Advent Alphabet 2013 - Day 9

The I block for today’s Advent thoughts stands for Israel, innkeeper, incarnation and imagination.

Israel is a word with a lot of meanings. Israel was the name Jacob, son of Isaac, was given after he wrestled with an angel (or with God) through one long dark night. Israel was the name of the kingdom over which David ruled but when Solomon’s son, Rehaboam, became king upon Solomon’s death, ten of the twelve tribes refused to acknowledge his sovereignty and created their own kingdom. The other two tribes, located in the south and around Jerusalem, became the kingdom of Judah. At the time of Jesus’ birth, the two kingdoms were united under Herod the Great but were split up by his sons after his death. When Jesus spoke about Israel, however, he spoke of the united Israel, the whole of the twelve tribes.

One of the choice parts in every Advent/Christmas pageant is the role of the innkeeper. Mary and Joseph usually get top billing, Gabriel has a big chunk of stage time but the innkeeper is the one who has the latitude of interpretation. We have words attributed to him in the Bible but we don’t know how he spoke those words. Was there a “No Vacancy” sign on the door when Joseph knocked? Was the innkeeper angry that Joseph obviously couldn’t read the sign? Was he frustrated because (a) he could get money for shoehorning two more people in his already crowded inn but just didn’t have the room to squeeze them in, or (b) was he sympathetic to the very pregnant woman and her worried husband? Probably it was a bit of both. Money was nothing to be sneezed at, so to speak, and lots of people have trouble turning away a hungry and pregnant cat even though they know there will be more cats to feed before long. At least the innkeeper in the story knew the visit would be temporary. I wonder if children stayed for free? I never really thought about it, but other families would have had to bring their children along, wouldn’t they? The innkeeper no doubt had his hands full and overflowing.

The definition of incarnation is that of a living being encompassing a divine nature or deity. It was an argument for centuries (and still isn’t quite settled in all corners of religion) whether Jesus was all human, all divine or both. Julius Caesar had proclaimed himself a god and his adopted son, Augustus, claimed to be the son of a god (Julius) and thus divine himself. So how could a baby born in a stable in a relatively insignificant part of an area of the vast Roman Empire come to be proclaimed as the incarnation of God? It took time, some miracles, a violent death and a most surprising resurrection from the dead plus a few centuries to get to that realization. For the innkeeper, it was just a pregnant woman giving birth in a stable. For the angels it was a signal for proclamation while for the shepherds it was an invitation to some of the poorest people to a momentous celebration. The magi it was an irresistible sign to follow and for Herod it was a threat. As for Caesar in his divinity in Rome? He wasn’t even aware of it for some time. For us, though, the incarnation of Jesus was the beginning of a new day of faith and a new way of believing.

 Imagination plays a part in Advent. As kids we used to pour through catalogs, looking at all the toys and imagining the sight of a particular red-suited guy with a white beard and a bottomless pack putting them all under our family Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. During Advent there are numerous ballet companies putting on versions of Nutcracker, a ballet full of imagination and fantasy of dancing toys and vivid dreams but whose music was born of sorrow and despair. The music is familiar to just about everyone, whether or not they have seen the ballet or even know the story the ballet tells and many little girls have danced to its music, imagining themselves performing such lovely movements as real ballerinas. Imagination comes in the building of snowmen that might just come to life if the right headgear is found for them. And it comes when hearing the Advent readings and considering what it must have been like to be Mary at the annunciation, Joseph at the time he learned of Mary’s pregnancy, Elizabeth being pregnant in her elder years or even the angel Gabriel delivering the messages. Imagination is the soul looking for the beautiful, the wonderful, the unexplainable and finding a way for it to seem manifest even if made of gossamer. It’s looking into the heart of the flames of the Advent candles and seeing the image of a small baby in a manger who will come to be the light of the world.

And that light still shines—through Advent and beyond.

Advent Alphabet 2013 - Day 8

Today our Advent block is H. The words to consider are hark, halo, Herod, home and heaven.

Hark is a word we sometimes find in hymns and this time of year it usually shows up in a pre-Christmas rendering of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” played as seasonal background music in stores and the like. Hark or to harken means to listen, hear, attend, heed or mind. It commands attention to something—like angels or a warning of danger. It’s a good word to use in Advent because it involves using yet another sense to capture what this season is about. We smell the evergreens and the cookies baking, taste the goodies offered in hospitality, see the candles and colors that mark the season and put the barrenness outside aside for the moment, and we feel the shapes and textures of the figures we set up in the crèche. “Hark!” brings our ears into the season. Do you hear the ringing of the bells at the red kettles? Is it a reminder that others are not so fortunate as we are and does it encourage us to drop in some coins or perhaps a few bills to help others? Do we listen to the sounds of children’s tantrums in the store when told they cannot have another toy until Santa comes, or can we stretch a bit further and hear the pitiful wails of a child who hasn’t had enough to eat? We hear charitable appeals quite often during the holidays, but do we hear what is behind those appeals? Do we pay attention to the message? Maybe we need to say “Hark!” a few times to remind us that part of our job as Christians celebrating Advent is to bring hope to others as the message of the coming Christ child brings hope to us.

