Lighting the Advent Candles

Lighting the Advent Candles

Posted by Pastor Dave on December 1st, 2011 | 0 Comments

We are into the advent season. The word means "coming." We are celebrating the coming of Christ as a virgin-born infant.

Throughout the season we light four candles: hope/waiting, preparation, joy, and anticipation (meanings often vary from church to church). The first, second, and fourth candle are normally blue or purple, representing solemnity. The third candle is pink or red representing joy. Then, on Christmas Eve we light the centre white candle—the Christ candle.

The four candles are placed in a wreath, and the brightness of the candles and wreath increases as the weeks go by.

In a church in which I was an interim pastor recently, I had one parishioner who objected loud and long to the advent wreath. He argued that it was pagan, and other things.

And it is true. Many of our symbols have roots in paganism. The Christmas tree for one, and December 25th for another (most likely Jesus was not born on December 25th. This date has become the tradition of the church, but is rooted in the Feast of Saturnalia).

Perhaps even more startling is our practice of baptism. Baptism was a common practice in Judaism, as well as Greco-Roman pagan faiths. It symbolized immersion into the faith, identity with the community of that faith, and commitment to the person in whose name one was baptized. That's why announcing the name of Jesus, or the name of the triune God, is so important in our practice of baptism.

Symbols are important. We have two prescribed for the church in the New Testament—baptism and communion. But that does not mean that we cannot use other visuals as reminders and attention points. And so we use symbols such as a cross on Good Friday, a tree at Christmas, lights at Christmas, and a sunrise service on Easter Sunday morning. Our more liturgical churches use many symbols to celebrate the church year, something that many of us wish our evangelical churches would recover.

So, as we enter the advent season, and we light the candles, we do so in hope—the hope of eternal life in God; in preparation—we prepare our hearts and lives to receive the blessings of all that the virgin-born child brings; joy—"Joy to the world, the Lord is come"; and anticipation—we anticipate all that the first coming of Christ brings, but also look forward to the second coming and the consummation of all that was inaugurated at his first coming.

"Light of the world, You stepped down into darkness." We light the advent candles to remind and celebrate all that such a simple line says.

Tags: advent, Christmas, candles, Christian symbols, Jesus Christ's birth, joy, hope