December 3rd, 2006 by The Bosphorus
Today is the first Sunday in Advent, the penitential season of expectation observed by liturgical traditions such as Anglican, Catholic, and Orthodox churches. There are also some Protestant churches that follow a liturgical calendar. These would include the Lutherans, Presbyterians and I suppose some Methodist churches. Liturgics is a broad category that covers many different things as varied as calendars to the colors of the alter dressings and albs that clergy wear during services.
Coming from a Baptist upbringing means I didn’t get this taste of Christianity until lately when I started going to an Episcopal church. Us Episcopalians are also Anglicans and, depending on the church you stumble upon, are big on liturgics. This is all beside the point that today begins Advent when Christians look ahead to the birth of Christ.
Something one of my pastors said today has stuck with me. He mentioned that Advent is a time when we remember how God has acted in our lives. We recall where God has been present to us. It strikes me that this is a wonderful description of worship that is characteristically Judeo-Christian. Worship being that remembrance of God’s active presence in history.
I’ve posted here how I wrestle with my notions of God. Many of you replied and told me to relax and settle back. That attitude of “letting it be” is something I have to make a point to remember to do. Funny how that “remembering” seems like another thing to strive for, but I don’t think it is a counter productive effort.
That letting it be is an attitude towards life. It’s a habit. Habits have to be aquired and I think chilling is definitely a habit. I have to do certain things so that I can cool down. I have to remember to breathe and practice my breath. I have to stretch. I have to sit still and pray.
So Advent begins today and I want to re-member where God has been in my life. I want to put back together what has fallen apart in my head. I want to refocus on those good things that have been pushed aside in my head by everyday sorts of distractions. I’m going to try and be about that letting it be this Advent.
December 3rd, 2006 at 2:30 pm
You know, I’m not entirely sure the Orthodox (at least Greek Orthodox) observe Advent. At least, when I first asked my in-laws about an Advent wreath for the table, and how I couldn’t find one to buy here, they blinked at me funny. Then it turned out it was something they had when they lived in Germany, but doesn’t seem to be observed here in Greece. I asked my husband about it again yesterday and he said “I don’t know”, and since he went to church today, I think he would have said something!
It is too bad, because despite all my lack of religion, I always kinda liked advent, the candles, the wreaths, and of course, the calendars! So, in honor of the post, I’ll “let it be” Advent here anyway, and display my wreath and candles proudly! It is a good time to remember how God has acted in our lives, and I suppose you don’t need four Sundays before Christmas to think about that.
December 3rd, 2006 at 2:37 pm
I grew up Catholic, and still never really got the point of advent. Its like Lent, without your Mom taking away TV or something.
December 3rd, 2006 at 2:47 pm
AT, you goober.
December 3rd, 2006 at 3:03 pm
Episcopalian here too, Bos. Happy Advent or Merry Advent, I guess. Your post definitely lends to some food for thought here, thanks…
December 3rd, 2006 at 3:08 pm
“That letting it be is an attitude towards life. It’s a habit.”
bos, Thomas Aquinas taught that faith and virtue are aquired by habit. By the rote repetition of prayers he believed one eventually aquires the belief behind those prayers, and by the repetition of good acts, one eventually becomes a virtuous person.
FWIW.
December 3rd, 2006 at 3:38 pm
And you can trace Aquinas’s philosophy of habit on back to Aristotle. Aristotle works it out in his Nicomachean Ethics.
December 3rd, 2006 at 3:39 pm
We talked about the whole point of Advent today in sunday school, too. What I brought away from the discussion is that it’s just a time set aside to focus on the event we associate with this time of year (regardless of its historical accuracy). It is my belief that the birth of Christ is well worth the daily (or weekly) reminder that Advent requires. I’m always in need of something to bring Christ back in to focus because I tend to lose it in daily living. That’s why I value church and sunday school.
December 3rd, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Agreed, bos. You seem to vest your ruminations with significance for Christian theology, so I cited the Christian source.
December 3rd, 2006 at 5:34 pm
I learned (as an Episcopalian) that Advent is a season to prepare your heart to receive the Christmas message. No hanging of the Greens until the time is right, don’t put the Wise Men in the Creche. I know that some Christian Faiths insist that Jesus is guiding everything they do, and others say something else in required. I’m not sure what, but think it is that we do our own thing while trying to make that action fit with the Church teachings. Wobbly line in my opinion. I like the “Let Go, Let God” advice but think most days need some of my input as well. Can any control freak be a true Christian? Or maybe it should be an any True Christian be a control freak? Being still to hear what I am supposed to hear is a lesson I have to learn repeatedly. Good topic, though, that you brought up, Bos. And who knew there were so many Episopalians around. I live in Baptist country, so don’t often get to voice opinions on the subject. Sue
December 3rd, 2006 at 6:45 pm
At Mass today my pastor had us take a minute of silence and reflect on the word “HOPE”. We are supposed to find one minute a day to be still and silent and reflect. It is his way of trying to fight all the “noise” that the world inundates us with ; especially at this time of year.
I also try to reflect upon how Mary and Joseph must have been feeling with one to go before the birth of this “child”. It’s hard to imagine what that would be like.
December 3rd, 2006 at 7:03 pm
The overall notion of peace is the theme of our advent season. Our verse: Isaiah 26:3-4 :
You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal. (NIV)
All these things that keep us separate from the Lord during Advent - sigh. Well, off to the Christmas Concert - kid is singing. Then the mall, then the grocery store. Wait… ah drat!
