I (Aaron) am writing to you as the season of Advent is quickly approaching us! Already some of us are feeling the pressure and the busyness of the season. Ads are hitting our eyes and ears, some of us willingly indulge in cultural songs, and if you listen closely you can hear Mariah Carey echoing through almost every shopping center in America.

But I am hoping I’m early enough in the season to help you approach this season in a Christian way - to make the most of this season of preparation and anticipation as we wait to celebrate the birth of our Savior on Christmas morning. 

The word Advent comes to us from the Latin word adventus, which has to do with “coming.” It’s a season where we look backward and forward. Not only do we reflect on the people of God awaiting the arrival of the Messiah before his birth, but we also use that experience to speak to our present circumstances. We are also a people of God awaiting the glorious return of Christ!

Advent is meant to be a season of reflection before a season of celebration. Much like Lent is to Easter, so Advent is to Christmastide (which begins December 25th and continues until Epiphany Sunday, on January 6th.) Advent is meant to be a season of meditation, aided by fasting. A withdrawal meant to help us see our need for the Messiah and to remind us that we are in the midst of a world which is not yet made whole - we are in need of a savior and the resurrection. And we’re awaiting the return of our savior.

We Christians are a people - a bride - in waiting.

To put it simply - practicing Advent is a way to allow the life of Christ to direct our days, not the calendar of the world. Advent and Lent, Christmas and Easter, these major events on the church calendar serve as tools to help us redeem the time - literally (Ephesians 5:16). Christ has come and nothing is the same. As Christians, we believe that time itself is being reconciled to God who came to reconcile all things to himself in Jesus. (Colossians 1:18-20)

In Advent we anticipate the second coming of Christ and look back on the first! From Christmas through Epiphany, we celebrate the great gracious gift of God in Emmanuel - God with us. From Epiphany through Lent, we glean from the life of Christ. In Lent we enter into somber reflection as we reflect on all that is broken and in need of God’s gracious healing. During Holy Week we walk through the climax of the life of Christ: We celebrate Palm Sunday where Christ arrives victoriously on the back of a donkey to the cheers of a great throng or fair-weather-fans, the commissioning meal he shared with his dearest disciples in Maundy Thursday, that tragic night in the garden which ultimately led to his death on a Cross on Good Friday. We sit in silence on Silent Saturday - waiting with the world and the burst into joyous song Easter morning! From there we live the rest of the year from the hope of the resurrection empowered by the Spirit of God which we observe in Pentecost!

That’s the broad story of time from the Christian perspective.

But that’s not the story the world is telling us week in and week out.

And so, it can be easy for us as aliens here to lose sight of the gospel and of our Lord. Especially during the holidays! The world is so loud. Everyone and everything is vying for your attention. And something will always get it. The question is, will it be our Lord or will it be something else?

Advent is a season observed together as a Church in an effort to provide a sanctuary of reflective worship and refreshing meditation. And while we don’t require anyone to participate this year, we hope that many of you will. Regardless of whether you participate by fasting, by directing your scripture reading to focus on the anticipation of Christ, by singing anticipatory hymns around the dinner table with your family, lighting candles, or something else it is our prayer that Christ our Lord will be magnified in your hearts this Advent season.

Observing Advent as a more solemn and stripped back season helps you, as well as your family, highlight what it means to be Christian. That we are a set apart people, a royal priesthood, called to live not according to the world but according to the Word. I especially want to speak to families here.

Apart from your Sunday worship and perhaps Communion if they are Christians, how do your kids see, taste, smell and participate in the life of Christ?

What practices and experiences can they point to and say, “we do this because we are not of the world, but we are of Christ.” By participating in Advent no doubt their non-Christian friend’s experiences and their own will come into stark contrast.

This can be an excellent tool for you to show your kids that following Christ sometimes means standing out and missing out (seemingly!)
It also is an excellent tool to help build the anticipation for the celebration period - which you should observe with the same (or greater!) attention and vigor. It can help disciple them into self-control, and make them comfortable with some momentary suffering in view of the eternal and exceedingly grand glory that awaits them.

For many of you this idea is new, or fuzzy. For some of you it’s tied up in an old twisted tradition. So I thought I’d share some ways you might consider participating this year. Some of them are as ancient as the observance of Advent dating back prior to the 5th century but others are newer and may be more approachable as you integrate spiritual discipline into yours and your family’s life in the hustle & bustle of the season.

I’d like to give you some tools, some points of reference. None of this is binding. As I said, there will be no Advent police and apart from my emails and the brief call to worship each Sunday, you will hear little else about Advent from us. My aim here is simply to give you some tools. Take what seems fitting and wise for your spiritual walk, season of life, and experience and leave the rest. Advent will come again after all :)

But remember, whatever practices you choose to engage in are meant to magnify Christ in your heart. They are meant to be servants of Christ. If at any point you find your sense of righteousness or goodness tied to any of these behaviors I would encourage you to prayerfully step back and to consult a wise, Godly friend, a pastor or Elder here at Mosaic. We are saved by grace, through faith in Christ.

Good works are meant to grow from that free gift in Christ, but we must never confuse those works with our righteousness. That comes from Christ alone. It would be a waste to make Advent somehow about your performance or any of these practices.

If you miss Christ - you miss everything.