Like Any Other Day

The older I get, the less magic Christmas seems to me. It becomes more and more an ordinary day with perhaps slightly more pomp or gatherings or hassle. There are a number of reasons for this personally in my life, mostly dealing with rotating family schedules that mean we “do” Christmas on some other day whenever we can get together, and so at times, Christmas really is just another day where nothing special happens.

Perhaps it is partially a function of expectation level. For example, when I was in 4^th or 5^th grade or so, I really caught on to the whole Santa thing and made lists of all the toys I wanted. I got none of them, and when this repeated itself year after year, it didn’t take too many years to get to the point where Santa was a fun novelty, but nothing special, certainly nothing real. I lowered my expectations and moved forward and stopped investing emotional energy into the elf, and learned to enjoy Santa for what he was, nothing more or less.

Preparation

As we’ve looked at recently, Advent is a time of preparation. We prepare for all sorts of events. For me, a time of preparation is at an end. Part of our chemistry building is completing a renovation, and I am privileged to move my teaching labs to some of the new space.

We move today, so the last week has been a lot of packing, moving small things, and getting ready for an army of movers to transport everything up two floors. Essentially, everything is ready, and all that remains is to direct the troops…

ADVENTures Before Christmas, Week 4

Each week of Advent has a number of symbolisms, and the following table is now filled completely.

Week	Scene	Attitude	People	Action
1st	Journey on a Donkey	Hope	Isaiah/OT Prophets	Expectation/Prophecy
2nd	Bethlehem	Peace	John the Baptist	Annunciation
3rd	Shepherds	Joy	Magi	Proclamation
4th	Angels	Love	Mary	Fulfillment

In the first week, we looked at suffering/penitence and its relationship to expectation and hope. The second week looked at how the solid promises of God through Christ gave peace even in the midst of trials and suffering. Historically, for reasons given last week, the third week of Advent turned a corner into increasing joy and eager anticipation as the Day of Christ drew nearer, and we looked at the traditions of gift giving. The fourth week is the rising to the crescendo of Christmas Eve and Christmas itself. This year, Advent is a full five weeks long—the longest possible, as Christmas itself is on a Sunday.

There is so much to talk about here that it is hard to pick a topic.

ADVENTures Before Christmas, Week 3

Each week of Advent has a number of symbolisms, and the following table will be filled as the weeks progress.

Week	Scene	Attitude	People	Action
1st	Journey on a Donkey	Hope	Isaiah/OT Prophets	Expectation/Prophecy
2nd	Bethlehem	Peace	John the Baptist	Annunciation
3rd	Shepherds	Joy	Magi	Proclamation
4th

In the first week, we looked at suffering/penitence and its relationship to expectation and hope. The second week looked at how the solid promises of God through Christ gave peace even in the midst of trials and suffering. Historically, for reasons given below, the third week of Advent turned a corner into increasing joy and eager anticipation as the Day of Christ drew nearer. For some reason, the third week has an association with the Magi that visited gifts upon the Christ child, likely several weeks or more after Christmas, traditionally on January 6, Epiphany. Thus, today, I want to talk of gifts.

ADVENTures Before Christmas, Week 2

Each week of Advent has a number of symbolisms, and the following table will be filled as the weeks progress.

Week	Scene	Attitude	People	Action
1st	Journey on a Donkey	Hope	Isaiah/OT Prophets	Expectation/Prophecy
2nd	Bethlehem	Peace	John the Baptist	Annunciation
3rd
4th

Last week I mentioned how Advent starts off in a spirit of penitence. Not only is purple symbolic of royalty, it is symbolic of suffering. Yet, the attitude of this second week of Advent is peace. How do these reconcile?

ADVENTures Before Christmas, Week 1

Much of the information came from the web, where it has been reposted many times, so I’m not sure of the original author, but the site used is http://www.crivoice.org/cyadvent.html

Advent means ‘coming,’ so it is the time of preparing for the coming of Christ. While it is most closely associated with Christmas and the celebration of Christ’s birth, for many Christians it is a reminder to anticipate and prepare for His second coming.

Interestingly, the original purpose of Advent was merely a countdown to Christmas, and that’s all. However, just as no modern evangelical pastor can conceive of a sermon that isn’t three points starting with the same letter, people expect everything in a ritual to be full of meaning to bursting, so meanings began to be assigned to various parts of the celebration. As a result of this ad hoc approach to liturgy, there is actually a lot of variation in both symbols and meanings, as you will see.

Adventageous

Today was the first Sunday in Advent, which is the period defined by the four Sundays before Christmas. While the Advent season itself is not prescribed by Scripture, the concept is very much so. Advent is a time for preparing ourselves for the upcoming celebration of Christ’s birth and all it represents.

Throughout Scripture and life there are times of preparation dictated for momentous events. In Scripture, there are only two days in the week that are given names, the Sabbath, and the Day of Preparation, which is the day before the Sabbath where the people were to make all necessary preparations for food and chores that would not be done on the Sabbath.