The Upside Down Journey of ADVENT!
This is adapted from Pastor Melanie Eccles’ sermon at the Evergreen All Community Gathering on Christ the King Sunday - November 20th, 2022
Sunday, November 27 marks the first Sunday in the church season of Advent. I want to invite you to join me in anchoring ourselves in the story of Jesus and the huge narrative arch of scripture by observing the Church Calendar and reading the weekly lectionary texts. If all of this talk about church calendars and the lectionary is a bit unfamiliar (or completely foreign!) read on!
There are 6 seasons in the Church Calendar, a yearly progression through the life of Christ and His Church. At Evergreen Church we participate in these rhythms of the liturgical calendar as a way to enter into the story of God and God’s People. As we observe these 6 seasons (of Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, Lent, Eastertide, and Ordinary Time), we bear witness to the ways in which God’s Kingdom has come and his will is being done now and throughout history.
So for Evergreeners, here are a few things you’ll notice about each season (which vary in length from 2 weeks to like half the year.--I’m looking at you Ordinary Time.) Our All Community Gathering banner colors correspond to the church season. In this season of Advent we observe the color blue, a color that reminds us of blue skies and communicates the message of hope in this season of preparation and expectancy. The season of Epiphany and later of Ordinary Time use the color Green, emphasizing growth. These seasons are about the expansion of the Good news of the Gospel and joining the work of the Kingdom. Purple is a penitential color used during the season of Lent. Easter and Christmastide are White, the color of purity and completeness, a color inviting us to rejoice. And red is an intense color of strength, illustrating the power of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
Starting in this season of Advent, our Missional Communities will all be equipped with a Guidebook to this Church Year. We are aligning these 6 liturgical seasons with our church’s 6 core values of Rest, Love, Multiplication, Peace, Story, and Community in order to engage more fully in the life of God’s Church. In Advent we focus on our value of Rest. We see ourselves as human beings, not human doings, cultivating rhythms for contemplation and prayer. In Christmastide we lean on the value of Love, receiving God’s holy love and extending it to ourselves, others, and the world. In Epiphany we look to the Evergreen value of Multiplication, linking the missional work of the Wise Men with our call to be everyday missionaries of Jesus Christ where we live, work, and play. In the season of Lent, we will emphasize our value of Peace, seeking justice, reconciliation, and wholeness for ourselves, our neighbors, our city, and world. In Eastertide we live out the Evergreen value of Story, celebrating God’s story and activity through time and among us. And finally in the lengthy season of Ordinary Time we will root ourselves in the value of Community, make close spiritual friendships, confessing sin, praying for one another, gathering and scattering as an extended family.
In using this Guidebook, our scattered Missional Community/house churches will be gathered in spirit: observing the same seasons together, focusing on the same themes, and reading from the same lectionary passages. Within this communal framework there is lots of freedom. Each MC can choose their own adventure for teaching. Maybe you will focus on spiritual discipline practices that fit the theme for that season, or maybe you lead a discussion around the scripture passages or do some deeper exegetical type Bible study together.
Ok, so before we get back to NOW and our movement into Advent, let me give you a quick overview of the Lectionary. What in the world is it? The root of the word is “lection” which simply means “reading.” The Lectionary, then, is a predetermined way of reading through the Scriptures. Back in the 60s, the Catholic Church made the groundbreaking decision to begin following an organized plan or reading the Bible. The Revised Common lectionary came about in the 80s and 90s when a long list of non-Catholic Christian Churches tweaked the original reading schedule. Each week we read a Psalm, an Old Testament passage, an Epistle (the biblical term for “letter”), and a Gospel (the biblical term for one of the four books teaching on the Good News, the life of Jesus.) Many Presbyterians, Lutherans, United Methodists, Mennonites, Anglican and Free Methodist churches follow the lectionary together. That’s one of my favorite parts about the lectionary – knowing that on this Sunday I’m reading the same passages that many other churches are across the country, and around the world. The reading unifies the Church across space and time.
The cycle of readings begins in “Year A” with Matthew and its correlating Old Testament, Psalm, and Epistle. Then, we start over again with a new set of passages for Year B (using Mark), then Year C (in Luke). Thus…we travel a three year journey through the whole story of the Bible. Though not every verse or chapter can be read during this time, we as a church are able to get a better taste for the beautiful story of God’s redeeming plan for creation, a story that spans Genesis to Revelation.
