Advent returns focus to season’s spirituality

DOUGLAS LEBLANC SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Published: November 29, 2008

Every year, just as the surrounding culture shifts into an overdrive of holiday parties and consumerism, many churches encourage their members to focus their attention on waiting and anticipation.

During the season of Advent, which begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, Christians hear Scripture readings and sermons about the events that preceded the birth of Jesus Christ. Lessons point toward the first Advent (or coming) of Christ 2,000 years ago and toward the future, which Christians teach will culminate with the Second Coming of Christ. Advent starts tomorrow.

"Instead of thinking we've got four weeks to do shopping, we spend four weeks preparing ourselves for the coming of Christ," said the Rev. Jim Somerville, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Richmond, which has observed Advent for more than 15 years.

This year, Somerville will preach a thematic series of sermons on the journey toward Christ's birth, based on the first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke.

Somerville has been a Southern Baptist pastor for 22 years and has always served in churches that observe Advent.

"It's rare among Baptists, but it seems to be catching on," he said. Somerville believes the symbolism of the Advent wreath, which uses four candles to count down the weeks leading to Christmas, is helping to spread the season's popularity.

The Rev. Abbott Bailey will celebrate Advent at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Oregon Hill as part of her first year as a rector, or senior pastor.

"One of the ways I think of our lives as Christians is that we are already-not yet people," she said. Most people live in the already, but Advent places the not yet "front and center" as a time "when we are called to live expectantly and we are called to wait," she said.

Advent also calls on Christians to feel the discomfort and the joy of waiting for what they cherish, she said. It gives an opportunity to become more aware of others' suffering, and to help relieve it. Her congregation serves as a food-collection site for the Richmond-based nonprofit SynerGeo Inc., and it will distribute baskets of food.

"All you have to do is step out of your door and look around to see that the kingdom of God has not been fully realized in this world," she said.

The Rev. Charles Long of New Hope Lutheran Church in Chesterfield County has launched a Yule Blog (http://newhopelutheran.blogspot.com), in which members and visitors may encourage each other's observance of a holy Advent. Long said a church member suggested the blog only a few days ago and that he loved the idea immediately.

Long said his preaching during Advent will acknowledge recent economic challenges and help his people feel hope amid those challenges.

"It's the message of [Dr. Seuss'] Grinch all over again," Long said. "Christmas comes not because of the economy but in spite of it."

At St. Cyprian of Carthage, an Orthodox Church in America congregation in Midlothian, members already have begun observing a 40-day Nativity fast, said the Rev. David Arnold, priest in charge.

The fast is not quite as rigorous as the 40-day fast that precedes Easter, he said, because it allows members to partake of fish, wine or oil on some days.

Because of holiday parties, "it's hard to have a rigorous fast this time of year and not run the risk of appearing chauvinistic or condescending," he said.

Beginning Dec. 20, his parish observes a pre-Nativity feast that involves garlic, salt, honey, bread, and dishes with vegetables and fruits. "It's a simple meal, a subdued feast," Arnold said.

Such a meal normally is family-based, Arnold said, but St. Cyprian celebrates it as a parish, which helps open the tradition to converts and unites the congregation.