It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Advent. Part 2.

If you are coming to this post having read the first part of this Advent series, welcome back, I hope found it helpful. If this is the first you have seen of the series, welcome, I hope you find it useful. I want here to consider one element which is hindering our observance of Advent, preventing us from benefiting from the season. That element is the timing of Advent and Epiphany in relation to when our surrounding culture is celebrating Christmas. I also want to make a simple suggestion for how we can get around this difficulty, change the times when we observe Advent and Epiphany. In what follows I will outline this suggestion in greater detail; in the previous post we looked at the reasons for observing Advent, this post will first look at the significance of Epiphany, then at the merging of these seasons which I suggest has happened, finally we will look at what it might look like to observe them distinctly again.
I’ve just had a piphany
In the previous article we considered the function of Advent as a period of penitence in which the veneer is pealed back from worldly narratives of fulfilment and we are reoriented to long and wait for the coming of God’s kingdom in all its fulness with Jesus’ second coming. In order to understand the issues we have with Advent we also need to consider Epiphany. Epiphany is traditionally considered to be a period of celebration in which we rejoice in the truths of Christ’s Incarnation. The first day of the season is also known as Epiphany and falls on the 6th of January. Within the Eastern and Western traditions varying emphasis is placed on the coming of God the Son as saviour of the world in either the story of the arrival of the magi, or of Jesus’ baptism. The season also features the celebration of Candlemas on the 2nd of February commemorating Jesus’ dedication in the Temple and the prophetic words which accompanied this through, amongst other things, the use of candlelight. Given that the feast of Epiphany on the 6th of January previously commemorated the birth of Christ within some circles, before the consensus on the celebration of Christmas on the 25th of December was reached, I would argue that the traditional twelve days of Christmas celebrations share in the themes of Epiphany and act as a gateway into that season.
On the deep significance of this season for Christians I can think of no better explanation that that given in the Village Church’s resource pack:
“Focused on the coming of Jesus as the Son of God and the hope of the nations, Epiphany marks a time of celebration, rededication and declaration. It is a season for us to affirm the truth that Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity, the Word who became flesh to dwell among us, who was sent from the Father by the Spirit to reconcile people of all tribes, tongues and nations back to the Father by the Spirit. And, as we affirm the manifestation of Jesus Christ, we are called to renew our faith in Him and to proclaim the good news that Jesus came to save sinners — both Jews and Gentiles.”[1]
What Season is December?
I hope that most of you will agree that these truths are of foundational importance in the Christian life and would affirm the importance of making a conscious effort to orientate ourselves around them. However, in the way we currently mark Christmastide the celebration of these truths is in danger of, if it hasn’t succeeded in, crowding out the commemoration of the truths of Advent.
The four Sunday’s before Christmas are supposedly the season of Advent. However, look at some of the features of our Decembers and you will see that they suggest we are already celebrating Epiphany. December for many of us in the run up to Christmas will be a time of work and other Christmas parties, of indulging in chocolates and drinking with friends. Are these the marks of a penitential season traditionally marked by fasting? Now, I am not saying these are bad things. Do not mishear this as a Scrooge crying, “Bah humbug.” I love that we have a season in which we feast and enjoy the many good gifts God has given us, however this seems more in keeping with a celebratory season like Epiphany.
We deck the halls with boughs of holly, with tinsel, and with multi-coloured lights. Now, this does have some links with the practice of increasing light during Advent. This is seen in the increasing number of candles lit in the Advent wreath as we commemorate the waiting of Israel for the coming of the Light of the World. However, our lights and decorations, especially in our communal spaces, go up all at once at the start of December if not before, and are brought down very quickly soon after Christmas Day. And again this beautiful cacophony of lights seems more reminiscent of a celebration of the many ways Jesus manifested himself as the Light of the World.
December is a time in which we sing Christmas carols and hold carol and Christingle services proclaiming the good news that God has come to save sinners in words such as these,
‘Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus, our Immanuel.’[2]
In the words that we sing and the messages that we rightly preach in an effort to those around us we proclaim the truths which the season of Epiphany is meant to enshrine in us for the coming year.
