ADVENT at church of the city
THIS YEAR, THE CHURCH TRADITION OF ADVENT BEGINS ON november 30.
The word “advent” comes from the Latin adventus, meaning the coming, or the arrival. The season of Advent in the Church appeared as early as the fourth century in an effort to draw our attention and stir our anticipation of our Savior’s coming at Christmas. Advent has been called the Nativity Fast, and signaled a period of fasting in expectation of Christ’s second coming. Today, Advent still serves as a time of preparation for our hearts by setting aside the four Sundays leading up to Christmas to press into the longing for the promised return of Jesus.
We have a few opportunities for you to engage with Advent in your daily rhythms both as an individual and as a household. We hope you will join us here at Church of the City as we move through this Advent Season and ready ourselves for the coming of Christ.
Advent Devotionals
Beginning November 30 and ending December 25, we invite you to further explore this year’s theme of “He Shall Be” through our weekly, Advent Devotionals.
On each Sunday of Advent this year, we will be exploring how the coming of Jesus at Christmas, an often hectic, intense season, is truly good news for all people by providing comfort for the grieving and lonely, relief for the exhausted, hope for the worried, and rescue for those caught in cycles of shame and regret.
Our Advent Devotionals will dive deeper into different names Jesus receives throughout Scripture, and how each one meets one of the core longings and needs of the human heart. Additionally, the Advent Devotionals this year will serve as helpful tool for members of our community to pursue one of our Nine Distinctives of living as a Compelling Missional Disciple, Radical Daily Pursuit by providing a consistent way to Feast on the Word. As we have in years past, we will be providing devotionals through email, which you can sign up for today.
The Advent Calendar
Since their inception in the early 20th century in Germany, Advent Calendars have taken many shapes and forms, from festive paper boxes with hidden chocolates, to elaborate wooden structures with tiny trinkets behind numbered doors. Advent Calendars serve as tools to help us prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ by counting the days of the Advent Season.
This Advent Calendar focuses on different prophecies about Jesus from the Old Testament. Each day has a card containing a prophetic name or characteristic of Jesus and a prayer for meditation. We encourage you to make the reading of the card a part of your daily household rhythms this season! It is our hope that this Advent Calendar will deepen your awareness and reverence that the coming of Christ was long foretold by many voices and generations. As we remember the longing for the arrival of the Messiah, we also find expanding hope and joy, knowing the prophecies have been fulfilled in Jesus.
Advent Wreaths
Every year during Advent, our church adopts the tradition of the Advent wreath: lighting one candle each Sunday as we countdown to Christmas. Along with lighting a church Advent wreath during our Sunday services, you can "bring Christmas into your home" by having your own home Advent wreath. Building a wreath as a family or group of friends, and then gathering to light a new candle each week, read Scripture, and discuss the theme for that week (hope, peace, joy, love) can be a great way to create a meaningful tradition that allows you to connect with the Lord and with each other. Creating home traditions is also one way we can invite friends and neighbors to join in on our traditions, by lighting that week's candle with us and engaging in open dialogue.
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The Advent wreath acts as a symbol for the passage of the four weeks in Advent. The concept of the wreath originated among German Lutherans in the 16th century, but the design we have today did not appear until about three centuries later. Pastor Johann Hinrich Wichern was working as a missionary among the poor in Hamburg, Germany when he founded the Rauhes Haus (“Rough House”) school to serve neglected children by feeding, housing, and educating them. In 1893, Wichern was trying to contain the children’s excitement leading up to Christmas, and ended up creating the blueprint for the modern Advent wreath. He built a large wooden ring, adorned with twenty small red candles and four large white candles, and each day during prayer, a child got to light a candle until they were all finally illuminated on Christmas Eve. As the tradition spread throughout Germany and the rest of the world, evergreen branches were added to the circle of the wreath, the number of candles were reduced to just the largest four to represent the Sundays in Advent, and the “Christ Candle” was added to the middle of the wreath, traditionally lit on Christmas Day, to symbolize the arrival of Christ’s light in the world. For believers today, the symbolic meanings held by the Advent wreath remind us of what we are really getting ready to celebrate at Christmas—the arrival of the long-expected Jesus.