At this time of year we seem to see more haloes than usual. Christmas cards show Mary, Joseph and the baby, all sporting haloes around their heads. Gabriel often is shown with one as he announces God’s message to Mary. Angels wear them to show their holy state and images of saints wear them for the same reason. And then there are invisible haloes, worn by some we might never expect. Have you ever heard someone say of someone else, “Oh, he/she is a saint”? Why do they say that? Is the person particularly holy? Do they pray a lot, carry a Bible with them everywhere and are seen reading it? What about those who quietly go about doing the work of the kingdom that Jesus came to teach us about? They might not say a word or even look particularly saintly, but I know more than a few people who I think qualify for a halo just because of who they are and what they contribute to this world. They don’t make big gifts or grants to charities although they support them. They don’t separate themselves from the world and live as homeless people or even cloistered religious people. They simply see needs in the world and work to fill those needs without fanfare or even thought of recognition or effusive thanks. It’s the invisible haloes that make Advent a special season, and those haloes don’t stop shining when Christmas Day arrives. Haloes are all-season apparel for those who work to see Jesus in the hungry, the sick, the lonely and the dying.

Herod is a name we hear in association with the Christmas story. Actually, the name Herod was a family one shared by several generations of rulers of Judea. The Herod of whom Matthew and Luke spoke was the father, Herod the Great as he was called, who ruled from 37-4 BCE and who was every bit as mean and nasty as he was portrayed and even worse. To give him a bit of credit, he was a great builder, including several fortresses including Heriodium and Masada, a new aqueduct for Jerusalem, the Antonia fortress which protected the palace and remodeled and expanded the temple. On the bad side, though, his paranoia grew to the point where he suspected everyone, including his beloved wife and several of their children. While there is no archaeological evidence of the Slaughter of the Innocents, as we call the episode that sent Mary, Joseph and Jesus to Egypt, anyone disordered enough to murder his family would certainly react to the story that a baby had been born who would become king.

There’s an old saying that goes, “Home is where you go that they have to take you in,” but then, there’s another that reads, “Home is where the heart is.” During the holidays, the second seems much more appropriate. In movies, long-lost people show up at the door this time of year and usually are welcomed in almost as if they hadn’t been away. Home is where a lot of people want to be this time of year, with family and dear friends, laughing, giving and receiving gifts, sharing great meals and even going to church together. Some, though, are homesick for a place they’ve never been but hope to go someday. For them, home is not just heaven but in heaven.

Imagine it. Knocking the door and having God open it with arms open wide. Now that would be a heavenly home for the holidays, wouldn’t it?

Be Ready

The Question about Paying Taxes

5 23 Gospel for the Commemoration of Ambrose of Milan

‘Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. And the Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. - Luke 12:35-37, 42-44

 

This is a story about a master and his slaves. The slaves had jobs to perform, namely waiting for the master to come home, making sure the place was clean and neat, a meal or snack was ready for him and, most importantly, the door opened before he reached it and he would have to knock for admittance. Of course, like a number of Jesus’ stories, this one turns things upside down and backwards. In the story, the master comes home, finds all of his servants awake, alert, and doing their jobs. Food has been prepared for him and the wine is waiting, but instead of being served by his employees, the master served them instead. The master had a good steward to oversee the work and that steward was rewarded for his diligence. Jesus told the story as an illustration to the disciples, a description of what a faithful disciple should be doing to prepare the world for judgment. Even if the master were delayed, they should not let up in their work.

 

There’s an old gag line that says “Look busy, the boss is coming!” In the workplace that means to be actually doing something— writing something down, typing, talking to a client on the phone, filing or even moving purposely from one place to another with papers, blueprints or packages in hand—and not just standing around the water cooler talking or sitting there staring out into space. Everyone has a job to do and it is expected that they will do that job. The success of the company depends on it. It’s no different in the world of ministry, whether done by ordained clergy or just ordinary folks meeting the world’s needs and anticipating yet other unmet needs.

