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What Is Advent and Why Does It Matter?
Advent season is here with all the celebrations, probably some questions, and dare I say, controversies.
A lot of people have questions about Advent because it's not necessarily a common celebration among everybody, but some people have made it a very particular important part of their Christmas celebration.
The word "Advent" comes from the Latin root adventus, meaning arrival, coming, or approach. So whether you thought it meant "arrival" or "coming"—Christmas miracle—you're both right. That doesn't happen very often, folks.
The early church began celebrating Advent right around the same time that December 25th became the fixed day for Christmas. The people in the Old Testament waiting for the Messiah? No different than the people of today, the New Testament, waiting for His return. That's what Advent is all about.
The formal Advent season spans four weeks prior to Christmas up through Epiphany. That's Christmastide. That's the Christmas season. And you can also know because the halls have been decked. That's a sure giveaway right there.
The Christmas Eve Tree Tradition
Interestingly, a lot of people didn't decorate the tree until Christmas Eve. They would bring it in and decorate it on Christmas Eve, sometimes after the kids had gone to bed, and the kids would wake up with the presents under the tree. That's really cool because then it kind of carries you through Epiphany. It doesn't feel like it's just over. We've shortened it up so much now.
The other reason to decorate on Christmas Eve? When you burn the candles inside the tree like they used to do, at least you knew that if your house burned down, it would burn down on Christmas. People would do that—they'd line candles inside the trees and light them. What else were they supposed to do? Rule number one from dad: don't burn down the house. Be careful with those open flames.
Martin Luther was the one that kind of instigated that tradition. In his little walk in the dawn of some wintry day, he comes around the corner, the sun is just coming up shining on those frosty evergreens of Germany, all the ice and snow. He said it looked as though the tree had thousands of candles on it. That's where that came from. It wasn't like thousands in Würzburg went up for everybody, but the tradition caught on.
The German Origins of the Advent Calendar
The Advent calendar has kind of rebirthed the interest in the whole Advent season. But where did it come from?
The Germans have a lot to do with a lot of the Christmas traditions that we celebrate. So thank you, Deutschland—and they are a soft and caring people.
German Lutherans were actually the first ones that we know of that started marking off and counting out the days through Advent. And they did this with chalk by marking chalk marks on their front door.
That's pretty cool because it's so public, you know what I mean? Everybody was doing it and then the season's over and you just kind of brush it off, dust it off. That's how they first started keeping track and marking those days of Advent leading up until Christmas.
From Chalk Marks to Printed Calendars
With time, people started just doing it on paper rather than marking up their front door. It wasn't until Gerhard Lang—good old Gerhard—who lived in Germany as well, if you didn't guess that. He was the first one to actually print a calendar with the Advent days leading up to Christmas.
Then World War II hit and paper became in very short supply. It became illegal to print anything frivolous or non-essential during the war. They called the Advent calendars frivolous. How dare they?
How Satan Works
Here's the thing. The Nazis took advantage of this. And this is how Satan works. He takes our virtue. He takes our goodness and he uses it against us.
The Nazis could print Advent calendars, but of course they were labeled with all kinds of Nazi imagery and propaganda. While faithful families across Germany had no way to continue their traditions, the darkness filled the void with its own twisted version.
After the war, that was outlawed. You could no longer print anything with Nazi imagery or propaganda on it. The Advent calendar got caught up into that whole mess. There weren't Advent calendars in Britain or America or anywhere else during that time—at least not the printed paper kind. People were counting down the days, but they didn't have a formal traditional way of doing it. And when they looked back at how it had been done, the earliest indications on paper were the Nazi versions. The whole thing was tainted.
Richard Selmer's Revival
But very shortly after, I think 1946, they were printing those calendars once again. Richard Selmer from Stuttgart—that's really hard to say, by the way—he's the one that actually began printing them commercially in mass to get out to the people. He put back the religious and traditional images we think of at Christmastime. He really pushed them into the commercial market. Good old Richard did that for us.
