The Advent Season
The Season of Advent is the first season on the ecclesiastical calendar. In the Western Church, Advent incorporates the four Sundays before Christmas Day. In Western Christianity, we acknowledge five so-called Christian feasts – Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. Some go further and observe an enlarged ecclesiastical calendar which incorporates the entirety of Christmastide (first vespers of Christmas on Christmas Eve and ending with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord), Ordinary Time (after Epiphany), Lent, Easter, Ordinary Time (time after Pentecost).
We should note at the beginning that Advent Season is NOT set down in Scripture and therefore should not be imposed upon anyone. The Puritans saw it as a violation of conscience and refused to partake of it. In our day, there are those who see no value in acknowledging Advent or any other day on the so-called ecclesiastical calendar save Sunday. They are most certainly free to do so and are not to be looked down upon as sub-Christian.
The Advent Season has as it specific theme the waiting for the Advent of our Lord Jesus. The word advent comes directly from the Latin adventus and means coming or arrival. The purpose of Advent is seen as the anticipation and expectation and praying for the coming of our Lord.
It would be more appropriate if we would say the comings of our Lord Jesus since Advent focuses on the various comings of our Lord Jesus throughout history. Advent is not referring to the birth of our Lord Jesus, though that is often the theme seen on the Fourth Sunday in Advent. Our Lord Jesus’ first coming is not something we anticipate; rather, it is what we remember as being accomplished. We then are not in Advent pretending that we are living in the days before Jesus’ birth. Advent focuses our attention and prepares us for the various comings of our Lord in history. There are three major comings to which our attention is directed:
• His coming in history – not only His incarnation but His comings in judgment upon nations throughout history
• His coming in liturgical actions of the church – word, sacraments, absolution, communion
• His coming at the end of the age
In Advent, we call to remembrance God’s faithfulness so marvelously displayed in the birth of our Lord Jesus, wherein He fulfilled His promises in the Old Testament of the birth of His Son, the Savior of the world. This same faithfulness God displays in all the other comings of our Lord Jesus. We then pray that our Lord, in His faithfulness, will remember His promises and come to us again, judging the enemies of His Church, and delivering His people from all evil.
Advent presses upon us the reality that our Lord Jesus will come at the end of this age, on the great Last Day to judge both the quick and the dead. The One who came by Bethlehem's crib and Calvary's cross, who arrives now in the Liturgy – in the absolution, in the Word read and preached, and in His Sacraments, is the One who will come in glory at the end of the age to raise us from the dead and give the final manifestation of eternal life to all who believe in Him.
In our Lord’s historical comings, He comes to His Church, as Malachi depicts, like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; to be among us as a smelter and purifier of silver to purify His people like gold and silver. The end is that we may present to Him offerings of righteousness and be pleasing to Him. See Malachi 3:2-4.
Because of these comings and the expectation of His judgments, repentance is another theme in this season.
We acknowledge that God’s judgment begins within the household of God, the Church, and thus the Church is called to fresh repentance. It is a time wherein we recognize our sins and our great need of a delivering Savior. We are brought face to face with our great need of forgiveness, and then the glorious truth of forgiveness offered, and forgiveness applied.
In this, it sets the stage for the entire church year. We begin the year with this theme freshly pressed down upon us and then carry it through the rest of the year.
This theme of judgment is not popular in our modern culture, both secular and ecclesiastical. Our culture desires to pretend as if there is no such thing as judgment. We would love for God as the God of Judgment, the Judge of all the earth, to whom every man must give an account, be exorcised from our thinking.
This is one reason why there is such sentimentalizing in the Advent and the Christmas seasons. We don’t mind a baby coming, harmless and gentle. A baby Jesus is one we can tolerate, but King and Judge Jesus is another story altogether. We can tolerate, to some degree, birthday parties for Jesus; we can handle Jesus in the crèche scenes with all the little animals gathered around him; after all, what can a baby do? How threatening is an infant?