 

In a sense, this passage seems to have Advent overtones in it. Advent is a time of waiting, preparation, expectation. Just like a with a pregnant woman, Advent brings an expectation of something wonderful at a point in time in the future but there are still dishes to be done, a job to go to, and other things that need to be tended to in the meantime. The candles on the advent wreath are lit, one by one, each one bringing a little more light a little closer, in the anticipation of the birth of the Christ child. While everyone is busy preparing for Christmas and all the festivities that come with it, Advent people are busy preparing too. It’s more than buying and wrapping gifts, decorating the house and yard within an inch of their lives, sending Christmas cards and letters to people with whom there is contact only once year, and cooking enough food to feed a small army which, sometimes, is just one’s own family. Like a mother-to-be reading all the child-rearing books she can find, Advent people read from the prophets who spoke of a different world, a much better one than they experienced in their time, and a leader who would unite the people and rule this different world. The key was to be busy and awake because no one knew when that time would come.

 The prophets spoke of the kingdom of God as something in the future but that required people to bring it about. That kingdom was and is a world where all people have value, even the ones who are seen as the powerless ones: the children, orphans, the elderly, poor people, sick people, prisoners of conscience, and even those who were dying. In Jesus’ time these are the people who had no voice, no standing in the community other than whose relative they were, what they could bring into the family coffers through labor or marriage, and/or whether they brought glory to the family or shame on it. For Jesus these were the important people. Everybody listened to the rich, the leadership of the temple, the heads of families, but nobody listened to the little guys. In God’s kingdom, those little guys were just as worthy of having someone to open the door when they approached as the richest man in the world. In God’s kingdom, everyone was a servant and yet was an important person, an odd balance where each sought to help one another and who accepted the help of others with the same grace and without thought to whether or not the help could be reciprocated. We’ve been reading this story and others like it for a couple of millennia now, and I wonder if we are any closer than we were.

 

With Advent we prepare: we keep the candles lit, and we stand ready at the door to welcome a newborn infant who we know will change the world. Our job is to welcome that child but then to welcome all those who stand outside the door and wonder what all the fuss is about. Our task is to make the kingdom of God on earth a reality, not a continuing prophecy and not something intended for only specific people who happen to have large bank accounts and a lot of prestige. The first visitors to the Christ child were there at the invitation of angels but who were simple shepherds, among the lowest on the totem pole of status. There’s a lot of truth in the old joke that God must love poor people because God made so many of them, but instead of being a joke it’s almost like the biggest test question in the world. Our response will dictate whether we pass or fail. Who will we welcome? Who will we help? For whom and for what are we waiting?

 

Today’s reading tells us to be awake and aware. It should also be a reminder not to leave Advent at the church door on Sunday morning after services. There is kingdom work to be done out in the world and the arrival of a King to prepare for, externally and internally, so be awake, alert, and have the doors of readiness and welcome wide open with compassion and love to anyone and everyone.


Originally published at Speaking to the Soul on Episcopal Café Saturday, December 7, 2013.

Advent Alphabet 2013 - Day 7

In the immortal words of Sesame Street, today is brought to you by the letter G. Today’s words are God, Gabriel, Gaudete, gifts and greetings.

God is the most important word in the entire Advent alphabet. Advent itself is about the incarnation of God in a tiny human being, the greatest gift that we could be given. While we acknowledge the presence of God in our everyday lives all through the year, during Advent we prepare to welcome God among us as teacher, guide and savior, a person like us yet very unlike us in many ways. Our eyes see God enfleshed and yet there is something there beyond any simple sight or understanding. What words are there to explain the greatness of God or the awe and wonder with which we should approach God? Through the miracle of the Christ child’s appearance, his growth to manhood, his teachings and healings and finally his death and resurrection give us an idea of how much God loves us, enough to want to be with us in a very visible and personal way.

Gabriel is one of three named angels/archangels in the Bible. The Jews credit him with burying Moses and giving Daniel prophecies. He’s also reported to one of the angels who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Christians find Gabriel in two annunciations. He appeared to Zechariah (Luke 1:19) as the representative of the presence of God and gave Zach the message that yes, his wife was pregnant and because Zechariah needed a little convincing, he would be mute until he named the child John.  Poor Zechariah, doomed to be speechless in a house with two pregnant women. Still, that curse was lifted as soon as John was born and Zechariah could speak his name.  Gabriel’s second annunciation (Luke 1:26-38) was the one to Mary that turned her whole world upside down. Although unnamed, Gabriel may have also been the angel to visit Joseph in his dream that reassured him that it was okay to marry Mary even though she was pregnant with a child that wasn’t his, and perhaps again when he, Mary and Jesus had to flee to Egypt. Gabriel is always seen as a messenger and a symbol of God’s mercy.

Gaudete is one of those words the church uses from time to time. Simply put, gaudete comes from a Latin word which means “rejoice,” a word heard often in the hymns of Advent and Christmas. The third Sunday in Advent is marked as Gaudete Sunday, much as the fourth Sunday of Lent is Laetare (Refreshment) Sunday. When Advent was seen as a penitential season Gaudete Sunday was like a breather before taking up the penitence again on Monday.  Instead of all purple candles, vestments and hangings, the church used a rose pink to mark the Sunday which takes its name from the first word of the Roman Catholic introit, the opening sentences that begin the service, for the day, “Gaudete in Domino sempre,” “Rejoice in the Lord always.”  Some churches now use the term “Rose Sunday” for the color of the vestments and candle instead of “Gaudete.”  In either case, it means Advent is halfway over and Christmas will soon be here, but not yet.