Pretty soon they were producing them in the 1950s in the United States. It caught on pretty quick after the war.
Richard Selmer's company? Still in business today. Isn't that awesome? Still doing his thing out of Stuttgart.
The American Touch
Americans did what Americans often do—they take a really great idea and then they just amp it up, you know what I mean? They made these calendars much more beautiful, much more whimsical, much more colorful. Bigger, fancier, whatever. That's what we do. USA.
Somewhere along the line, people started bringing little tiny gifts with opening and counting off those days. Maybe the children would get a little coin or they'd get a little piece of candy. It wasn't until 1971 where Cadbury grabbed onto this idea and actually created an Advent calendar with their goody little treats inside the calendar itself.
And now? You go to Costco and you've got beer and wine Advent calendars. There's all kinds of different products jumping on the Advent bandwagon.
Why It All Still Matters
Here's the thing—even if it's a beer Advent calendar, even if it's a Santa one, it doesn't matter. The reason to love Advent is it's a great opportunity when the kids are participating in it or seeing it—not that they're drinking beer, unless they're in Germany, of course—to teach them what it's all about.
Why are we counting these days? What is Advent?
It opens that door to sharing the religious true meaning behind all this stuff.
It should be a fun, exciting celebration to teach your kids that we're waiting for Jesus's second return. That should be an exciting thing, a fun thing, so that when they're older, not only do they know it, but they think about it fondly with those memories as a child.
The Great Candle Controversy
Now for the controversy. And this one hits close to home—in fact, right in the middle of it. Actually, the cause of the controversy, if you want to know the truth.
Fresh Encounter Church in Harlan, Iowa—a beautiful little rural county seat in Shelby County with a beautiful town square and a lot of great people, like good American souls that still have a courtesy about them. When we came here, it was like going back 15 years before everybody went crazy. They're not out of step with the times; they just still have decency.
You can meet with a pastor from the Baptist church for coffee, and everybody gets along. There's always this reminder to other pastors, especially in this town: if every single Bible-believing church had every chair filled for every service that they hold, we'd still have 75% of the population to go. We're not in competition with each other.
A Stance Against Religiosity
The church has a stance—hold onto your hat—against religiosity. We try to take all religiosity terms out of it. Why? Because a lot of the core founding people of this fellowship which became a church were hurt by the church. Whether it be the charismatic church or the Catholic church or different Lutheran churches—you know that church with sinful people in it? Yeah, that one.
They wanted a place where they could come and just celebrate Jesus, make His name great, strengthen their faith, and not have a lot of the mumbo jumbo that goes along with it. Baptisms happen as ordinances, not sacraments. Communion is observed as a memorial every Sunday—that's the one religiosity thing people might consider religiosity, but it's a holy moment. Jesus told us to do it.
Two Naming Conventions, One Church
When Advent candles were introduced to the church, they came without any prior tradition there. The scripts are based on a very old devotional from about 1965. Families would do devotions and light the candles every night and the kids loved it.
The Scripture Reading Version:
- Week One: The Prophet's Candle
- Week Two: The Bethlehem Candle
- Week Three: The Shepherd's Candle (the pink one)
- Week Four: The Angel's Candle
The volunteers who come and read the Advent candle and then light the candle for the service are told that this is a guide, not a script. You don't have to read it word for word, but it's written pretty good.
The Newsletter Column Version:
- Hope
- Peace
- Love
- Joy
The pastor's monthly newsletter column—sent to the administrator about 10 days prior—describes the candles differently. It especially covers the shepherds finding that hope and joy in the spotless lamb.
Two different naming conventions. Same church. Same season. The scripts are really good. But the column went out calling them something different entirely.
So Which One Is Right?
Does the column discount or discredit the Advent outline? Does the Advent outline discredit the column in the church newsletter?