But the reality of Him being the One to whom all judgment is committed — whose eyes are as flaming fires; whose His feet are as burnished bronze; whose voice is like the sound of many waters (Revelation 1); whose cause is that of truth, meekness, and righteousness; and in whose hands are held sharp arrows, under which His enemies fall (Psalm 45), and before whom every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that He is LORD (Isaiah 45:23; Philippians 2:10-11); this truth is one that men seek to eradicate from their thinking. This denial is, in fact, an attempt at atonement. It is atonement by denying that there is such a thing as sin, that there is such thing as the wrath of God against sin and sinners, that there is One to whom we must and will give an answer. But alas, this is but a deception of our own making.
Let me note here that the Latin word adventus is used to translate the Greek word παρουσία, parousia. This word was used to denote when the emperor came in person to pay a state visit to a city, a colony, or province. The word parousia conveyed the idea of his royal coming and presence as emperor. So too, in our Lord’s comings, He comes as Lord and Judge, the true and rightful King over all creation; the King to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.
Advent directs our attention to the Lord coming to Judge. It sets before us the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). It reminds us and the world that God "has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).
As we embrace Jesus (or better He embraces us) in His comings, we receive His incarnational grace—born to set His people free from sin. We welcome His historical comings—He comes to us in the liturgy to commune His very person and life to us. And we long for His arrival in the last day; wherein, we will be delivered from the wrath to come.
Come, Lord Jesus!
With this in mind, we can see in so many of the great hymns for the Advent season that they are prayers.
We pray in them for the Lord Jesus to come and "deliver captive Israel" (the Church), "that still lies in exile here."
We pray for Him "to free Thine own from Satan’s tyranny"; "from depths of hell thy people save and give them victory over the grave."
We pray that He would be pleased "to cheer us by Thy drawing nigh, dispersing the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadows put to flight."
We pray for Him to "open wide our heavenly home" and "make safe the way that leads on high, and close the path to misery." We cry out, "O come, O come, Emmanuel!"
May our Lord Jesus be pleased to renew each of us in the grace, joy, and hope of His comings!
May we, who are rich in this present world, not be conceited or fix our hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. (1 Timothy 6:17)
And as Peter instructs: "Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:13)
Come, Lord Jesus, come!
We should note at the beginning that Advent Season is NOT set down in Scripture and therefore should not be imposed upon anyone. The Puritans saw it as a violation of conscience and refused to partake of it. In our day, there are those who see no value in acknowledging Advent or any other day on the so-called ecclesiastical calendar save Sunday. They are most certainly free to do so and are not to be looked down upon as sub-Christian.
The Advent Season has as it specific theme the waiting for the Advent of our Lord Jesus. The word advent comes directly from the Latin adventus and means coming or arrival. The purpose of Advent is seen as the anticipation and expectation and praying for the coming of our Lord.
It would be more appropriate if we would say the comings of our Lord Jesus since Advent focuses on the various comings of our Lord Jesus throughout history. Advent is not referring to the birth of our Lord Jesus, though that is often the theme seen on the Fourth Sunday in Advent. Our Lord Jesus’ first coming is not something we anticipate; rather, it is what we remember as being accomplished. We then are not in Advent pretending that we are living in the days before Jesus’ birth. Advent focuses our attention and prepares us for the various comings of our Lord in history. There are three major comings to which our attention is directed:
• His coming in history – not only His incarnation but His comings in judgment upon nations throughout history
• His coming in liturgical actions of the church – word, sacraments, absolution, communion
• His coming at the end of the age
In Advent, we call to remembrance God’s faithfulness so marvelously displayed in the birth of our Lord Jesus, wherein He fulfilled His promises in the Old Testament of the birth of His Son, the Savior of the world. This same faithfulness God displays in all the other comings of our Lord Jesus. We then pray that our Lord, in His faithfulness, will remember His promises and come to us again, judging the enemies of His Church, and delivering His people from all evil.
