Advent — A Season of Waiting & Longing For Christmas
I love Christmastime. I love Advent. The transition of summer to fall brings about some of my favorite things: autumn weather, beautiful leaves, flannels, apple cider, Halloween, pumpkins, bonfires and s’mores, and Thanksgiving.
I also love that Christmas is right around the corner too! I love the Christmas carols, decorating the tree and the house (inside and out), festive sweaters, holiday cups and items at restaurants and stores, old European yuletide tales, appreciating other wintertime holidays like Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, snow, hot chocolate, presents, Santa Claus, and all the like.
I love hearing about a family’s Christmastime traditions. Some watch classic Christmas movies leading up to Christmas day. Others break out the old family recipes for Christmas drinks, cookies, desserts, and meals. After Thanksgiving, some families get together to decorate the Christmas tree. Some participate in charities and services like ringing bells outside stores for the Salvation Army, sorting food at food pantries, go caroling, and giving presents through their church’s Angel Tree.
Some of my favorite family traditions is helping my mom decorate the Christmas tree. See the photo below for last year’s beautifully decorated tree! I also love our home church’s Christmas Eve service that we attend every year. After that, whatever family is in town usually congregates at our house and we feast on hors d’oeuvres. Recently, I fell in love with the German drink called wassail. I also love my late grandpa’s eggnog recipe (during Christmas 2013, he made it extra special and it was fantastic; the extra ingredient was an adult beverage that he didn’t tell anyone about until it was too late!). My mom always makes Belgian waffle cookies every year. There’s that old, clunky waffle iron she brings out to make them every season.

I love Christmastime. It’s beautiful to me.
Though I love this time of year culturally, I have a deeper, more existential appreciation for what this time of year means as a Christian in the Church.
With the onset of Advent, it is the time in the Church calendar where we await the coming of the Lord. Advent is a remembering of the old hopes amidst the world’s sufferings for God to deliver his people.
All too often, we jump the gun on Advent. We jump to the first coming of the baby Jesus. We celebrate Christmas too early. Advent is simply a countdown to Christmas. We don’t sit and wait or experience the pain and suffering that Advent should well so remind us. Advent makes us look at ourselves and our world to see the travesties all around and the different sufferings we all face.
Amidst all that suffering, here’s God’s action: “But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman…” (Galatians 4:4 NLT).
Advent is the period of waiting and patience amidst the silence of God. Much like the people surrounding Jesus’ birth, we sit in silence and suffering waiting for God’s deliverance. We pray, we work, we wait, we suffer, we pain, we lament — yet, no deliverance.
No deliverance. No deliverance. No deliverance — just yet…
As Paul stated, the right timing of God was fulfilled in the first coming of Jesus. Every year we celebrate this first coming of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day. Advent is a moment of remembering the past — remembering people like Mary and Simeon and Anna who have long hoped for the coming Messiah, yet he seemingly never comes. At that moment, that’s when God sent his Son birthed of Mary into our world. That’s when God entered into creation.

Advent is also a moment of knowing our present. Though Jesus Christ has defeated the powers of sin and death upon the cross and there is now no more condemnation of God’s people and creation, we still struggle and toil in our prayers, laments, wishes, and hopes of Christ’s final, consummating return.
Still, we live in the pain and suffering like Joseph, the shepherds, Mary, Simeon, and Anna. We await deliverance. We pray maranatha — for the Lord to come again. The time and world of the birth of Christ is much like our time and world in the present. Advent speaks this to us at our very core. Advent pushes us into a mirror to see ourselves, confronts us with the silence of God, and makes us look outside to the pain in the world.
Don’t jump the gun on Christmas. Advent is a time of waiting and hearing the silence of God in our day. We see pain, suffering, toil, and hurt all around us. We see the travesty of pain and mistreatment of asylum-seekers fleeing from violence at the American-Mexican border. We agonize after another mass shooting. We lament the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in China or the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. We pain to see the devastating actions of ISIS upon Christians in Iraq and Syria or Boko Haram in Nigeria. We ache when we hear of war in places like Syria. We are left hopeless seeing riots and protests in Chile and Hong Kong that seemingly go nowhere. We hurt when members of our community suffer terrible pain or death due to drug addiction or disease. We are left shocked when a young person commits suicide.

