St Edburg's Church - Bicester

Countdown to Christmas

Advent starts on Sunday.  Even in the wider community beyond church, it is seen as a special time of counting down to Christmas, as the variety and availability of Advent Calendars shows.  It might seem odd, though, to mark a Christian season  by daily chocolates!  But that’s all fine, if we also remember that it is a precious time, a time of waiting in hope.  The emphasis is not so much on bewailing our sins, as in Lent, but on joyful looking forward in hope.  It’s a time when we hear again those scripture passages about waking from sleep and putting on the armour of light.  It’s all about being ready to meet the Master when he comes.

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Looking back at the ancient prophets, we learn that it means preparing the way of the Lord, a way for him to come again into our hearts and into our community.  And the last of the prophets, that mysterious and challenging character, John the Baptist, comes again into view, preaching repentance as the time of God’s Anointed is drawing near.

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And of course, foremost in our thoughts are Mary and Joseph and their quiet confidence in God, responding to the challenge to bear the Christ-child and parent him in the traditional ways of God’s people, preparing him for his adult mission.  We imagine that their journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, some 90 miles or so, begins roughly as we start Advent. And within our church community, we offer them a symbolic welcome as they travel, hosting them for one night via the custom of Posada.

This all comes to life each week in church as the people of God meet in worship.  With no flowers and no Gloria until Christmas, the tone is set for a prayerful and patient time of waiting in expectation.  We try to hold back from singing Christmas carols until Christmas itself, and there are many wonderful Advent hymns, such as O Come, O Come, Immanuel, Hills of the North Rejoice and On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry.  The countdown to Christmas is spiritually rich and fruitful.

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Michael Kingston