Gifts and greetings abound this time of year. Perfect strangers may smile and wish you a “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays,” people may be a little more patient with the impatience of others, and there’s a little more aware of giving to those who can’t reciprocate. People spend hours shopping for the perfect gift for a friend or loved one but often they will also shop to find just the right gift for a child whose name they got from a tree in church or the mall, a child who otherwise would not really have a Christmas. It isn’t just toys; it is clothes, food, and the knowledge that someone cares enough to make what seems impossible happen. It can make a real difference, whether it’s just a cheerful greeting and acknowledgement that they are seen as human beings and not invisible things to be ignored because they are dirty or smelly or “not like us.” Advent is a time of preparations when we buy those gifts. What if we bought something extra, just a small thing, and gave it to the first homeless person we saw on the street? 

 

Prepare to welcome the Christ child. God is coming among us in the flesh and it might be the flesh of the most unlikely person in the world. Be kind and welcoming, because you just never know. . . .

Advent Alphabet 2013 - Day 6

The letter on the alphabet block today is F and the words to consider are fasting, foretelling, fulfillment, friends and family.

Not all that many years ago, Advent was marked with purple vestments, banners, and hangings. Purple was the color of royalty, to be sure, reminding us of the royalty of Christ but it was also the color for the season of Lent. Like Lent, Advent was a season of penitence and with that came fasting.

Fasting was and still is considered a discipline wherein a person refrains from eating or drinking for a specified period of time as a spiritual exercise to signify repentance and turning the thoughts to God rather than the dinner table. Some groups were rigorous in their fasting, taking no meat at all during Advent just as they practiced in Lent, others merely gave up something important for the season. During the late 20^th century some churches began to revise the penitential aspect of Advent in favor of one of expectation and hope rather than sin and punishment.

The readings during Advent feature foretelling, prophecies from the Hebrew Bible that seem to point toward Jesus as the Messiah.  Isaiah is prominent in the readings because there is a lot of material in Isaiah that lends itself to the expectation that comes with the Advent season.  But foretelling wasn’t just about the coming of the Messiah, an event for whom the Jews still wait. Foretelling was also about seeing what was going on in the world, or their part of it, anyway, and the repercussions of those things. Prophets spoke as God directed, warning the people that their wickedness and disobedience would cause dire consequences. Sometimes the people listened, sometimes they didn’t, but the prophets were usually persistent in repeating the message again and again, to king and commoner alike. They went to foreign people with warnings, they went into exile with those deported into captivity, they returned to rebuild and renew. The foretelling readings of Advent center on a hero who was coming to change the world for the better and to lead the people into righteousness.  Like the Jews, some still wait.

Isaiah wasn’t really talking about Jesus but the people were familiar with his prophecies and so could see in Jesus the fulfillment of the prophecies spoken hundreds of years before. One of the themes of the whole Bible is fulfillment of one sort or another like the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham to make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand in the desert. God fulfilled the promise never again to totally destroy the world by water, but we still have catastrophic floods that can devastate large expanses of the countryside but the rest of the world continues on almost unaffected by them. Jonah, once he decided to go where God told him, preached to the Ninevites, those who lived in the Assyrian town of Nineveh, and warned them of the consequences of the path they were on. Much to Jonah’s disgust, the Ninevites repented and turned to God as he sat on a hill, gleefully waiting to see lightning bolts and other signs of divine wrath come down on them. Another prophecy fulfilled, just not the way Jonah wanted it. We as Christians look to Jesus as the fulfillment of the messianic prophecy and also to the coming of the kingdom of God on earth. We could be working on the fulfillment of that latter promise, but we seem to have too much to do most of the time. The fulfillment awaits, though.

Friends and family play a part in Advent observance. We can go most of the year without exchanging calls or letters or contact of any kind but during Advent and the run-up to Christmas, we deliberately reconnect with those we haven’t heard from since last year, get caught up on family news, get together for coffee or a party or some sort of get-together, all in the name of “Christmas spirit.”  Even if it isn’t Christmas yet, it’s close enough for most folks. Many who live more than a couple of hours away will find themselves back home with the family they’d left behind just in time for the fourth Sunday of Advent and certainly in time for Christmas Eve. Whenever someone is missing from the family dinner table or around the family tree, the celebration is never complete. Advent gives us time to do our reconnecting and close the circle which otherwise would have a gap in it.