Do you feel the pain? Do you see the hurt? In it, I cry out “injustice!” to God and pray that he will deliver, bring justice, and bring healing. And yet, no answer. Advent is the time where we hear the silence of God, yet we persist in our prayers and pleas and laments.
Though Advent is a long time, Christmas is coming. Christ is coming. The Lord is coming. In our present age, we hope for the return of the Lord. We hope for him to fully heal and reconcile and transform and restore all things.
Each Christmas is less about the nostalgia of childlike joy of Christmas presents under the tree, listening to Bing Crosby on the radio, or Christmas hams. Each Christmas is more about the childlike joy and hope of the return of Christ to make all things right. Advent is a remembrance of the past, a sorrowful reflection of our present, and a hopeful joy of the world’s future in Christ’s return.
Advent is less about the first coming of Christ, but more about his second coming. Without his first, we can’t have his second. You see, the same pleas by Mary and Zechariah and Simeon are the same many have to this day. But we hope for the day when we can say alongside Simeon:
Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples…
— Luke 2:29–31 NRSV
I love all the different festivities for this time of year. I love what different community Christmas programs — caroling, parades, decorating the park or town hall. I love seeing workers and volunteers wearing Santa hats. I love seeing Santa Claus cosplays. I love hearing Christmas music everywhere. I love the classic Christmas movies on television. I love town decorations.
There is something seemingly magical about this time of year, with colors of red and green, hot chocolate, coniferous trees, and gift wrapping.
It seems all so joyous. We’re told that it’s the most happiest time of the year. We are to be festive and joyous and celebratory. We’re to be generous and full of gift-giving. We’re to have bright faces and shining complexions at all times.
It seems all so joyous, doesn’t it? But you know what’s true. Christmastime isn’t as joyous as the advertisements, businesses, and television make it out to be. There’s a deep pain underneath it all. You know…
Hanging up certain ornaments onto the tree brings about grief from the past.
Having extended family over conjures up regrets or vehement arguments.
The work bonus wasn’t as large as last year’s and you really needed it this season; or, worse, there’s no bonus at all when you needed it the most…
There’s an empty spot at the table or in the den that was filled just last year.
You know the pain. When Christmas comes, family arguments and divisions happen. Or that there should be a certain family member there, but are not. There’s a missing mother, father, husband, wife, sister, brother, or child. They’re not there — death or division being the reason. Christmastime brings about a lot of pain. No joy, no happiness, no festive spirit.
Decorating the tree seems to get harder each and every year. Buying presents for your work’s gift exchange seems pointless and superficial. Spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars for toys for young family members is drab. The Christmas dinner is dominated by cell phones or political debate.
No joy, no happiness, no festive spirit.
Underneath the smiling faces of Santa Clauses and retail workers and baristas, the catchy jingles and carols, the gaudy decorations, and good deals online and in store, you know Christmastime isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
For many, this time of year is dark, dreary, depressing, and dreadful. This season is more akin to Halloween — horrific, demonic, and ghoulish (Tim Burton was onto something with The Nightmare Before Christmas) — than fat old gift givers, elves, reindeer, trees, lights, and gold.