In reading the Lectionary, we trust that the Holy Spirit works outside of time, believing that even (and perhaps especially) predetermined Scripture readings are exactly the message God has for us today. We choose to submit to the authority and study of the men and women who’ve gone before us, as opposed to sticking to our favorite books of the Bible or using the trusty “open your Bible and blindly point” method. It’s exciting to watch how God has used these pre-planned Scripture passages to weave together sermons at the proper time. He is so faithful.
The origin of the Christian season of Advent dates back to 480 AD and perhaps even further…to the times of Peter and the Disciples. The word “advent” simply means “to come” and so this season is an opportunity to prepare and to wait with bated breath for the arrival of the newborn King. We wait, as Mary did, for Jesus Christ to be born. We wait, as the prophets did, for their long-awaited Prince of Peace. But as followers of Jesus on the “other side” of his birth, we have a different invitation to wait. Knowing that the celebration of Jesus’ birth is imminent, we now wait for his second coming. We wait for the day when Christ will come to bring his perfect peace to earth as it is in heaven…for all eternity. We wait with hope and angst for the day when he will make all things right, restoring relationships, repairing sick bodies, aligning healthy governments, abolishing poverty. We wait with excitement and perhaps dread, for his day of judgment, knowing that our trust in him brings salvation but that a detailed account of our lives will acknowledge the moments when we failed to follow faithfully. But we wait.
Advent is such a beautiful, yet challenging time in the life of the Church. It is at this time of year that we are reminded of our need to wake up to the coming of Jesus in our lives.
This Advent-waiting is so difficult because we are invited to sit in this in-between space: a space where we are no longer experiencing the comfortable, oh-so-familiar life, yet neither have we seen the resolution of the waiting…the answer, the direction, the “ahhhh-yes-everything-is-turning-out-just-fine” moment. We are in the time of holding our breath, left to wait. We can choose to gasp for air, fight for our lives, flee the fearful expectancy. Or we can seek the Lord Jesus Christ in this uncertainty, looking for his movement, listening to his voice. Because even in the waiting, especially in the waiting, there is Jesus.
When I first began observing Advent in 2013, I was in the middle of one of my darkest winters. It was our third year of infertility and that combined with other life circumstances made the dark winter nights a reality in my heart. But during that time, I prayed this prayer:
Lord Jesus, As hard as this is to admit, I thank you for this long time of advent in my life. This journey of infertility may continue for many more years, I don’t know, but the grace, the blessing has come and is coming in the ways I’m learning to seek you. I imagine where my focus would be right now if I had gotten “my way”…and it’s not likely to be totally on you. Teach me now how to keep company with Jesus, how to kindle communion with Him, that it may be an inextricable part of me in years to come.
Advent is so much more than a countdown to Christmas. It is an invitation to wait with God on God in our everyday lives.
But “Does Advent even matter when the world is on fire?” One of my favorite Christian-deconstruction authors, Sarah Bessey, wrote these words back in 2016:
“In these days, celebration can seem callous and uncaring, if not outright impossible.
But here’s the thing: we enter into Advent precisely because we are paying attention.
It’s because everything hurts that we prepare for Advent. It’s because we have stood in hospital rooms and grave-sides, empty churches and quiet bedrooms that we resolutely lay out candles and matches.
We don’t get to have hope without having grief. Hope dares to admit that not everything is as it should be, and so if we want to be hopeful, first we have to grieve. First we have to see that something is broken and there is a reason for why we need hope to begin with.”
Can Advent matter when wars refuse to stop and chemo treatments and doctor’s appointments must go on? Where does Advent fit in the midst of our bad dreams and rocky relationships, our aches and pains, our grief and loss?
Advent is an invitation to stubbornly holding onto hope. Advent is our way of saying, “Oh yes, we know. We are absolutely awake to the brokenness in our lives and in our world, but we are also holding onto the hope of Jesus like it’s our job. We are shining a light on the ways Jesus is bringing healing and wholeness, building His Kingdom in our midst. We are paying homage to the Christ Child who was born to incarnate (to put flesh on) Love itself; to set us free from sin and death. We are committing to stay awake to the unexpected return of our Messiah who will one day establish the fullness and goodness and majesty of God’s Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.”
Would you join me, friends, on this upside-down journey through Advent and into the new liturgical calendar?
May God give us ears to hear and eyes to watch, that we may know God’s presence in our midst during this holy season of joy as we anticipate the coming of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Additional Advent Resources:
Seedbed’s Seven Minute Seminary “The Meaning of Advent” by Dr. Michael Pasquarello