Advent can be a time of bridging time and troubles, healing ruptures and repairing relationships.  It can be a time of vast feasting or restrained fasting. Most of all, it can be a time of looking to see what has been shown us by the past and then take the opportunity to work toward the fulfillment of that which needs correction.  It isn’t all about parties or presents, it’s about presence and community.  Enjoy it wisely.

Advent Alphabet 2013 - Day 5

Day 5 of Advent brings the letter E and the words it offers are Elizabeth, eating, evergreens, Emmanuel and epiphany.

One of the characters who appears early in the birth narrative of Jesus is a lady named Elizabeth, a cousin of Mary’s. Elizabeth was the wife of Zechariah, a priest at the temple in Jerusalem. They were an older couple, past the time of having children, yet unexpectedly, miraculously, Elizabeth was about six months pregnant. It must have caused a lot of talk in the town, but it made her the perfect person for Mary to visit, not just to get out of town to avoid the wagging tongues when they found out she was pregnant even though betrothal was as good as marriage but possibly to give her parents time to adjust to the idea that the child wasn’t Joseph’s. At any rate, Elizabeth could use some help and Mary could use some empathy. It was a perfect match. Oh, and the fact that Elizabeth’s baby would grow up to be John, the Baptizer for Mary’s child Jesus . . . well, as Alfred Einstein said, “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

Eating is one of the enjoyable pastimes, and there’s plenty of that during Advent. Unlike holidays like Passover, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July, Advent doesn’t really have any particular holiday meal or standard party fare. Instead it offers pre-Christmas baked goods, cheese balls and eggnog, perhaps with the addition of hot cider and warm gingerbread with lemon sauce and similar treats. Of course, people bake cookies and pies in preparation for Christmas, but they also do it in order to provide home-made gifts that show more care and perhaps more love than the most expensive purchased gift. Even before the Book of Common Prayer, the last Sunday before Advent was “Stir Up Sunday.” The collect for the day read, “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people...” That was the signal to begin the preparation of the cakes, pies, puddings, tarts and all kinds of baked things for Christmas. In the current American BCP it has been moved to the third Sunday of Advent and in some denominations it is given on the fourth Sunday. Whichever it is, when things start to get stirred up I’m sure liberal tasting went on, and perhaps a few of the goodies helped to fill out the meals during that period when the cooks were busy with holiday preparations and regular meals might be a bit more skimpy as a result.

Advent brings wreaths and swags of evergreens— cedar, pine and spruce—to decorate doors, windows, balustrades, handrails and tables. Advent wreaths traditionally have evergreen wreaths as the base that holds the candles that mark the Sundays and Christmas Day. There’s something festive about the scent of evergreen. The green was a welcome color, contrasting with the white of snow and the various browns and blacks of bare trunks and branches of trees outside which might appear dead but would bring out tiny green leaves at the first hint of spring warmth. Evergreens are traditional in Advent wreaths  and, of course, swags, sprays and arrangements that bridge both Advent and Christmas.

Emmanuel is the reason for the season, so to speak. As Isaiah puts it, “. . . [T]he young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel” (7:14, NRSV). Matthew repeats the prophecy as “. . . a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’, which means, ‘God is with us.’” (1:23). The names are used interchangeably although the Hebrew spelling is Immanuel while the Greek is Emmanuel. So why do we call him Jesus?  Because Emmanuel or Immanuel is a sort of title rather than a name a child would be called. It doesn’t change the fact that the baby boy born to Mary was, indeed, “God with us,” just as the prophets told us. The baby isn’t resting in the nativity scene just yet, but we sing hymns like “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” in church and remember that we should “. . . [R]ejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.”  Luckily, Advent allows us to rejoice, perhaps a bit more quietly than those who are already deep into Christmas, but nonetheless, we enjoy the hope and wait more or less patiently to welcome the Light of the World that is coming, even symbolically.

In the midst of decorating and stirring up in preparation, don’t forget to hope—and quietly rejoice.

Advent Alphabet - Day 4

The next letter in the Advent alphabet blocks is D, which stands for divine, donkey, dream and decorations.

 Divine comes into our lexicon through the divinity of Jesus. Caesar Augustus, the Roman ruler at the time of Jesus, claimed divinity and a virgin birth which was one mark of divinity as well.  Caesar wasn’t shy about proclaiming his divinity and requiring things like sacrifices to him as well as public acknowledgement of his god-like state. Jesus, on the other hand, did divinity a bit differently.  Although he pointed constantly to God as his father, did the people who followed him really think about virgin birth or direct descent from God? Probably not, but yet they probably got the idea that he was divine in some way simply because of his holy living and wise teaching. For a number of centuries after his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, the church pondered, argued and struggled with the concept of who Jesus really was – all divine, all human, both, or neither. 