Even the Advent calendar seems to send very mixed messages. Supposedly each day we open a door as we count down to Christmas and behind it we find a chocolate. Supposedly this helps us to wait for Christmas, but what does it really communicate? That December is the month when you get chocolate for breakfast up until the 25th when you get presents and everything goes downhill from Boxing Day.
Now I want to reiterate that I am not against these things, but they do smack of Epiphany. And this leaves Advent and the chance to be shaped by it to better inhabit our identity as the people of God in Christ in a somewhat precarious position.
We seem to have two obvious options; either we can forget about Advent as many of us seem to have and get on with celebrating Christmas, or we could try and mark these seasons at their traditional times. This second option however leaves us with many challenges, depending on how we decide to mark Advent. If we decide to mark Advent by fasting, we will be surrounded by an increased amount of luxury and pressure to indulge right at the time when we are trying to refrain. This in itself is now bad thing. In fact it may be helpful in showing us that the things we are refraining from do not define or fulfil us.
However, we will also be faced with the dilemma of whether to go to the work Christmas dinner, etc. If we choose not to go, we miss the opportunity to share in celebration and community with our friends and family, potentially at a time when it feels more natural to speak of the hope we have. But if we do go, to what extent will we be able to partake? Whether we mark Advent by fasting or not we will be faced by another difficulty by the time we come to marking Epiphany, do we and those around us have the reserves to go on celebrating after Christmas Day? However we choose to celebrate Epiphany, will we and those we might want to celebrate with have the energy or the will to do so if we or they have been celebrating throughout December? Given how we currently behave in December, there are many good reasons why January had become a time for tightening our belts.
A Third Solution
So what are we to do if we wish to make use of seasonal practices to orientate ourselves around both the truths of Jesus’ Incarnation and of his Second Coming? Well, if Epiphany can move forward into December, why can Advent not also move forward into November? We can strengthen within ourselves a right understanding of the nature of the world and the course of history through whichever practices we think will be most helpful to us. This may take the form of fasting, singing Advent carols, focusing on certain themes or books of the Bible in our times of personal devotion, e.g. Revelation, Isaiah, 1 Thessalonians, or perhaps Ecclesiastes, or through the simple addition of prayers to our routine that ask God to orientate us around these truths, such as the following example from the Book of Common Prayer;
‘Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.[3]
Then come December, we can celebrate the coming of Christ in all its fullness. We can proclaim the wonder that God has deigned to come and dwell amongst us in our Christmas Carols and in our decorations. We can celebrate the fact that the creator of all good gifts gave the greatest of these gifts which we have received to us when he came as a baby in a manger. And we can do this by enjoying the other good gifts which he has given us and using them as reminders to us of the gift. We can open our churches to encourage the world to join us in celebrating these truths with carol services and Christingle services. And we can draw this celebration to a pinnacle as we celebrate these glorious truths with our families on Christmas Day.
As ever this is only me throwing out rough suggestions. I don’t claim to have all the answers but I hope this article will encourage a conversation about how best we can use the seasons as aids to open ourselves to the good news which sanctifies us. I know that I am posting this perhaps a little late for people to join me in experimenting with this idea this year. However, I hope that it has encouraged you to think about the truths we remember in Advent and Epiphany, that it might raise an awareness about the confused nature of our Decembers, and that by next year we might have worked out what to do about all this.
[1] The Village Church, Seasons: Enter the Story of Jesus, (2018), 42; https://www.tvcresources.net/resource-library/guides/seasons.
[2] Charles Wesley, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, 1739. It should be noted that I am not saying that we are not to proclaim Christ throughout the whole year, or that we are to have a form of amnesia to the truths marked by other seasons. However, as limited creatures we have a need to focus on one thing at a time in order to enrich our view of the whole.
[3] Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the first Sunday in Advent, p.47.