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Advent gives us an opportunity to look back on the first coming of Christ, and also look forward with hope to the time when King Jesus will come back to rule and reign over His kingdom forever. When the Son of Man first came to earth, Israel had been abused by their kings, enslaved by their enemies, and led astray by apathetic religious leaders for generations. They were longing for their promised Messiah King to rise up and lead them as God’s chosen people. During Advent, we acknowledge that we are just like Israel—heavy with anticipation, and waiting for our promised King to come. However, we can also give thanks, trusting that because Jesus came before, He will come again. Advent reminds us to hope, so that as anticipation builds, our hearts can shake off the heaviness, and take on a posture of joyful expectancy for Christ’s glorious return. Lighting the candles one by one reminds us that though we are waiting, we are waiting with a hope that will one day light the whole world.
Making a Wreath
Since the Advent wreath is present for the whole Christmas season, it can double as a festive decoration in our homes. They are traditionally placed on a table or flat surface near the front door as a welcome sign, but can be made in a variety of different sizes and styles, so there is plenty of room for some creative flair. The essentials for building your own wreath include four or five candles, a circular frame, and evergreens (or something similar). You can keep it traditional with the classic wreath shape and colored candles, or mix it up by building a wreath in a decorative box with jars and votive candles.
Feel free to add pine cones, holly, small ornaments, or berries to your wreath for some extra decoration. If you have kids (or just have a sweet-tooth) give an edible doughnut Advent wreath a try! All you need is a doughnut, icing, green sprinkles, and birthday candles. There are so many ways to build an Advent wreath, so find a style that works best for you and your home, and enjoy it all season long.
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Isaiah 9 contains one of the Messianic Prophecies given in the Old Testament about the coming of Christ, and it compares His arrival to a great light coming on the earth: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2). The continuous lighting of candles on the wreath throughout Advent signifies the increase of light pouring into the world as Christ’s arrival draws near. Lighting the candles one by one over the four weeks symbolizes the posture of anticipation we adopt in this season. The flame of each candle pushes back the darkness, and by Christmas Day, the fully illuminated wreath radiates a brightness to serve as a reminder that the Light of the World came to defeat darkness forever and dwell with His people.
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Four candles sit around the ring of the wreath, each one pointing us to a different aspect of Advent. The colors of the candles vary with different traditions, but there are usually three purple or dark blue candles, one pink or rose candle, and one white candle in the center. The purple or dark blue represents both our need for personal penitence, and the royalty of the coming King. The pink represents the joy of Christmas and the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah. Finally, the white represents the purity of Christ, the unblemished Lamb of God.
The first candle, sometimes called the“ProphecyCandle,”symbolizes the Hope for a Savior we see in the prophets of Israel, and begins the season with a spirit of anticipation for the coming Christ. The second candle symbolizes the Peace God promises to all mankind through the Messiah. The third candle symbolizes the Joy of the Good News given to the shepherds in the fields by the heavenly hosts at Jesus’s birth. This candle is traditionally pink or rose, and serves as a turning point in the Advent season, giving us a visual reminder that the period of waiting is coming to an end. The fourth and final candle in the circle of the wreath symbolizes Love, and reminds us that the ultimate act of love was God sending His one and only Son into the world to eventually be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. The center candle is traditionally white and called the Christ Candle, lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day to symbolize the arrival of Christ and His light in the world.
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The traditional Advent wreath is arranged in a circle, with no beginning or end, to symbolize that God’s good will toward man, brought about by the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, will never cease. Christmas is the time of year when we get to celebrate the miracle of the Word of God becoming flesh through the birth of Christ. However, the circle of the wreath reminds us that this miracle came to pass because of God’s endless love and mercy for us.
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The Advent wreath is typically made up of evergreen branches. The color green alone symbolizes the hope of renewal and potential for new life, but the use of evergreens serves as an even sweeter reminder to us of the promise of eternal life we have access to through Jesus Christ the Messiah.