Advent Amble: Sunday of the Apocalypse

Lord, give us a sign? Skeptic of the ages, were my name Paul or Isaiah instead of Thomas, it would be clear to me that we are suddenly living into the eschaton, the apocalyptic end of time. Had anyone asked me yesterday this hour, to name my two favorite football teams, I would have said whoever is playing the Seminoles and whoever is playing Ohio State. A sign? How about the Camille, the Hugo, the Andrew, the Ivan, the Katrina of football weekends. For self-preservation, did not watch the Gators. Michigan was playing their game of the season until that call for two points instead of overtime, in a mix of ice hockey and football: Bubba loves a field fight that turns into a brawl and brings on ejections, CFB needs more hockey stars. As an MGoBlue grad, this coming week will be my first ever for Michigan State. My coach won his game, but Auburn and Mizzou were glad SEC spoilers and I usually root for whoever is playing Manziel. It grieves my soul for the people of Columbus to be so happy. The world will learn that CFB is not "just a game" when the sun doesn't rise this morning. This generation has had its sign.
Advent Amble
  • Advent, meaning coming or he comes, is our season to herald the Second Coming of Christ and simultaneously to anticipate celebrating his First Coming at Christmas.
  • Advent is marked visibly with a change of liturgical colors for the season. We may use violet or blue for royalty, or violet for penitence. At HNEC our Advent color is blue. It is said that the blue honors Sarum Blue, but that may be an etiology for what originated with ecclesiastical supply houses as a marketing scheme.
  • Advent begins a new lectionary year. We now enter year A.
  • Year A our gospel readings are mainly from Matthew; Year B from Mark, Year C from Luke. John is sprinkled in, especially in Easter Season.
  • It is our Episcopal custom to refrain from singing Christmas carols and hymns during Advent, waiting for Christmas. Uncle Bubba does not appreciate this custom at all, because nobody wants to sing Christmas carols after Christmas Day, thus many lovely carols and hymns get wasted unsung.
  • XMAS is fine: many think it is disrespectful, but that is ignorant nonsense. It is actually ChristMass. The X is Greek chi, the first letter of Χριστς and a traditional symbol for Christ. 
  • The Sundays of Advent begin with apocalyptic readings, then two Sundays about John the Baptist, then Advent 4 about Mary. Indeed: apocalypse this morning.
  • The church has developed any number of liturgical customs about Advent, including special hymns for certain Sundays and memorable, enjoyable little liturgies such as “the Holly & the Ivy” and Healey Willan’s “The Great O Antiphons” and singing “O Come, O Come,” and the Advent wreath.
  • The Advent wreath is fairly new, seems to have originated as a pious devotion for people to observe at home but made its way into churches, and ecclesiastical supply houses have had a financial bonanza selling hanging and standing brass Advent wreaths and special candles. The wreath has four candles, which may be any color, including all white. In the U.S., custom is four purple, or four blue, or three purple and one pink, or three blue and one pink. The uninformed often say in pious ignorance that the pink candle is for Mary, which is rubbish -- besides which, Mary's traditional color is blue. There may be a fifth, white “Christ candle” in the center, to be lighted at Christmas. One candle is lighted successively each Sunday of Advent.
  • The third Sunday of Advent is Gaudete Sunday or Rejoice Sunday, so-named for the first word of the introit in the Latin Mass, "Gaudete in Domino semper ..." "Rejoice in the Lord always ..." (Philippians 4:4f). On this day the (former) penitential tone was eased by the Pope, Rose colored vestments may be worn instead of violet or blue. The rose pink authorization, which gives us the pink candle for the Sunday, is of Roman Catholic origin. In the Advent wreath we light the pink candle on Gaudete Sunday. BTW, the equivalent for Lent is the fourth Sunday, which is Laetare Sunday. Laetare is the first word in the introit of the Latin Mass, “Laetare ... “ "Rejoice ..."
  • For us at least, Lent’s ban on “alleluia” does not apply to Advent.
  • Advent began as a forty day penitential season like Lent, sometimes called "St. Martins' Lent" because it started right after St. Martin's Day, November 11, but has eased off to be only four Sundays and the weekdays that follow until Christmas Eve. 
  • When Advent 4 falls on December 24, we observe Advent 4 in the morning and Christmas/Eve that evening, which makes the day an interesting mix!
  • It is not true that we have the pink candle in the Advent wreath because Mary was hoping for a girl.
Happy New Year! No, never mind, the apocalypse is upon us.

TW+