An Introduction to Advent with Canon Chris Hollingshurst
I have been asked to offer an Introduction to the season of Advent this morning, and perhaps it’s helpful to begin by saying that for centuries the Western Church has marked the Season of Advent beginning on the Sunday nearest to 30 November, running on for four Sundays and for the days which follow each of them, right up until Christmas Eve.
Now, unless you live in a sealed bubble of church or Cathedral worship you may not fully appreciate just how long Advent lasts before we get to Christmas. Just speaking personally for a moment, since their earliest years my children have longed for Christmas to come as soon as possible every year. Even in a vicarage family, they have always wanted to put up the tree and the decorations as quickly as possible, and even as adults (with two of the three still living with us) continue at least to some extent in the same vein. It’s not quite a case of “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day”, as Roy Wood sang, but it sometimes feels pretty close to it 😊
By contrast, Spoilsport here has always wanted to wait for all that jazz, at least until we have reached the third Sunday in Advent. Why? Because I find Advent one of the most profound and spiritually rich Seasons of the Christian Calendar and I don’t want to miss it in the headlong rush to Christmas.
Let’s face it, even when one is fully aware of Advent, December can fly by in a flurry of activity, especially if you have school age children or grandchildren, if you are a teacher - and, indeed, if you are a busy parish priest! And even when we manage to pace ourselves through observing the familiar traditions and exuding feelings of goodwill, we may miss the harsh realities of the first Christmas, let alone immerse ourselves in the wonders of Advent first.
How any of us remember the dank stable, the cold night, the closed door of the inn?
How many of us share the longing of the ancient prophets, who awaited the Messiah with such aching intensity that they foresaw his arrival (Christ’s first Advent) thousands of years before he was born?
How many of us view Christ’s first coming through the lenses of his Second Coming – that great final day, however we envisage it, when God will complete his purposes of salvation for the world and the cosmos?
I love Advent precisely because Advent is such a wonderful time to STOP… and think about all these things, and more. Advent marks something utterly momentous: Christ’s coming into our midst. And by God’s Spirit, that coming is not just something which happened once in the past. It is a recurring possibility, some might say a recurring reality, here and now.
Consequently, the season of Advent which this year begins today is not merely a commemorative event or an anniversary, but a yearly opportunity for us to consider the second Advent – the promised coming of God’s kingdom on earth.
Let’s start to flesh this out a little.
The Latin “Adventus” means arrival, coming, or appearance. The first mention of Advent as a Christian season was in 380AD, at the Council of Saragossa in Spain. The Council concluded that the Church needed a celebration of the weeks leading up to Christmas in order to counter – both in worship, and with Scripture and teaching - the common heresy of the time that Jesus wasn’t really human as well as divine. And so Advent was instituted to locate and root the coming, the arrival, of Jesus the promised Messiah in human history and as recorded in Scripture.
Whilst Adventus usually means 'coming' or ‘arrival’, it soon developed to the point that Advent became also, if not primarily, a season of expectation and anticipation; of preparation, of getting ready, for THE Adventus, the return, the re-appearance of Christ.
Of course, the Return of Christ to a broken world is serious business and, as such, is riven through with some serious themes about the earth and its condition. Indeed, in Advent, the Church has traditionally considered what are called The Four Last Things - Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.
Death – yes, mortal human beings will die, and a world damaged by human sin ultimately will perish. All around are signs of decay that are crying out to be reversed.
Judgement – yes, when all that is evil will be weighed and found wanting and destroyed; but also when salvation is wrought and declared – for in this context, being judged is the route, by God’s grace, to being saved.
Heaven – when all that is mortal and saved is raised to the throne of God for all eternity. A state of unending worship, joy and bliss where there will be no more crying, no more mourning, no more death. Depicted as a place of perpetual light, and eternal love.
Hell – depicted in florid medieval art as eternal torture, usually involving fire, although these days often characterised more philosophically as eternal separation from, or absence of, the love of God. Depicted as a place of darkness and (pictorially) of crying and gnashing of teeth.
At different times and in different ways, all four of these themes are reflected in the Bible readings set during Advent, especially in so-called daily offices of Morning and Evening Prayer. Many of these readings are, we say, ‘apocalyptic’ – in that they reveal what the writers of Scripture believe will be uncovered and dealt with in the end times: injustice, immorality, poverty, wars, other forms of devastation, and more. We do well to listen to, and read them, with great care – that they may help us to listen to what is inside us too.
So why focus on such things at Advent? They are hardly pre-Christmas glitter, are they? No – but they are realities which give a truthful context to faith in any age. We only have to look outside of our front doors or switch on our phones to encounter them. But also, praise God, they are all contexts which are wholly met, answered fully, voided and removed in the Return on the last day of the crucified, risen, ascended Lord Jesus. The great final Day when God restores all, renews all, raises all, resurrects all. A day for which we yearn, crying Maranatha – come, Lord Jesus, come. A day when, as Wesley put it, ‘Every eye shall now behold him, robed in dreadful majesty’.
All of this explains why Advent is seen by many as not just as a time of expectation but as a penitential season. In particular, Christians of a more Catholic tradition (whatever their denomination) will often take the time to make formal Confession and receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Do ask about that afterwards if you think that may be for you this Advent.
But there are some other traditional aspects to Advent that we will wish to be aware of. Do you know what I mean by the Advent antiphons? The Great ‘O’s?
