The Themes of Adventtide

Sundays are the ‘basic’ holiday of the Christian Calendar. On this day, we re-live (in an abbreviated way) all of the Themes we've talked about. In my church, the liturgy has been carefully designed (over hundreds of years) to reflect the path of the Christian Story. Sunday contains a mini-version of the entirety of the Christian Calendar. As such, Sunday is the primary holiday for Christians.

During Advent, each Sunday is assigned a specific theme to further the scope of the Season. The order of these Themes actually varies from tradition to tradition and even some within traditions. While the order shifts, the Themes themselves are surprisingly universal. The Advent Wreath has one candle for each of the Sundays, and each candle takes a name from these Sundays. During the week, specific commemorations from various traditions have been chosen to highlight the theme of that week.

I have chosen an order for these Themes that I think best represents the majority tradition. If your tradition or church follows a different order, I hope you’ll still be able to get something out of my Advent posts in the coming weeks. Here's a peek at what's to come!

Week 1: The Candle of Hope – On this Sunday (1 December), the Prophets and Patriarchs are specifically commemorated. The Shadow of the Old Testament is not one of gloom and despair but one of longing and hope for the future. God’s Promise, first given in Genesis 3 directly after the Fall, is of a Coming Messiah Who would set all things right, reversing the very nature and act of the Fall.

This week contains:

• The Commemoration of the Prophet Nahum (Orthodox, 1 December)
• The Commemoration of the Prophet Habbakuk (Orthodox, 2 December)
• The Commemoration of the Prophet Zephaniah (Orthodox, 3 December)
• The Feast Day of St. Nicholas (6 December)

‘Secular’ holidays and commemorations that fit the theme of this week include:

• International Day For The Abolition Of Slavery (United Nations, 2 December)
• International Day Of Persons With Disabilities (United Nations, 3 December)
• Pearl Harbour Remembrance Day (United States, 7 December).

Week 2: The Candle of Preparation (Peace) – This week’s Theme is one of Peace, but I think it important to interpret Peace through the lens of Preparation. We are preparing for the Peace of the world. In a political sense, we are still waiting for this to happen. Israel believed their Messiah would be One who would usher in a Kingdom of Peace and prosperity, and we find in New Testament prophecies that Christians also look forward to this Kingdom, yet we, unlike our Jewish forebears, also have it within us. This Candle highlights the ‘Now and the Not Yet’ of both Judaism and Christianity’s longing for Peace. The Shepherds of the Christmas Story are also often commemorated on this Sunday.

This week contains:

• The commemoration of the Conception of Mary (8 December)
• The Commemoration of Righteous Hannah (Orthodox, 9 December)
• International Anti-Corruption Day (United Nations, 9 December) 
• The Commemoration of Karl Barth & Thomas Merton (Episcopal, 10 December)
• Human Rights Day (United Nations, 10 December)
• The Feast Day of St. Lucy (13 December)

Week 3: The Candle of Joy – This Sunday is considered a Refreshment Sunday. There are two Refreshment Sundays in the Christian Calendar: one in Adventtide and the other in Lententide. These Sundays are specifically designed for a break from the sombre times of these Seasons, and even the colour of the Candle is different in order to highlight a shift from sobriety to rejoicing. Joy, however, is often misunderstood. It is not and cannot be the same as ‘happiness’. Joy is not primarily an emotion with psychological and physiological ramifications; it is a worldview. I love C.S. Lewis’ description of Joy as a almost a pang, a glimpse of something Beyond that we want even more of. So, even though this Sunday is a day of rejoicing and setting aside our fast and sobriety, it is also still living in the Theme of anticipation.

Commemorations for this week include: 

• Gaudete Sunday (15 December)
• The Commemoration of the Holy Forefathers (Orthodox, 15 December)
• The Commemoration of Daniel & the Three Youths (Orthodox & Lutheran, 17 December)
• International Migrants Day (United Nations, 18 December)
• The Commemoration of Adam & Eve (Lutheran, 19 December)
• The Feast Day of Katharina von Bora Luther (Lutheran, 20 December)
• The Commemoration of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth (20 December)
• International Human Solidarity Day (United Nations, 20 December)
• The Feast Day of St John the Baptist (21 December)
• The Feast Day of St. Thomas the Apostle (21 December). 

This week also contains the Winter Ember Days (18, 20, & 21 December) which are designed to be very specific fast days of repentance. I’ll have a post on the Ember Days closer to the time.

Additionally, this week begins the O Antiphones, which begin on 17 December and continue for each of the seven days before Christmas. Each O Antiphone represents a specific prophecy/promise to be fulfilled by the Advent of Jesus Christ. I'll also have a post about the O Antiphones on the day they begin, but for now, I'll only say that each verse of the awesome Advent hymn 'O Come, O Come Emmanuel' represents one of these O Antiphones.

Week 4: The Candle of Love – The final of the anticipation Candles, the Theme of Love is difficult to understand for modern audiences. We think of ‘love’ primarily in terms of emotional good will or even acts of self-sacrifice. These are certainly aspects of it, but the primary aspect of Love is desire. This is, of course, most easily understood when we consider the erotic level of love, but it also seen in a parental/motherly love (a desire for the well-being and thriving of her children) and friendship love (which is differentiated from mere pleasantness or even agape love by a desire for companionship with the beloved). Agape Love, that love which is most fully embodied in Christ and is held up by St. Paul as the highest display of Love in I Corinthians 13, is also about desire, specifically for the good of the beloved.

This Sunday also marks the Commemoration of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ (Orthodox, 22 December), and Mary & Joseph’s role in the Christmas Story is specifically delineated. Additionally, many traditions include a focus on the angels that play a significant role in the Story.

Adventtide comes to a close with Christmas Eve (24 December) which traditionally contains an all-night vigil (often still observed as a midnight candlelight service). During this vigil, the Christ Candle, the centre white candle of the Advent wreath, is lit in commemoration of Jesus’ birth during the Night of the Shadow.