Exhortation for November 30:
Today is the first Sunday in the traditional church season of Advent. Advent means “coming,” and this season is one of preparation for the celebration of the “coming” of God at Christmas. There are four Sundays in Advent, and the readings and prayers of this season are designed to focus attention on various kinds of “coming.” Even those readings that do not recount the Christmas story have something to do with the Advent of God. Advent encourages us to imagine ourselves in the situation of Israel, awaiting the coming of God, and also reminds us that we too live in expectation of God’s coming ?EGod’s coming to rescue His people from opposition and persecution, God’s coming to bring us to Himself at death, ultimately Jesus’ coming again to judge the living and the dead.
Advent is nowhere prescribed in Scripture, and it is not necessary that the church celebrate Advent. But there are biblical and practical reasons for observing it. Let me begin with the biblical reasons: Throughout the OT, Israel observed not only a weekly Sabbath rest, but also had a calendar of feast days. In the first month, they celebrated Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread. In the third month, they celebrated Pentecost, and in the seventh month they celebrated the Feast of Booths or Ingathering.
Each of these commemorated some event of Israel’s history. Passover recalled the exodus from Egypt; Pentecost was, among other things, a celebration of the giving of the law at Sinai (which also took place in the third month after Passover); and during Booths the people of Israel built small tents from tree branches to commemorate their wilderness wanderings. We no longer observe THAT calendar, but the calendar of Israel gives us a precedent for having a church calendar that celebrates the great events of OUR history as Christians, which are the great events of the founding of the New Covenant ?Ethe birth of Jesus, His sufferings and death, His ascension, and the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost.
Celebrating these events year by year also had very important practical effects on Israel. Because they commemorated the events of the exodus, they became more and more defined by those events; to be an Israelite was to be among the people who were redeemed from Egypt. By celebrating Pentecost, they became more and more the people who received Torah. By celebrating Booths, they were trained to trust Yahweh’s provision, and to look forward to a great harvest of nations at the end of the age.
Likewise, for the church, as we celebrate these things we are not merely being INSTRUCTED about the events of Jesus’ birth, death, resurrection, and ascension. We are being formed into a people for whom these events are the coordinates of all life and all history. We are being formed into a people whose lives are shaped by these events. We are becoming more and more a Christian people, a people defined and shaped by the work of Jesus Christ.