No joy, no happiness, no festive spirit.
Underneath all that, we now see where Advent finds its home. Our culture tries to mask the pain of family loss or division, of deep seasonal depression and rising suicide rates during the holiday months, of colder weather that causes great suffering for the poor and homeless. It’s masked with all these festivities and decorations, but there’s still deep pain, deep longing.
No joy, no happiness, no festive spirit.
This is the pulse that Advent strikes so powerfully. We can’t mask the storms with poor screen doors. Advent swings the doors wide open. Advent confronts the culture we have been entrapped by. Advent tells us that there is real pain before us and in us. No commercials, decorations, or holiday treats can cover that up. Advent is the storm before the calm.
Welcome to Advent.
Advent is the season of darkness before the light. Advent is full of pleas to God for salvation and deliverance that seems never to come. Advent is the season of the silence of God. Advent is the season of watching and waiting.
Watching and waiting…
So often, we use Advent calendars or the Advent season in Church to be a countdown to Christmas in celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus. We fill our Advent calendars with pithy quotes, pictures, candies, or small gifts.
But Advent is less about a joyous countdown so much as it is living in the knowledge, experience, and understanding of our current suffering and pain.
With the first coming of Jesus, our world today is much like the world before Christ’s birth. There are wars and rumors of wars. There are despots and political figures usurping power and control. There is famine and ethnic division. There is suffering and pain, and threats looming from every corner.
The Church’s season of Advent makes us sit with our own suffering, pain, sin, death, and decay. The Advent season makes us sit with our laments and pleas to God for salvation. Advent makes us sit in darkness.
In essence, Advent is not a countdown to Christmas, but a season of patient endurance that makes us realize we truly need a savior. We can’t conjure up salvation on our own merit. We need help. We need someone to save us. We are fighting against dark forces we cannot control or stamp out alone.
Isaiah 64 is a text that’s often read during the Advent season. This verse points us to that darkness we all have: “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth” (Isaiah 64:6 NRSV).
Advent prepares ourselves in the remembrance and knowledge that we need a savior. Even with the first coming of Christ, we still see the pain, darkness, evil, and death present in our world. It’s not hard to find. Christmastime reminds you of a lot of it. The news reminds you of even more.
Christmas should not be a simple celebration of the past birth—first coming — of Jesus. No, our Christmas celebration should be halted and come in a burst — just as the second coming of Jesus will be. Christmas is a retroactive celebration of the second coming of our Lord.
In the second coming, Christ will usher in salvation to its fullest, reconciling broken human beings back together and to God, ending the reign of sin and death once and for all that plagues all of creation and all of human civilization, and giving life to all things. This is the glory of God. It is found in the cross of Christ.
Our celebration of Christmas is a little more joyous if we know and have faith and hope in the One who holds the unfolding of history in his hands. For that unfolding of history is for life, goodness, blessedness, transformation, renewal, and joy.
This gives a new meaning to one of my favorite Advent hymns, Joy To The World (yes, it’s an Advent hymn and not a Christmas one):
Joy to the world, the Lord is come
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart prepare Him room
And Heaven and nature sing
Advent begins in the dark, seemingly endless pleas of salvation and ends in a bursting forth of the humble Son of God coming to give a new order to all things. It is in the coming of our Lord and Messiah we have hope, salvation, and joy.
If there’s any wisdom for me to impart, it is this: don’t jump the gun on Christmas. Please, continue to decorate and put up the trees, be festive, and enjoy your work or community’s holiday celebrations. But as a Christian, reflect on Advent amidst it all.
Wait, sit, endure — then let the coming of our Lord burst forth in festive celebration on Christmas. For in our Lord’s second coming, it is much like his first — humble, meek, selfless, and for the salvation of the world.
Welcome to Advent.
Here, I want to discuss my hopes and changes for the Advent season for our church. I hope my ideas are clear and helpful as we embark on Advent in a unique and different way. For some, this may be exciting and formational. For others, Advent is an unknown quantity.
Typically, Advent is observed for the four Sundays in December. But for this year, I want to do something different and unique. A lot of my research on expanding the Advent season came from this website. On top of reading Fleming Rutledge’s Advent book, I’ve been inspired by the power of the season of Advent for the church’s life.
So, the different thing I want to do is expand Advent from four weeks to seven. Advent will begin earlier than usual.
But why? Why expand Advent?
Well, for starters, Advent is a Christian season that isn’t well observed. Or, if it is, it is not done in its historic tradition. Advent has become more of a countdown for Christmas with things like parties, gifts, and shopping all in its midst.
Also, our society has really become gung-ho on “Christmas culture.” As many of us may chide, the holiday season kind of goes like this:
October — Halloween
November-to-December — Christmastime (with Thanksgiving smudged in).

Of course, I love Christmas and I love Christmas culture. But there does come to a point of wanting Christmas to actually be special and important to us. Christmas music is already on the radio, restaurants and stores have broke out their Christmas decorations, and commercials are already selling you deals for this holiday season.
Personally, I’m tired of the actual war on Christmas, in that Christmas has been made a holiday of commodity and consumerism rather than joy, glad tidings, family, and celebrating Christ Jesus. Christmas is less about Christ, but more about mass consumption of new TVs, computers, phones, and all the like.
But Advent forces us to slow down. Advent reveals to us our pain and anguish. Advent forces us to look at the world’s own pain and anguish. Advent makes us ask, “Where is God? Why is he silent?”
Advent is also rooted very much so in the coming of Christ. Of course, as we celebrate Christmas, we think of the nativity scene with the baby Jesus.

But just as we still struggle and toil with the pain of our world, we hope and celebrate the second coming of Jesus. Advent is not a season of looking into the manger, but looking ahead to the kingdom. Advent looks at the end of all things. Advent looks to Christ now as the king of all kingdoms.
Just as John overheard in heaven during his vision:
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.
— Revelation 11:15 NRSV
Just as I said above, we often jump the gun on Christmas. Now, hear me out: please set up your Christmas tree and decorations whenever you see fit!
But as our worship together as God’s people, we will see that Advent will change our perspectives on a few things. First, it will force us to sit with tough questions we have about God and for ourselves. It won’t be as cheery or joyous as the culture will make Christmastime out to be. And second, Advent will shift our celebration of Christmas to be less about Christ’s first coming as a baby but more about Christ’s second coming in completely establishing his Father’s kingdom on earth.
I hope and pray that this season in our worship as God’s people will be one of formation, changing perspective, and seeing how this season of the year can speak in a new way.
’Tis the season!