 Dream is for the birth narrative we find in Matthew that Joseph finds out Mary is pregnant and it wasn’t his even though they were betrothed. Joseph doesn’t get a lot of ink in the gospels but in this story he takes center stage.  He, like Mary, was visited by an angel only while Mary was wide-awake, Joseph was asleep and dreaming. Why? Why didn’t the angel just go to him the same as with Mary?  Maybe because Joseph might be more open to the announcement and the circumstances while asleep. His ears (and mind) might have been more open to a dream than to a more confrontational appearance and message. Sometimes dreams tell people things they didn’t know, even if the dreams are about something quite mundane and seemingly totally unrelated to the insight. Perhaps in the world of the free-ranging mind in the sleeping body, it is easier to accept that seeing something differently is okay, not something to be fought against or rejected out of hand because it seems far-fetched. At any rate, Joseph paid attention and the story of Mary and Joseph’s joint parenthood of a rather different child began.

It’s easy to put donkey in the lexicon, especially when we think of the journey Mary and Joseph took from Galilee to Bethlehem. Mary was at least eight, probably nine months pregnant and in no condition to take a very long walk through some rugged terrain and one infested with brigands and wild animals to boot. It would have made total sense for Mary to ride a donkey on her trip, even though riding might not be the most comfortable way to go. They weren’t rich and only royalty or the military usually rode horses. Perhaps Joseph’s donkey pulled a small cart containing things they would need on the trip like extra food, or maybe a small tent and bedding to use on the road. Maybe Mary rode in the small cart, bumping and rocking as it went over rocks and through holes in the dirt. Still, there’s usually at least one donkey in the manger scene. Perhaps its presence was its reward for patient plodding and perhaps a bit of hauling or carrying.

Decorations for Advent are usually fairly simple—a wreath with candles, evergreens, perhaps a calendar.  Stores have been putting out (and putting up) Christmas merchandise since before Halloween and many folks do the bulk of their Christmas decorating on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Very seldom do you hear Advent music on the radio although the closer it gets to Christmas the more Christmas-type music they play. Come Christmas Day, though, the paper hasn’t even been cleared off the living room floors before stores have relegated Christmas stuff to the sale aisle and Valentine’s day gifts (like silk underwear with pink or red hearts, heart-shaped boxes of candy and bottles of perfume) have replaced them. The Christmas angels have been replaced by chubby little cherubs with blonde curls and small bows and arrows.  For two weeks, Advent-celebrating churches sing their Christmas carols all alone and hold their Epiphany pageants featuring the Magi, which the other churches don’t recognize either.

Still, Advent, for those celebrating it, is a meaningful time of year. It’s nice to have a church Quiet Day of retreat to think about the season and what it is about. No rushing about to buy last-minute gifts or preparing for the perfect party, just quiet contemplation and thoughtfulness. It’s a great antidote for the hustle-bustle of the world outside this time of year.

Consider the divine, hold back on excessive decorating and partying, and remember the patience of the little donkey.  Enjoy Advent while it is here. Christmas will be along in due time.

Advent Alphabet 2013 - Day 3

Today’s Advent alphabet block is the letter C,  representing Christ Child, crèche, and candles.
 

The most obvious C is Christ Child.  After all, were it not for the birth of Jesus, there would be no need for Advent, right?  Along with all the other liturgical seasons, Jesus really is the “Reason for the Season,” isn’t he, even if Pentecost isn’t really about Jesus the person so much as the message he left behind?  But how many times during the run-up to Christmas do people really stop and think about Jesus, except maybe on Sunday mornings between the hours of, say, 8-11 AM?  Advent is like the prenatal part of life, somewhat hidden yet with occasional reminders of the impending birth.  It’s an internal thing, not always obvious to the casual observer but intensely personal and private except when the news is so good that the prospective parents just have to share with all and sundry.  That’s what the coming of the Christ child should mean, if we let it, because, after all, the word Advent comes from the Latin for “arrival” or “coming.”

 Then there is the C for Crèche, a French word for the tableau of the nativity itself, complete with figures of all the major characters and groups represented. Whether made of fine porcelain, stick figures or almost any other conceivable materials, there are usually representations of shepherds, wise men (magi), angels, sheep, camels, and perhaps donkeys in addition to Mary and Joseph bent over the manger or standing guard over it.  Usually the baby Jesus isn’t added until the actual Eve of Christmas or perhaps Christmas Day, but everybody else is there waiting, even if biblically none of them arrived until after the birth had taken place and possibly even a couple of months to several years later. Many churches have them, and are careful not to overpopulate the nativity scene until the time is right, often having the magi move toward the manger in stages during the Christmas season, coming from somewhere in the church to land in the scene on Epiphany, the next season in the liturgical year.  Still, the crèche is a great teaching tool, and something even adults feel is important to have around during Advent and Christmas.

