Lighting Up Advent

Over the past few days, since Thanksgiving came and went and Advent has begun, I've been at times on the road after dark (as most of the day is after dark at this point in the year!).  One of the things that I have noticed over this brief period is quite obvious: if not before Thanksgiving, certainly immediately afterwards, many homes are brightly lit with decorations looking forward to the celebration of Christmas.

Or perhaps to put it more realistically in our present culture, the actual celebration of Christmas for many is taking place now in the work of decorating the interior and exterior of homes, in shopping, in listening to Christmas music on the radio or online.  For many. Christmas is now.  It will end the morning of December 25th.

On the one hand, this means that the Christian church needs to be all the more intentional about keeping Advent.  Advent is its own proper season, with its own long and storied history, and its own gifts of expectation, patience, and a rich sharing in liturgy of the beauty of the scriptures.  We lose Advent and its gifts, as many have, at our own peril, with regard to living life at a human pace and with spiritual depth.

On the other hand, the dyspepsia between the church season and society's take on the season becomes all-too-visible as one drives through neighborhoods these present evenings.  What do I mean?  One sees brightly lit houses in their dozens and eventually hundreds, decorated beautifully, proclaiming at the very least that there is something special about this season.  Then one comes across a Christian house of worship, of virtually any denomination or non-, including our own, and the building in which the Christians meet is either darkened or looks exactly as it does throughout the year.  There is nothing visible to say or to confirm: this is a special time.

I am not suggesting that our churches decorate now for the Christmas season.  To do so would be to betray the reality of Advent, and if the church does that, this gorgeous season so little kept will be a goner.  What I am suggesting is that either:

•  - we need to find a way, using greens and Advent colors and light, to allow our church buildings to say out loud now, "This is Advent, and it counts for something, and we are joyfully and intentionally and lovingly preparing for the coming of the Savior!" or
•  - we need to decorate our church exteriors amazingly well with Christmas decorations once the Christmas season actually begins and for its entire length, while early-bought Christmas trees languish on the sidewalks waiting for the sanitation truck as early as noontime on December 25.

Of the two possibilities, which are not mutually exclusive, I want to advocate especially for the first.  If we are keeping Advent, let us look like it outwardly to the world around us, the world we serve in Christ's name.  It seems to me that if the rest of the neighborhood is lit up with joy - whether informed or not - and the neighborhood churches are dark, we are in effect confirming the worst images of Christianity in the general population: out-of-touch, crabby, distanced from people's lives.

We have so much to share in the gifts of Advent that can deepen the coming celebration of the Nativity for all.  What can we do to look like this is really true?

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A renewed invitation to join us on Mercer School's Facebook page, Conversations at Mercer, for a shared reading and discussion of Christopher Webber's Advent with Evelyn Underhill.  We'll be there every day throughout the Advent and Christmas seasons,

Pax,
John+