The Season of Advent
Calendar, Colors, and Icon
Dates: Sunday, December 3rd - Sunday, December 24th, 2023
Colors: Dark Blue and Pink (for Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent)
Icon: The seasonal icon for Advent contains the Greek letters Alpha and Omega but slightly alters the Alpha to evoke the hands of a clock. This calls to mind Revelation 1:8: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come….”
About The Season
How long, O LORD?
Surely I am coming soon.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
(Psalm 13:1; Revelation 22:20)
“Come, Lord Jesus.” This is how the story of the Scripture ends: unfinished. There is unfinished business in this world on a cosmic scale. This should be obvious to us from only a quick glance into the news, the neighborhood, or our own lives with all of its loose threads, fears, mistakes, and heartache. In opposition to the common practice—especially common in the American societal Christmas season—of tying a nice, sentimentalized, shiny bow around everything during the month of December, the Church’s celebration of Advent is to be a sorrowful exposition of and protest against all evil in the world through the practice of both honest lament and meditation upon the promise of the return of Jesus to restore all things. As Flemming Rutledge writes:
"We do not know why God delays so long. We do not know why he so often hides his face. We do not know why so many have to suffer so much with so little apparent meaning. All we know is that there is this rumor, this hope, this expectation, that the Master of the house is coming back. The church's life in Advent is hidden with Christ until he comes again, which explains why so much of what we do in this night appears to be failure, just as his life appeared to end in failure. The church lives in Advent, The Time Between… In a very deep sense, the entire Christian life in this world is lived in Advent, between the first and second comings of the Lord, in the midst of the tension between things the way they are and things the way they ought to be.” (The Bible & The New York Times, pg. 29)
Things are not yet as they have been promised to be: a new heaven and new earth; lions laying down with lambs; swords turned into plowshares; food for every table, justice, and righteousness rushing down like mighty streams. There are still pages of history to be written and we find ourselves living in the uncomfortable in-between; the “already and the not yet.” The Christian faith has historically faced this very reality not as a sign of failure, but rather as a realization of the ongoing drama that Christ has called us into. We participate in the “now” as those who are already caught up in the “what will be.” That is not comfortable but it is very much at the center of a life of following Jesus.
Advent, from the Latin adventus, means a “coming” or “visitation.” That is exactly what we, as followers of Christ, are waiting for. This waiting frames our experience in this preparatory, somber, penitential, and joyful season before the great and luminous celebrations of Christmas and Epiphany. This telling of the season’s character may come as a surprise to some because, in our culture’s rituals of this season, we rush headlong into partying, feasting, shopping, and celebrating without waiting, taking stock, and being watchful for those who suffer greatly from the “not yet” realities of life. In the historic practice of Advent in the Christian Year, the Church waits to celebrate, which deepens our eventual feast because we have not gorged ourselves for the four weeks before Christmas but have instead come to terms with the darkness of life.
This practice of waiting for things of ultimate concern helps us prioritize life in an age obsessed with the temporality of the now and the new. This is truer in the month of December than in any other month. Our culture’s conception of these Holidays (a term that comes from the Christian tradition of Holy Days) is largely focused on what one will buy or be given. The marketing and incessant rhythm of our “cultural Christmas” season, however beautiful it may be at times, consistently holds out the promise to us that we can spend and schedule our way to “peace on earth and goodwill to men,” that we can gloss over all of the problems for a few weeks and pretend that we live in an ideal world of happiness.
The Christian conception of Advent, in contrast to the cultural liturgies of this season, begins with the realization that what, or who, we really want and need cannot be bought and is not “just a click away,” but must be waited for with patience, submitting to God’s timing, embracing our limits and finitude, and living in the hope that springs from knowing Emmanuel of the past, present, and future.
We, as God’s people, know where the Story is going, and so we acutely know how unfinished it really is. So we look and love into a world with a holy impatience, wanting our hearts to mirror the King’s and longing for the earth to mirror His Kingdom. “Come, Lord Jesus.” This is Advent.
Practices for the Season
Pray. Use the season of Advent and beginning of the Christian Year as a time to renew and reimagine rhythms of prayer in your life and in the life of your household. Consider establishing a steady rhythm of 20-30 minutes of prayer each morning and evening using the Daily Prayer Project. Consider setting alarms on your clock for morning, noon, evening, and bedtime that will remind you to pause and pray.
Gradually decorate. If you decorate your home for the holy days of Advent and Christmas, consider adding decorations gradually throughout the four weeks of Advent so that by the time you get to Christmas your living space has gone through a distinct transformation.
Fast before you feast. One traditional way to embody the preparatory waiting of the season of Advent is by holding off on major feasting and gifts until the 12 days of Christmas. Considering fasting from food throughout the weeks of Advent, choosing days or mealtimes to skip. During these times of emptiness, seek the fullness of God’s presence through prayer and serving others. Channel your desire for food towards the love of your Maker and neighbor.
Practice the foretaste of the Christmas feast. One practice to consider is to begin to bake and cook in advance for the feast of Christmas, getting as much of it ready beforehand so that you are prepared to rest and feast when the time comes (snagging a few bites as a foretaste along the way, of course).
Give your money, food, possessions, and time away. Take money that you would often spend on yourself or your family and give it to the poor. Consider restraining your household budget during this spending-heavy season when many of us will be tempted to go into debt paying for things we really do not need. Instead, choose to spend less on yourself and more on others who are in greater material need.
Practice hospitality. This powerful theme of Advent is going to be complicated this year due to the pandemic. Think of safe ways to show “love for the stranger” in the midst of this pandemic. Support our partner ministries like The Sterling who practice hospitality on a daily basis.
