You see my return
My returning face is smiling
Smile of a waiting man’
From ‘Waiting Man’ by King Crimson (from the Album ‘Beat’)
Two years ago, in the first of my Advent blogs of 2022, I wrote:
• I blog only very occasionally and haphazardly
• Notwithstanding that, I do tend to blog regularly in Advent
• I love this season of Advent and wish that the church was better at allowing Advent to be Advent and not simply an excuse to prematurely celebrate Christmas
• I use a lot of quotes from music (especially but not exclusively, rock music and particularly from that genre that is known as ‘progressive rock’)
• I reflect a lot on the different changes and challenges of life as the years pass
Well, not much has changed! In spite of my own hopes and best intentions, I still only blog occasionally. But Advent, it seems, is the time when I am most likely to be regularly blogging (sometimes even daily!). The exception being last year when we were in the throes of moving house.
It makes me wonder why I tend to blog in Advent, but not so much at other times in the year.
Reflecting upon this, I think that there may be several reasons.
To start with, I can’t avoid the most obvious reason, which is that we tend to take a week’s leave in the first week of December. We have done this for years now, and it is, therefore, always a time with more space and opportunity to reflect and to blog.
I also think that the ending of the liturgical year and the dawning of the new Christian year, along with the approach of Christmas and New Year, is a natural time for looking back and looking forward, for reflecting and pondering.
But, I suspect the main reason is that I am so passionate about this season of Advent and (as I said two years ago, as mentioned above) ‘I love this season of Advent and wish that the church was better at allowing Advent to be Advent and not simply an excuse to prematurely celebrate Christmas’.
As I have said before (and I have stirred up a fair bit of controversy and complaint as a result!) if it were up to me, we would not sing a Christmas ‘carol’ before the Watchnight Service on Christmas Eve (after all, we don’t usually sing ‘Thine be the Glory’ on Good Friday!). And we would not put up a Christmas tree until that same evening, and so on. We would focus on Advent and what it is about, and explore the themes of patience, prayer and preparation, of waiting and watching, of hope… as well as the darker Advent themes of suffering and darkness, along with the related themes of repentance and rejoicing. Allowing Advent to be Advent, gives us room to develop anticipation and nurture hope.
Now, to be fair, I would also then keep celebrating Christmas and singing carols joyfully up until the ‘twelfth night’ or even beyond! The Christmas season lasts until Epiphany (6th January). Some would say until Candlemas (2nd February). What fun that would be!
But, alas, that now seems like a wistful hope that is unlikely to find much traction in our contemporary, commercialised age. I recall a few years ago popping into Tesco on Christmas Eve just before it was closing, and already the staff were busy taking down all the Christmas decorations and displays.
And so, I find myself inevitably and inexorably (and a little unhappily) drawn into the premature celebration of Christmas, and – as one who conducts worship – find myself uneasily choosing Christmas praise for Sunday worship somewhat earlier than feels comfortable. But I feel obliged so to do, and I know of one colleague who faced considerable anger from the congregation due to his failure to do that very thing on the Sunday before Christmas.
Ah well… I will try to avoid that, however reluctantly!
But, for myself, I will make every effort to allow Advent to be Advent, not due to some pursuit of ‘liturgical purity’ (of which I have been accused more than once with regard to this issue!). But because I believe that Christians are denying themselves the opportunity to engage with a season in which we can reflect on some of the most important and significant and deep aspects of our faith.
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