 

One of the conspicuous marks of Advent is the Advent wreath with its five candles. Depending on the tradition, three of the candles are purple or blue, one is pink and one is white. Roman Catholics and some other traditions use purple, a color also associated with royalty but also with penitence which is why it is used in Lent.  For some Anglicans/Episcopalians and some Lutherans, the purple of royalty/penitence has been replaced with a rich blue representing hope, expectation and joy. The Anglican/Episcopal tradition explains that the blue came from the Sarum Use or Rite, the way things were done at Salisbury Cathedral starting in about the 7^th Century. The Sarum Use is important to us because Thomas Cranmer incorporated some of it into the Book of Common Prayer.  Other candles on the wreath are pink for Gaudete Sunday, a lightening of the penitential burden for a day, and white for the Christ candle, the one we also use as the candle that burns at every celebration of baptism through the entire year. 

Candles decorate our homes as well, whether there is an Advent wreath or not.  Candles still have a symbolism that a lot of people, especially Christians, don’t always associate with Advent or even with Christ.  One of the titles of Jesus is “Light of the World,” and that doesn’t necessarily mean an incandescent, fluorescent or neon light. Light to the ancients meant the sun, a fire, a torch or a tiny oil lamp.  A light made darkness less scary and gave some protection against unpleasant surprises that couldn’t be seen otherwise.  When the power goes out and night falls, what is more comforting than the flame of a candle pushing back the edges of the darkness?  In days before electricity, the sight of a candle or lamp in the window was the sign of welcome to the traveler.  What better symbol for Christ in the world than a simple candle?  And who’s to say that a person can’t be a figurative candle in time of need?  Bishop Fulton J. Sheen had a television program in the early days of the medium and everybody, Roman Catholic or not, could sing the theme song, “It is better to light just one little candle than to stumble in the dark.” Anyone who has endured a power outage can attest to that, even those who have stumbled along in the darkness of depression or acedia. One candle can make a difference.

Be a candle for someone today as perhaps a new Advent tradition. Light the way for the Christ child.

Advent Alphabet 2013 - Day 2

The second alphabet block for the advent season this year is the letter B. A lot of related words begin with B, among them beginning, Bethlehem, bells, behold, and bayberry.

B stands for beginning. Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year, the New Year of the church. We read different things in each of the three years of the Sunday lectionary (list of readings) and two years of the Divine Office (readings for every day).  We also mark the beginning of a season of contemplation and perhaps penitence but definitely expectation.  Advent is a quiet little season, church-wise, although it is usually very busy with events and pageants and cantatas and the like. People are encouraged to slow down a bit, take a break from the pre-Christmas rush and think about holy things, the coming of the baby in the manger, the meaning of his life and ministry and the impact it should have on us as Christians. It’s a season made for theological reflections, an exploration of what happened, why it is important, what our tradition and culture say about it, what we believe about it and what action we are inspired to take as a result of it. It’s a good spiritual exercise for every season but especially for Advent.

 Bethlehem is kind of an obvious choice since the whole of Advent season is a pointer to the miracle that occurred in a stable in Bethlehem. Bethlehem comes from two words, bayit meaning house but with implications of home, family, temple or economic sphere, and lehem meaning bread or, more loosely, food in general. There were actually two towns named Bethlehem although the one we are most familiar with is the one in Judah, the southern part of the country.  The Bible places Rachel’s grave near Bethlehem and it was the home of David who became king and one of the earthly ancestors of Jesus. Bethlehem is now a war-torn place, far from the rather pastoral, peaceful place David knew, but for Christians it is still the place where Jesus was born and so is a sacred place.

Bells ring during Advent, most obviously (and not really associated with Advent, per se) next to the red kettles of the Salvation Army. The donations those kettles receive help to further the work of the Salvation Army whose charitable works include rehabilitation, mission, prayer, disaster relief and assistance for the poor. When a doorbell rings during Advent, it’s sometimes the arrival of an expected and very welcome guest come to spend the holidays. In the malls there are strains of “Silver Bells” playing as a background to the ring of the opening cash register but now and again, in both shop and church, there are renditions of the “Carol of the Bells” wishing everyone a Merry Christmas while recalling the sound of church bells ringing across the landscape of large cities and small towns alike, oftentimes now muffled or silent.