Serve those in your neighborhood and community. The holy days of Advent and Christmas can be a painfully lonely time for people in your congregation and neighborhood, especially this year. Consider baking and cooking food to deliver to your neighbors. Create gift baskets that can be given with ease to people in need. Serve as tangibly and physically as you can in this pandemic time.
Establish and nurture rituals and traditions. Keeping time through formative rituals and practices has always been at the life of the people of God (see our article on the Christian Year here). As we prepare to enter into the Christian Year, renew your commitment to the Church by first attending its services and events throughout the year. Additionally, consider establishing meaningful rituals and traditions in the life of your home. Keep an Advent Wreath (see below), establish a day where you serve other people, plan annual outings, etc. Use your imagination.
Resources for the Season
The Living Prayer Periodical: Advent 2023
The Daily Prayer Project is a publication ministry of Grace Mosaic that supplies a holistic resource for spiritual formation to thousands across North America and the globe. You can access the Advent Living Prayer Periodical at the members-only section of the website, outside the sanctuary on Sunday mornings, or purchase at The Daily Prayer Project.
Also: Consider giving the Daily Prayer Project subscription or coffee mugs as a gift this holiday season! More details at the website.
Advent Wreath
It is a beautiful tradition of Western Christianity to keep an Advent wreath on the center of the table and light the candles consecutively on the Sundays of Advent (the pink is for the third Sunday of Advent). In the middle of the wreath sits the Christ Candle, which is lit during the 12 days of Christmas all the way up until Epiphany on January 6th. I usually recommend buying a wreath from a local supplier and then arranging the five candles around it. Here are some options and ideas and products:
DPP Candle Prayer Guide
As you light your candles from Advent to Epiphany, use our DPP Candle Prayer guide as a resource
This is a labyrinth-like wreath to celebrate the season of Advent as a household. You can use it to count down the days until Christmas together. Each night of December (or, you know, most nights…), we do a scripture reading, sing a song together, and then move Mary figurine to its next space. This particular product that I am linking allows for the observance not only of Advent but also of Lent. It supplies another carved figurine of Jesus carrying his Cross for the Lenten season.
Music for the Season
Books for the Season
Voices of Lament: Reflections on Brokenness and Hope in a World Longing for Justice, edited by Natasha Sistrunk Robinson
“Our culture wants you to be happy. It rewards those who smile through the pain, who pretend everything's fine, who compartmentalize grief and get on with life. But everything's not fine. And God does not expect us to pretend it is. He wants all of us--including our pain.
Perhaps nowhere in Scripture do we get as full a picture of the heights and depths of the human experience as in the Psalms. The outpourings of emotion never shy away from the darkest moments of life, and yet they also point toward the light--toward the God in whom we place our hope.”
Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent by Enuma Okoro
“Usually when we think of the Advent story, Mary, Joseph, and the angel Gabriel come to mind. Okoro approaches Advent a little differently, inviting us to sit for a while with Zechariah and Elizabeth and the story of how they came to bear their only son, John. The Advent story we so often associate with the joy of Christmas actually begins with deep sorrow and longing. But thankfully, in the kingdom of God, there is always more to the story than meets the eye, Enuma Okoro writes.”
Advent: The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ by Flemming Rutledge
“Advent, says Fleming Rutledge, is not for the faint of heart. As the midnight of the Christian year, the season of Advent is rife with dark, gritty realities. In this book, with her trademark wit and wisdom, Rutledge explores Advent as a time of rich paradoxes, a season celebrating at once Christ’s incarnation and his second coming, and she masterfully unfolds the ethical and future-oriented significance of Advent for the church.”
Honest Advent: Awakening to the Wonder of God-with-Us Then, Here, and Now by Scott Erickson
Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany by Various Authors
Living The Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God by Bobby Gross
Resources for Young Children
GraceDC Children’s Ministry Advent Packet
Pick up on Sundays at Grace Mosaic!
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas by Ann Voskamp
New York Times Bestseller and ECPA Award Winner. Over 150,000 copies sold!
Unwrap the greatest Gift with your family this Advent season! With vivid, full-color illustrations, downloadable ornaments, and moving scenes from the Bible, this book is a gift your whole family can experience each day leading up to Christmas.
Devotions by Ann Voskamp, bestselling author, daily Scripture readings, discussion questions, meaningful Advent activities, and beautiful illustrations
Person by person, story by story, retrace the lineage of Jesus. Fall in love with Him all over again as you experience God’s plan of salvation for us―from the Garden of Eden to the manger and beyond.
All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings by Gayle Boss
“Open a window each day of Advent onto the natural world. Here are twenty-five fresh images of the foundational truth that lies beneath and within the Christ story. In twenty-five portraits depicting how wild animals of the northern hemisphere ingeniously adapt when darkness and cold descend, we see and hear as if for the first time the ancient wisdom of Advent: The dark is not an end but the way a new beginning comes.
Short, daily reflections that paint vivid, poetic images of familiar animals, paired with charming original wood-cuts, will engage both children and adults. Anyone who does not want to be caught, again, in the consumer hype of “the holiday season” but rather to be taken up into the eternal truth the natural world reveals will welcome this book.”
Celebrating St. Nicholas Day: The Historical Santa Clause by Tish Oxenreider
If you are a family that wants to consider how to live in the midst of “Santa obsession” in a distinctly Christian way, consider re-framing the day towards the global and historic church celebration of the life of St. Nicholas of (modern-day) Turkey. I personally do not have a lot of problems with “playing along” with Santa Clause, but I do think that going this alternative route may be more robust and meaningful for Christian formation.