December 3rd, 2006 at 7:52 pm
Oh Yes Peace is next week’s word.
Thanks, Bos for the great links. I love the advent jigsaw puzzles and just signed up for ebible. Way to go spreading the WORD!
:-)
December 3rd, 2006 at 9:30 pm
Some Baptist churches (like mine) observe Advent now. I’ve kept an Advent calendar in my home since my kids came along. They absolutely love it.
December 3rd, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Advent sounds like a good idea. I go to a Baptist church, so I’m not familiar with it. The part about being still, praying, meditating etc…I think, is a big obstacle for most Christans. Our society has made it where we, even our small kids, need constant entertanment, or “productive” time. If I made that a daily habit…to set aside some time each day, to just be still and quiet, and be with God, I believe my day, my week, my life may go smoother, because along with prayer, and reading my Bible, I believe He will reveal His plan for my life. God is so good!
December 3rd, 2006 at 9:39 pm
Bos, this post was absolutely beautiful. This, specifically, embodies the intent of this time of year:
“I want to put back together what has fallen apart in my head. I want to refocus on those good things that have been pushed aside in my head by everyday sorts of distractions.”
Refocusing your life is exactly the intent and spirit of the season. Remember the good that He has done in your life, and let that drive you.
December 3rd, 2006 at 9:44 pm
Wow…a fellow Episcopalian! It seems so rare that I meet any! : )
December 4th, 2006 at 5:31 am
i wanted to say this last night but conversation got ahead of me … i think i finally felt an undeniable presense of God in a few stops in my life. i don’t think God has to break people to show Himself but i think some people only lower their defenses enough when they are broken … i had to be broken. my major events where i begged for revelation and peace was once when i was 18 , when abe was diagnossed, and last year at this time when the church …. well, you know what happened. i am still picking up the pieces of that but had i not be faithful to God through those times, had i not acknowledged His guidance revealed in ways that only seemed obvious to me (but were really likely only meant to be obvious to me) in all of those times i could have dismissed his Hand in it all and tried on my own. i shudder to think where i’d be now. i am not His most good and faithful servant at this point in time but i acknowledge him daily and … my cup is spilling everywhere even when people cock their head and say “oh i am sorry that must be hard.”
December 4th, 2006 at 9:32 am
Friendly Neighborhood Orthodox guy here.
The Orthodox observe a 40 day fast before Christmas (it started Nov. 15). We generally call it the Nativity Fast. We see feasting and fasting as going hand in hand. There’s nothing to set apart your feast if you’ve been feasting all along, so we fast. It is also about reflecting on the coming Incarnation. I’ll not go all apologetic on you here.
The curious can read this: http://orthodoxwiki.org/Nativity#Nativity_fast
December 4th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
Thanks MountZionRyan. I know the fast too well, for hubby it is required, for me, it is just supporting him. I don’t like it, but if it makes it easier for him, I’m all for it! And I guess in the end it helps me to reflect more on God and what my faith is.
It is weird that the Greeks don’t recognize it as “advent” though, unless there is some different word in Greek that they don’t translate the same.
December 4th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
I found this link, which was interesting and helpful to me.
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles6/ReardonAdvent.php
Heh, the Episcopalians are coming out of the woodworks. There’s a joke about a church burning down and how the episcopalians process out of it.
Delaney, you’re right about our society making a holy cow of productivity. Don’t forget efficiency, either. I do think that being still is “productive.” It just doesn’t produce things our society values greatly.
Sumgirl, you said, “i am not His most good and faithful servant at this point in time but i acknowledge him daily.” I think that is a key attitude and it’s also a habit and practice.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
I haven’t read any of the other comments. I close my eyes and remember the first time I read the Nativety story. I was 13 I think. Parents had been divorced for about 3 years and I just got back from my stint in the psyc ward. Imagine, a boy desides not to eat and run 5 miles a day until his kidneys begin to fail. Gee, I guess I took my father running off with his new wife pretty hard along with the no contact. My mom went to school and there were three of us. Public aid, medicaid, section 8 — the whole deal. My room was an unheated converted attic room. Un air conditioned too — and a window you couldn’t throw a cat through. The place was a dump. A lady gave me a Bible at an after care meeting and told me to read Matthew. A Bible was virtual contraband in my house. My mom was an atheist and she did not want any traders on the home front. I am always struck by the story. Not in it’s simplicity or even its mystery, but how off guard the two most unlikely people to usher God’s only son into this crazy world of ours. I think we puff it up and clean it up to make it seem a pretty white. It makes those of us how grew up in variable sh#t holes and on the otherside of the tracks something to wonder about. Was there much preperation to be had? — I mean for Mary and Joseph. Did they have big huge theological hang ups and discussions? They were just kids so they say. They were pledged to be married and what is this — Mary shows up pregnant — by the Holy Spirit. I am imagining her parents — “Yeah, right.” In a time when a woman’s virginity was more important than life itself Mary is with child and Joseph is not the father. What a mess. It sets the clock moving — time is their enemy — and here are two kids, set out in the desert to bring about the advent of the King of the world. Its got the governor itching to kill, men crossing deserts, and sheperds looking up at the sky. And God’s plan to bring the world back to Him born in a dirty barn with the livestock holding court. You have to smile, even if you don’t believe any of it.
December 5th, 2006 at 9:56 pm
The whole thing is pretty outrageous.