Advent presses upon us the reality that our Lord Jesus will come at the end of this age, on the great Last Day to judge both the quick and the dead. The One who came by Bethlehem's crib and Calvary's cross, who arrives now in the Liturgy – in the absolution, in the Word read and preached, and in His Sacraments, is the One who will come in glory at the end of the age to raise us from the dead and give the final manifestation of eternal life to all who believe in Him.
In our Lord’s historical comings, He comes to His Church, as Malachi depicts, like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; to be among us as a smelter and purifier of silver to purify His people like gold and silver. The end is that we may present to Him offerings of righteousness and be pleasing to Him. See Malachi 3:2-4.
Because of these comings and the expectation of His judgments, repentance is another theme in this season.
We acknowledge that God’s judgment begins within the household of God, the Church, and thus the Church is called to fresh repentance. It is a time wherein we recognize our sins and our great need of a delivering Savior. We are brought face to face with our great need of forgiveness, and then the glorious truth of forgiveness offered, and forgiveness applied.
In this, it sets the stage for the entire church year. We begin the year with this theme freshly pressed down upon us and then carry it through the rest of the year.
This theme of judgment is not popular in our modern culture, both secular and ecclesiastical. Our culture desires to pretend as if there is no such thing as judgment. We would love for God as the God of Judgment, the Judge of all the earth, to whom every man must give an account, be exorcised from our thinking.
This is one reason why there is such sentimentalizing in the Advent and the Christmas seasons. We don’t mind a baby coming, harmless and gentle. A baby Jesus is one we can tolerate, but King and Judge Jesus is another story altogether. We can tolerate, to some degree, birthday parties for Jesus; we can handle Jesus in the crèche scenes with all the little animals gathered around him; after all, what can a baby do? How threatening is an infant?
But the reality of Him being the One to whom all judgment is committed — whose eyes are as flaming fires; whose His feet are as burnished bronze; whose voice is like the sound of many waters (Revelation 1); whose cause is that of truth, meekness, and righteousness; and in whose hands are held sharp arrows, under which His enemies fall (Psalm 45), and before whom every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that He is LORD (Isaiah 45:23; Philippians 2:10-11); this truth is one that men seek to eradicate from their thinking. This denial is, in fact, an attempt at atonement. It is atonement by denying that there is such a thing as sin, that there is such thing as the wrath of God against sin and sinners, that there is One to whom we must and will give an answer. But alas, this is but a deception of our own making.
Let me note here that the Latin word adventus is used to translate the Greek word παρουσία, parousia. This word was used to denote when the emperor came in person to pay a state visit to a city, a colony, or province. The word parousia conveyed the idea of his royal coming and presence as emperor. So too, in our Lord’s comings, He comes as Lord and Judge, the true and rightful King over all creation; the King to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.
Advent directs our attention to the Lord coming to Judge. It sets before us the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). It reminds us and the world that God "has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).
As we embrace Jesus (or better He embraces us) in His comings, we receive His incarnational grace—born to set His people free from sin. We welcome His historical comings—He comes to us in the liturgy to commune His very person and life to us. And we long for His arrival in the last day; wherein, we will be delivered from the wrath to come.
Come, Lord Jesus!
With this in mind, we can see in so many of the great hymns for the Advent season that they are prayers.
We pray in them for the Lord Jesus to come and "deliver captive Israel" (the Church), "that still lies in exile here."
We pray for Him "to free Thine own from Satan’s tyranny"; "from depths of hell thy people save and give them victory over the grave."
We pray that He would be pleased "to cheer us by Thy drawing nigh, dispersing the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadows put to flight."
We pray for Him to "open wide our heavenly home" and "make safe the way that leads on high, and close the path to misery." We cry out, "O come, O come, Emmanuel!"
May our Lord Jesus be pleased to renew each of us in the grace, joy, and hope of His comings!
May we, who are rich in this present world, not be conceited or fix our hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. (1 Timothy 6:17)
And as Peter instructs: "Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:13)
Come, Lord Jesus, come!