They support each other. At worst, they don't contradict each other at all. At worst, one might be superior—but that's in the eye of the beholder. Angels, shepherds, Bethlehem, and prophets deliver hope, peace, love, and joy. They tie together seamlessly.
This is all a joke, really. Just playing around. But the humor comes from imagining the opposite—if you go to a family gathering and you get into a heated discussion about Advent conspiracy theories, relatives coming together, fighting over stuff, something went off the rails, man. Something didn't land right. You've missed the point entirely.
Variations Across Time and Culture
The variations in Advent traditions run deep across cultures and time periods. Even the colors of the candles vary:
- American Traditional: Purple and pink candles
- Other Cultures: Very dark navy blue
- Contemporary: Trendy colors people just like
Different colors, different names for the candles—all those things vary.
Years ago, they used to hang a wreath above the dining room table and add a candle each week, lighting that candle as they did their Advent. A hanging candle in a wreath above the dining room table. That's pretty cool—though you might want to put some fire retardant on that wreath before you light it.
No matter which naming convention you use, it all leads up to the white candle on Christmas Eve. That's what it's all about anyway.
The Shepherds and the Spotless Lamb
The virgin birth is foundational. There's four foundational things if you want to be an authentic Christian church:
- Recognizing the fall of man
- The virgin birth
- The substitutionary sacrificial death on the cross
- The resurrection
Everything else can fit underneath that. The love, the joy, the peace, the hope found in Advent can be found in the church through teaching the scriptures in a deeper way, but you still must come back to that foundation.
Why the Shepherds Matter Most
Of all the things in the nativity, the shepherds are my people. I can't relate to Mary or Joseph as well. Obviously not the wise men—I'm never going to relate with those guys. But the shepherds? The blue-collar guys who get to be the first ones there?
Think it through now, people. The swaddling clothes were a sign unto them. Why would that be a sign unto them?
The Swaddling Clothes Revelation
Swaddling clothes were actually a strip of cloth that only the shepherds would have used to wrap the feet of the spotless lambs. Why? Because they couldn't touch the ground and be defiled. Why? Because they had to be worthy of sacrifice. If they touched the ground and got defiled, they were no longer fit for sacrifice.
Now here's where it gets interesting. Some of the lambs were blemished and still sacrificed—it's just the guy who could only afford, let's say, the $100 lamb would get that. The guy that could afford the $5,000 lamb would get the spotless one that had swaddling clothes on its feet since its birth. These unblemished lambs brought the most money from the Jews on their way to the temple who would swing by. Capitalism in Jerusalem.
No mother's wrapping her baby in swaddling clothes in that time. It would be the equivalent of a mother wrapping her baby in duct tape. Or putting a dog collar on your child. Like, what? You know what I mean?
A Sign for the Overlooked
In other words, it was a sign specifically to these dirty, filthy guys out of the fields who were the lesser-than in the community. They were the ones going through the town praising God that the Messiah had come.
For God to show up and show out to those guys means that people from my neighborhood, we still have a shot. We still have some significance in the kingdom of God because God chooses people like us.
That's why the ministry message is called Salvaged by God. Because many of us are on the salvage pile and God plucks us off.
That's what the Advent season can really do for people—peace, love, hope, and joy. For anyone who feels discarded or dismissed, the shepherds' story reminds us that God doesn't overlook the overlooked. He speaks their language. He gives them signs only they would understand.
As you're thinking about it, you might realize there were moments you kind of thought about putting duct tape on your kids. Maybe there's a spiritual significance there. Kids should realize how much of their life they owe to parental interventions. No doubt.
The Pagan Holiday Argument
Christmases have changed over the years. Dickens' writings helped change a lot of things. Traditions change over the years.
But there was a season for about 7 to 10 years—and it'll pop up again this year, but probably not as strongly because it's already played out its string—where people insisted Christmas is nothing more than a pagan holiday.
The Druids, the Druids, the Druids bringing the evergreen tree.
