Advent: A Time for Waiting

This morning our pastor read a quotation from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters from Prison in which he compares the time of waiting for the coming of the Messiah to being in prison and awaiting release.  There are actually two relevant quotations available online, and I want to share both of them:

“A prison cell like this is a good analogy for Advent: one waits, hopes, does this or that—ultimately negligible things—the door is locked and can only be opened from the outside.”

—Lutheran theologian and anti-Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Letters and Papers From Prison (1997) as quoted in the blog, A Boat Against The Current.

and

“Advent is a time of waiting. Our whole life, however, is Advent—that is, a time of waiting for the ultimate, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth, when all people are brothers and sisters and one rejoices in the words of the angels: “On earth peace to those on whom God’s favor rests.” Learn to wait, because he has promised to come. “I stand at the door…” We however call to him: “Yes, come soon, Lord Jesus!”  “

   –Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), A Testament to Freedom: the essential writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Geffrey B. Kelly, F. Burton Nelson, eds., HarperCollins, 1995, p. 186 as quoted in Christian Quotation of the Day.

While exploring however, I found an interesting sermon manuscript in the blog of First Presbyterian Church in Lodi, Wisconsin about how at least one denomination is changing its approach to the observance of Advent…

I know that if a lot of you had your way, we would be singing Christmas carols in worship by now.  That’s the way it used to be.  The carols would start with the first Sunday in Advent so that most of the popular ones had been sung by Christmas Day and we could then move on to the new year and think about something else.  Singing Christmas carols during Advent helped put us “in the mood” for Christmas and all of its trappings – most of which were unrelated to the real meaning of Christmas in the first place.  And I noted this week as I crammed in a little Christmas shopping that in at least half of the stores I entered, the background music wasn’t Christmasy at all.  By the music, you wouldn’t know Christmas was around the corner even though the decorations around you would tell you differently.  My guess is that there are those store managers and owners who have decided to set aside playing Christmas tunes this time of year in order that they would not offend anyone’s sensibilities.  Most of the music played in commercial places is of a secular nature anyway, with little if any allusion to the coming of Christ.

But somewhere in the last 50 years or so, Presbyterians, United Methodists, Lutherans began to take a second look at what the time of Advent means and what kind of music is appropriate for it.  The Roman Catholics have always held to the strong sense of Advent – a time of waiting for the Christ to come.  So, I suppose, in some sense, the so-called main-line churches have given a nod to the Roman Catholic Church, acknowledging that in this instance, they are right to take the position they have.  Advent is a time for waiting, for anticipating with hope the peace, joy and love that will prevail with the coming of the Christ.  Advent is also a double entendre – has  a double meaning:  we anticipate Christmas because we know the Christ child was born 2000 years ago; but we also anticipate during Advent the coming of the Christ for a second time.  And so we wait.  We hold off on our Christmas carols during Advent and we sing songs that reflect our anticipation of that coming.  And to satisfy those of you who prefer the familiar carols, we provide Advent lyrics to the favorite and familiar Christmas tunes.

But we wait.  And often we are impatient about it…

This is about the first one-third of the sermon transcript. I invite you to experience the rest of what the writer has to say.