I was well into adulthood before, worshipping differently from when I was younger, I encountered the antiphons for the first time. The Church of England’s Common Worship website tells us this:
“These antiphons, or refrains, all beginning ‘O …’, were sung before and after the Magnificat at Vespers, according to the Roman use, on the seven days preceding Christmas Eve (17–23 December). They are addressed to God, calling for him to come as teacher and deliverer, with a tapestry of scriptural titles and pictures that describe his saving work in Christ. In the medieval rite of Salisbury Cathedral that was widely followed in England before the Reformation, the antiphons began on 16 December and there was an additional antiphon (‘O Virgin of virgins’) on 23 December; this is reflected in the Calendar of The Book of Common Prayer, where 16 December is designated O Sapientia (O Wisdom). The Common Worship Calendar has adopted the more widely used form. It is not known when and by whom the antiphons were composed, but they were already in use by the eighth century.”
If the antiphons are new to you, as once they were to me, perhaps you might look them up later: O Sapienta, O Adonai, O Radix Jesse, O Clavis David, O Oriens, O Rex Gentium, O Emmanuel…. Or just come to this evening’s Advent Carol service at 6pm when you will hear them beautifully sung and when they might just deeply touch your soul.
The Great ‘Os’ are of ancient tradition, but additional themes have emerged for Advent through relatively recent times. In particular, the 19th century saw the import from Northern Europe to the UK of the Advent Wreath of candles for the four Sundays of Advent. You will have seen ours at the front of the Cathedral during this morning’s Eucharist.
Here in Guildford Cathedral we are following what I think is the earliest rationale for candles in an Advent wreath, which is underscored by the Collects for the Sundays in Advent and, indeed (and we’ll come to that in a few moments) for Christmas Night and Christmas Day as well.
So today, the first Sunday of Advent, we lit our first Advent candle to remember the part played in God’s story on earth by the Patriarchs, the old pioneers of Jewish and Christian faith. In particular we remember Abraham, the first patriarch, who made a covenant with God that promised land and descendants to his people; Isaac, Abraham's son, who inherited the covenant and was the father of Jacob; and Jacob, also known as Israel, because through his sons he was the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.
On the next three Sundays our candles will mark the contributions of the Old Testament prophets on Advent 2, the herald and forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist, on Advent 3, and Mary, Mother of the Lord, on Advent 4. Although this first Advent reflection this morning is an introduction to Advent rather than an exposition on the Patriarchs, the following three reflections (on 7th, 14th and 21st of next month) will focus on the Prophets, John, and Mary. So I’m not going to say any more about them now.
As an alternative to Patriarchs, Prophets, John the Baptist, and Mary, some Christian churches use the four different candles to represent (in order) hope, peace, joy, and love. If the Four Last Things are a little heavy, there might be a danger that lighting a candle for hope, or peace, or joy, or love goes the other way, and is a little superficial on its own. So for example, we might think in terms of what it means to wait in hope, courageously to make peace, to have resilient joy, or exhibit self-giving love. Or we might address some issues at the same time. In a world of environmental chaos, where is hope? In a world of relentless war, where is peace? In a world of toxic media, where is joy? In a world of broken relationships, where is love?
And while we’re mentioning joy, have you ever noticed that the tone on the third Sunday of Advent embraces rejoicing? Rejoice! Gaudete!
There are other less common variations on Advent candles too, including points the nativity story (for example the prophecy of the Messiah, the Bethlehem Candle, the shepherd candle and the angel candle). But what all of these schemes have in common is that the fifth, central candle, which I briefly mentioned earlier) is the Christ Candle, representing Jesus the Child in the Manger and the Light of the World.
To some extent all of the candle traditions are ‘getting ready for Christmas’ traditions – nothing wrong in that of course, but I think the scheme we use (Patriarchs, Prophets, John the Baptist, Mary) incorporates the greatest sense of salvation history, of God’s plan to send Christ into the world, and with it of God’s plan for the full coming of the purposes of his kingdom with Christ’s return– eternal life in all its fullness!
But taken together, this time of year reminds us that we’re living during the time between Jesus’ first and second advents, leading us to lament the hardships we experience in a still-broken world, while also forming us into people who wait with longing for the renewed world to come.
Enough of me for the moment... Pause to talk in pairs and perhaps air some observations or put some questions before I wrap up?
So there are a couple more things to say about Advent.
What response or action if any does it prompt in you today?
- Perhaps just being still before God with a heightened sense of Christ’s arrival - and just saying nothing at all?
- Might you want to engage with an Advent book?
- Might you want to adopt an additional daily rhythm of prayer? Can you combine it with an online Scriptural Advent calendar?
- Donate to a homeless charity in advance of Christmas?
A clergy friend posted this on his Facebook page a couple of days ago, and I rather like it – so I’m going to share it with you:
“This Sunday we begin Advent — the season of waiting and watching. But what if we’ve been looking in the wrong direction? Jesus warns us not to waste time scanning the skies for cosmic fireworks or rapture-style drama. Instead, he turns our gaze to the world around us, where God’s future keeps breaking in through everyday acts of justice, mercy and compassion. Christ returns whenever a wrong is righted, a neighbour is lifted up, or love triumphs over fear. So this Advent, keep awake — not for angels in the clouds, but for Christ at your doorstep.”
Poem by Ann Lewin – Watchet Auf (SOSOF p22-23)