The Advent season is among us and I wanted to share with you its origins and its meaning. We talk about Advent during the last part of November into Christmas every year, but do we really know where it came from? Advent is a powerful and important season that became liturgy because of the spiritual relevance.

It is not known when the period of preparation for Christmas that is now called Advent began – it was certainly in existence from about 480 – and the novelty introduced by the Council of Tours of 567 was to order monks to fast every day in the month of December until Christmas. According to biblical scholars “it is impossible to claim with confidence a credible explanation of the origin of Advent". Most people in the early Church believed Advent as a time of penitence. It was a period of fasting known also as the Nativity Fast or the Fast of December.

“While Advent is certainly a time of celebration and anticipation of Christ’s birth, it is more than that. It is only in the shadow of Advent that the miracle of Christmas can be fully understood and appreciated, and it is only in the light of Christmas that the Christian life makes sense. It is between the fulfilled promise of Christ’s first coming and the yet-to-be-fulfilled promise of his second coming that Karl Barth penned these words: “Unfulfilled and fulfilled promises are related to each other, as are dawn and sunrise. Both promise and in fact the same promise. If anywhere at all, then it is precisely in the light of the coming of Christ that faith has become Advent faith, the expectation of future revelation. But faith knows for whom and for what it is waiting. It is fulfilled faith because it lays hold on the fulfilled promise.” The promise for Israel and the promise for the church is Jesus Christ; he has come, and he will come again. This is the essence of Advent.” (Holcomb, 2021)

Advent Readings (Four Sundays prior to Christmas)

Hope (or promise) – The hope and promise of salvation both from tyranny and from sin. “O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” (Isaiah 40:9-11 KJV)

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 52:7-9 KJV)

Preparation (waiting or prophecy) – Having believed in the promise, we as believers are to wait and prepare for the promise to become a reality. “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, Which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight.” (Mark 1:1-3 KJV)

Joy (peace) – After preparing ourselves for the coming prophecy to manifest, we move to a spirit of joy. Joy because we know the promised King is coming, and Joy because he is bringing salvation, healing, and victory as well. “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:10-14 KJV)

Love (adoration) – The last Sunday reading is about God’s love washing over us and through us to develop a loving environment for the arrival of the promise and the lasting love that comes with Jesus entering the earth and returning to the earth and saving it. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18 KJV)

So let us not forget the Advent season and celebrate the blessings of God that comes with the blessed anticipation of the Advent season.

Thank you for reading another Bishop’s Buzz. A buzz is not a buzz unless you share it!

God Bless,
Bishop Adam Blackstock