Thinking toward Christmas
By the time you are reading this we will have crossed over into December 2020.
Each year seems to move quickly for me, especially as we approach the closing months of the year. It has been a long year, what with covid-19, economic struggles and various things to wrestle with along the way, but as I look back on it , as in other years, it feels like the time flashed by. It may be that I am growing older, and the past seems like it passed by quickly, even though if I remember it a day at a time the time moved slowly. I have several times remarked that it took me nearly 50 years to finish high school, and the next 50 years only seemed like 20.
For Christians who observe the season of Advent in the Christian year, Advent has just begun. The first Sunday of Advent was Nov. 29. Advent is an ancient observance, passed down from the early western church. It marks the beginning of the Christian year. Advent is observed for the four Sundays before Christmas, as a preparation for the great celebration of Christmas. For Christian people observing the season, it is a time to renewing familiarity with the biblical prophesies of the coming of the Messiah, as in such passages as Isaiah 53 and others, and to ready one’s mind and heart for observing Christmas as a celebration of the coming of Christ into the world as Savior and Lord.
For many of us who are sorrowed by the secularization of the Christmas season, by which it is turned into a time of exaggerated commercial and party activity, a celebration of getting things for Christmas, and so on, the Advent season is a healthy and hearty reminder that Christmas is not so much about sleigh bells and mistletoe, or beautiful snow-covered landscapes and feasting on food and things, but a happier celebration of God’s gift of his best for all of us who are part of his human family.
Our American culture over the years has not placed the Advent season high on the list of priority observances. Many churches in our land observe Christmas and Easter, usually as though they were single-day special occasions, but do little or nothing with the Advent, Lent, Epiphany or Pentecost seasons. Even my own church tradition, the United Methodist Church, is not consistent across the board about observing the Christian year seasons. We originated out of the Church of England in the late 1700s, so our origin is in the so-called high-church practices of the Church of England (or Episcopal Church).
But our tradition also includes the great revivals in America in the early 1800s, as the population of the United States grew in the eastern states and moved westward. So we have had a background both as highchurch and low-church, as liturgical and non-liturgical. Some may feel that one or the other is better and truer. We try to lift up values
from both traditions, while respecting both.
The initiation of observances of the Christian year was an effort by the ancient church to give attention to a whole gospel message, a way of leading Christian believers through the Bible in ways that gave them a comprehensive exposure to the full gospel message, and which doesn’t just pay attention to a certain limited portions of the message of Scripture. So, Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas. Christmas is a 12-day festival which begins on Christmas Day and continues until Jan. 6, celebrating the birth of Jesus, the coming of the Incarnate Son of God into the world (see Luke 2).
Christmas is followed by Epiphany, beginning Jan. 6, which is a celebration of the presentation of the Savior to the wider world, beginning with the visit of the Wise Ones as described in Matthew 2, and continuing with the Christian mission recounted in the Book of Acts. The Epiphany is followed by the season of Lent, a period of 40 days before Easter (see Luke 4), and focuses on how Christ Jesus shared in the stresses and temptations of all people and gave himself to suffer the cross for their salvation. Easter Sunday and Eastertide are the high Sundays of the Christian year, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the assurance of eternal life, and enduring hope based in confidence in the work of God through Christ. Easter is then followed by the season of Pentecost (see Acts 2), celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit, living by the Spirit, and sharing the Christian message and way with all the world. Pentecost is sometimes regarded as ordinary time, being a long season which carries through most of the summer and fall of the ordinary calendar year.
Some of us think that we Americans tend to hurry Christmas too much. We can’t wait for it to get here. We want to shop early and long, then Christmas Day finally arrives and it is over! Christmas commerce invented the idea of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, times when we are supposed to shop like crazy. Black Friday was at first the Friday following Thanksgiving. Well, that wasn’t enough. This year, stores began having “Black Friday” sales at Halloween time. Who knows, next year we may start Black Fridays right after Fourth of July!
No, this rush was not what Christmas was designed to be. Let’s give time to prepare, not only with shopping, but with the Scriptural inspirations and awareness of the work of God in our world. Let’s not let Christmas be over on Dec. 26, let’s take time (at least 12 days) to celebrate it as truth for life, as a beginning of good things reaching out with its benefits to touch all of daily living and purpose of life.
•••
Editor’s note: This column was originally published Feb. 20, 2008. Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by email at joe369@ centurytel.net , or call 621-1621.