%u201D they had in mind was not Christ%u2019s first coming in the manger in Bethlehem, but his second coming in the clouds as the judge of the world. It was not until the Middle Ages that the Advent season was explicitly linked to Christ%u2019s first coming at Christmas.
Advent Today
Today, the season of Advent lasts for four Sundays leading up to Christmas. At that time, the new Christian year begins with the twelve-day celebration of Christmastide, which lasts from Christmas Eve until Epiphany on January 6. (Advent begins on Sunday that falls between November 27th and December 3rd each year.) Advent 2018 begins on Sunday, December 2 and ends on Monday, December 24.
Advent symbolizes the present situation of the church in these %u201Clast days%u201D (Acts 2:17, Hebrews 1:2), as God%u2019s people wait for the return of Christ in glory to consummate his eternal kingdom. The church is in a similar situation to Israel at the end of the Old Testament: in exile, waiting and hoping in prayerful expectation for the coming of the Messiah. Israel looked back to God%u2019s past gracious actions on their behalf in leading them out of Egypt in the Exodus, and on this basis, they called for God once again to act for them. In the same way, the church, during Advent, looks back upon Christ%u2019s coming in celebration while at the same time looking forward in eager anticipation to the coming of Christ%u2019s kingdom when he returns for his people. In this light, the Advent hymn %u201CO Come, O Come, Emmanuel%u201D perfectly represents the church%u2019s cry during the Advent season:
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
While Israel would have sung the song in expectation of Christ%u2019s first coming, the church now sings the song in commemoration of that first coming and in expectation of the second coming in the future.
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Mudgee
