The reverend extraordinaire Nicholas Lubelfeld is our resident sage on all things theology, especially when it comes to the Anglican tradition. As is his common way, Nicholas helps us lean into the season with tender hearts and endearing humility.

Transcript

There's always been Advent on the books. And it's been an invitation to go deeper into preparation for Christmas. A time to clear the decks, wash things up, get ready. You don't have to take my word for it. If you want an invitation to Advent, here's what you do. You open up the hymnal to the Advent hymns and read them, or if you're musical, sing them. Because I think it was attributed to Saint Augustine, "He who sings, prays twice."

So read some of these wonderful hymns of Advent, and it will set up themes for you. And then pray the prayer, the “collect” we call it, which is a formal form of prayer in which we grab Scripture doctrines, squeeze it down into a very strong concentration, and then offer it up in prayer together to concentrate our attention on the theme of the service. And the first collect for the first Sunday in Advent, which is taken from St. Paul's letter to the Romans is, "Almighty God, grant us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light. Now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility. That at the last day when He shall come again, in His glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal."

So if you pray that prayer every day, you will accidentally memorize it and it will set up the theme of expectation. If it does, then what you're going to do is you're going to be pricking yourself to say, "Am I ready for Christ to come? Or am I filling myself with all sorts of busyness, that if He came, I'd be to be too distracted to notice?"

Consider this

The Church Calendar

“The season after the Epiphany goes through what is called by Roman Catholics – and it’s catching on – ‘Ordinary Time,’ which means that it’s not devoted to anything in particular. Historically though, it was a season in which one considered the mission of the Church. It culminates in the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus…”

Yuletide Spirit

“I remember my boss when I was a new curate, asked me if I believed in the Yuletide spirit. And I said, "What's the Yuletide spirit?" He said, "Well, you know, there's a Christian celebration of Christmas, but there's also a secular celebration of Goodwill and presents…”

If you have a dinner party, clean the house

“There was an emphasis on the second coming of Christ and the need to repent in preparation for his coming, but my dad used to tell me when I was a little boy, he said, ‘Son, keep short accounts with the Lord and live in a state of grace.’ I said, ‘What is that?’”

There's a dual focus to the season

“Advent has a kind of a dual focus, and the focus of Advent is the first coming of Christ in preparation for celebration of his nativity and the second coming of Christ in preparation for the fuller coming of Christ. There was originally a little longer period of preparation for Christmas…”

We don't know what season Jesus was born

“We don't know when Jesus was born, but we fixed the celebration of his birth and manifestation around the time of the winter solstice because there was great festivity going on in the feast of Sol Invictus, for example, in the Roman Empire…”

With Jesus, there are 12 days

“Advent begins the church year traditionally, and then the ... This is in the West. I'm not speaking for Orthodox Christians in the East. But in the Western churches, Advent begins the church year. Then there's Christmastide, of which there are 12 days…”

Mapping out the Sundays

“Originally though, they seem to be these two foci. One was preparing for the second coming. That seemed to be Irish influence in what were the Gallican, what we call France today, churches. And then there was this other emphasis of preparing for the Nativity of Christ…”

A third coming of Christ

“You'll have hymns at Christmas, like ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem',’ in which we hear about how silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given. So God imparts to human hearts, the blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming. But in this world of sin where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in…”

It's getting darker earlier

“Advent was a time when you were aware that it's getting dark earlier. So the winter light is a low light and there's not as much of it. So you're aware of the light in the darkness, not just the light in the darkness. And I had this sense of it and I associated it with later on the excitements of Christmas…”

A little boy in Detroit

“So here I am, this little boy in Detroit, Michigan, looking up through the boughs of a Christmas tree and imagining these worlds of light and being captivated and transfixed by the wonder of it. And here I am beginning to enter as one of the little steps of grace into this relationship with the Father…”