The Four Sundays of Advent

The four Sundays of Advent mark the first season of the Christian year. As was the practice and attitude of the ancient church, which observed a season of Advent at least as early as the fifth century, in this season we joyfully remember the first coming of Jesus to His earth, and at the same time look forward with joyful expectation to His coming again in glory. As we worship, we ponder with great thanksgiving our life now, “in the meantime,” and celebrate with wonder that God has called us to join His story.

Each Sunday carries a theme. These weekly themes may vary according to denomination or tradition, and the order in which they are contemplated may differ, but they generally include some combination of hope, love, joy, and peace, coupled with an emphasis on watchfulness, waiting, faithfulness, expectation, proclamation, and reflection. Whatever the order in which they are observed, the four-week journey of Advent is above all a time of preparation, both for each one of us personally and for the Church corporately, as we anticipate the coming of the King.

In these pages, we take up the themes of Advent in this order: Hope, Love, Joy, Peace. (If you’re reading this blog during the seasons of Advent and Christmas, you will find sample liturgies in the Clerestory Notes Liturgy Folio: https://clerestorynotes.com/live/content/liturgy-folio.)

The word advent comes from the Latin word for “arrival,” or “coming” (literally, “come to”), and so during this season we often speak of, and center our worship on, Christ as the Coming One. We do this in three ways: Of course, we look forward to Christmas Day, the commemoration and celebration of His first coming. But throughout this season we also remember, with grateful awe, the day He was formed in our hearts by faith (Galatians 4:19), and look forward with preparation and anticipation to the time of His second coming. That is why the focus of the first Sunday of Advent is Hope, and we contemplate our hopeful watching and waiting for Him in view of the faithful promises of God.

The theme for the second week of Advent is Love. On this Sunday we consider the immense and amazing love of God shown in the coming of Christ—in His first coming in human flesh as the Word incarnate; in His promised second coming in power and glory at the end of the age; and in His coming to our hearts daily in a continually renewal of our relationship with Him. This second Advent Sunday is also the time the Church traditionally focuses on John the Baptist and on his proclamation, “Prepare the way of the Lord!”

On the third Sunday of Advent, we focus on the theme of Joy. Traditionally, during Advent the Church has observed a season of watchful preparation and some form of fasting. On this third Sunday, also known as Gaudete Sunday (gaudete is Latin for “rejoice”), fasting gives way to feasting as we rejoice in the hopeful expectation of the promised blessings the Coming One brings with His Advent.

The fourth Sunday of Advent brings us nearly to the close of the season’s journey of preparation, waiting, and watching with eager anticipation for the coming of the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world. On this day, the Sunday of Peace, we turn our attention to the birth of the Prince of Peace, and marvel that He has brought us near to Him to share in His peace. And we gladly worship Him, whose earthly birth was in humility and lowly estate but who will come again in glory. For He is King of kings, Lord of lords, and Prince of peace.

During Advent, each of these Sunday themes invites us to consider the ways in which Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace are promised, manifested, and fulfilled in the threefold longing for the Coming One. The season of Advent comes to a close at sundown on Christmas Eve, when the Church begins its observance of Christmastide, the 12-day festival of the birth of Christ and the celebration of the Incarnation.

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!

*The opening quote from Leo the Great (400-461) is cited in Adrien Nocent, The Liturgical Year: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany (vol. 1), transl. Matthew J. O’Connell, (Collegeville, MN, 1977), 190. Nocent paraphrases Leo's comment, taken from Leo's sermon on the Feast of the Nativity, VI, in a slightly different and perhaps more familiar way on p. 185: We are to “think of the Lord’s birth, wherein the Word became flesh, not as a past event which we recall, but as a present reality upon which we gaze.”

Copyright ©2019 Ellen Koehler.  All Rights Reserved.