The word behold isn’t heard in the NRSV version of the Bible except in the Old Testament but in older translations, like the KJV, it was a word that carried a lot of importance.  In Luke, for instance, when Gabriel visits Mary, part of the annunciation is “…Behold, you will conceive…” (1:31). Matthew reports Joseph’s quandary about finding a pregnant fiancée and states, “… [B]ehold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream” (1:20).  Even Isaiah is read as part of the prophecy about the coming of the messiah, “…Behold, a virgin (or a young woman) shall conceive…” (7:14). Behold has a lot of impact. More than jut “Look here,” it emphasizes the importance of the event or the message and, in this case, the message is very important indeed. “See? This isn’t just any baby.”  “Look, it’s okay for you to accept something your family and neighbors won’t understand or approve.”  “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy…”

 Bayberry occurs to me for a personal reason. During the pre-Christmas season (the church of my childhood and youth never used the word “Advent” or observed the season), we would have decorative candles around the living and dining room, usually grayish-green colored tapers made from bayberries. It was considered good luck to burn the whole bayberry candle down to the stub before New Year’s, but mostly it was a clean and pleasant fragrance in the house that already had the scents of seasonal baking and decorative greenery.  They are hard to find, real ones, anyway, and I do miss them. One whiff and I am back home.  I guess there is a bit of wishing in the recollection, but even though I have three blue and one pink candle in my Advent wreath, I still miss those greenish bayberry candles that were a holiday season tradition.

As I consider the traditions of Advent, I realize I don’t need a lot of “stuff” like decorations or presents or cards.  I just need to stop, take a deep breath, sit down and contemplate the reason for Advent. It needs to become a spiritual gestation period before the loud, joyous, festive season of Christmas that marks his birth.

Advent Alphabet - Introduction and Day 1

Everything has a beginning and for many churches – Anglican/Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox (albeit a bit differently) among others –the church year begins with Advent. The Advent season begins four Sundays before Christmas and marks the anticipation of the arrival of the Christ child in the world.  Although it’s not a new thing, perhaps this year it’s helpful to look at building blocks, the kind children have with the letters of the alphabet on it, to see it in its fullest and to explore its many facets beyond imply a time when the church changes the color scheme from green to purple or blue.  

A is for Advent. Many people celebrate the season with special things like wreaths, candles, readings and calendars. For children especially, Advent often means hanging a calendar on the wall with 25 or so little doors, each numbered to correspond with the number of days left until Christmas. Sometimes the little doors conceal very tangible things like candies or tiny toys, but most often they contain a picture, usually something related to the theme of the calendar. Even for adults Advent calendars can be fun, either as a reminder of the ones they had as children or just curiosity to see what the next door conceals.

 A stands for angels. One angel is particularly connected with the season, however when it comes to Christmas, angels show up all over the place. With Christmas coming, there might be a little angelic work done in the background or a bit of angelic behavior from even the rowdiest tot who contemplates the notion that a certain saint-ish character in a red suit and white beard just might be watching them a little more closely to see if they were good children.

A can also stand for aromas, the lovely smells that show up this time of year and that brings such fond associations. The smell of baking cookies and pies are reminders of the holiday season as a child. Even though our family, as Southern Baptists, did not recognize or observe Advent, the time before Christmas was used to prepare for family holiday celebrations, school parties, and even social events at church. I remember walking in from school in the afternoons and often getting the scent of pumpkin or mince pie, sugar and chocolate chip cookies, and other delightful stuff. But aromas weren’t just confined to the kitchen. Wreaths and swags for the door appeared with their aroma of cedar and pine. Candles and sachets often were a kind of incense for the home. During the season in Williamsburg, festivities center around the sight of candles in the windows, crisp winter evenings, and hot cider and warm gingerbread from the tavern kitchens served on the Green to warm and cheer those who came to celebrate. It was and still is a magical time. Advent for me begins with a number of thoughts and fond memories.

One final A in the Advent alphabet is anticipation, the building of excitement as we look forward to the Christmas season celebrating the birth of Jesus. There is the anticipation of visiting friends and family that maybe we don’t see very often. We send and receive cards to close friends and family both around the corner and around the world. Then there are gifts, selected with care and received with pleasure, especially those for the children who seem to have a boundless appetite for presents (and cats who love the rustling of paper, empty boxes, and ribbons and bows to wrestle with and chase).

We go to church and see the Advent wreath with a new candle lit each week, we sing special hymns and music, and we hear the stories and prophecies that point us toward the true meaning of not just Advent but of Christmas as well. Advent calls us to remember that it isn’t about Santa Claus or acquisitiveness of material things that make this season important. Metaphorically perhaps it could be said that Advent is a little like being pregnant, no matter our age, gender or status in life. There is an expectation, an anticipation, and an excitement that grows in all but the hardest of hearts and minds, and that, I believe, is the real gift of Advent. 

We can not overlook the reality of the world around us with its disasters, wars, suffering and inhumanity but for perhaps this one month of the year we can look through them to see where we can make a difference as a gift to a small baby born in a manger and who asked for nothing and yet asked for everything from us.   And it’s about seeing and spreading a little comfort and joy in a world that could sorely use it.

Have a blessed Advent.


Originally published at Speaking to the Soul on Episcopal Café Saturday, November 30, 2013.