Then they go back to Constantine, how he took the pagan holidays and with a swing of the pen made them Christian. Pesky Christmas-ruining Druids. They ruin everything, don't they?
It All Comes Down to Intent
It all comes down to the intent of your heart.
The intent of your heart is what is really at stake here. And that's in everything. That's in your prayer life. That's in your walk with Christ. That's in every single thing that you will do as a Christian.
Here's an example. When we pray at Fresh Encounter Church, many of the guys don't take their hats off when they pray. Some still do because it's been drilled into them from the military or other places. You take your hats off at certain times. That's a cultural thing. There's been a shift. Nobody needs to take their hat off to pray ever. That's just not something that's needed or required.
When you see these different cultural shifts happen, it still comes back to the intent of your heart. Just like prayer in a sanctuary—you can have your hat on, hat off, you can do whatever you want to do. It doesn't matter.
We Worship the One Who Died on the Tree
Same thing with the Christmas holiday. It's not the tree. We worship the One who died on the tree. You get what I'm saying? It's the intent of it.
It's not that Santa's the magical mystical guy of the season. Santa's a fun little character that in context isn't a bad thing. If you take him out of context and make him the god of the season, then Santa can be a bad thing.
Comes back to what? The intent of your heart.
The Real St. Nicholas
Santa was a real guy, too. That always helps make the Christmas celebration a lot more fun.
And he was a real man's man because at the Council of Nicaea, he dragged somebody outside and just beat him. Kind of pummeled him. They wanted to deny the divinity of Christ, and good old St. Nick said, "Oh no, no, no. We're going to settle this out on the street like real men."
And he did win. That's how you settle things.
Hard Fought to Keep
It wasn't pretty. Things have been hard fought to keep. The Christian life has been hard fought to keep.
St. Nick was in charge of taking care of children and the poor and the orphans. That's what he was in charge of. When there was this discrepancy and he got a little physical, they wanted to throw St. Nick out of the council or whatever.
The people rebelled and said, "Absolutely not. You are not going to throw him out."
Toss out Santa Claus? Not happening.
So they let him stay. And because of him, we still accept the truth, the biblical truth that Jesus was God Himself. Fully God, fully man. He's the spotless lamb of God.
Advent candles can be a wonderful thing, but like everything else, taken out of context, it can just be a joke.
Charles Dickens and the Revival of Christmas
Charles Dickens is another one worth celebrating because he kind of revived the Christmas celebration in England in the mid 1800s.
Christmas had really died out. People weren't really celebrating it anymore. It was the Arbor Day of holidays.
Charles Dickens with his books and writings really put another flame under that fire and singlehandedly revived the whole celebration of Christmas. Interestingly enough, it's at that same time that those paper Advent calendars became popular in England.
A History Too Rich to Exhaust
There's so much history there that you just can't soak it all in. Every year there's something else to discover—like this year diving into when the Advent calendar itself actually started.
Thankfully we have Google or whatever mode of looking stuff up that you use, and you can find those answers. The history will astound you. It is so rich and it is so deep that you just can't exhaust it. What has been done over the centuries and the reasons behind everything is just spectacular.
Final Thoughts
The Advent readings and the lighting of the candle—we used to do that at our dining room table with our kids when they were growing up.
Anything and everything, especially in this culture, anything and everything you can do to point to the Savior, to the One who takes away the sins of the world, the One who can save your child—try to do it with them. That's what makes Advent special.
It's Not About the Stuff
It's not the action. It's not the candle. It's not the script. It's not the color, the reading. It's not even the scripture used in the Advent.
It's the intent of the heart around the whole process.
Make It Exciting
Make that waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ an exciting thing for your kids, for your family. Because if that's impressed on them as a child, they're going to carry that through in adulthood.
It's just going to spark fond memories. It's going to be a good feeling to simply ponder the fact that Jesus is coming again.
And we can wait enthusiastically.