The Season of Advent Trinity Episcopal Church 60 Church Street Asheville, North Carolina 28801
Rearranging our Time for Advent Without being too much of a liturgical curmudgeon, it is worth noting that this is the time of year when the Christian calendar and our secular ones clash most clearly. In our society, our Christian calendars of celebration, contemplation and penance have been warped into seasons of shopping and consumerism without end or break. As soon as one holiday is over, the buying season for the next begins. Now, I love a good gift — given or received — as much as the next person, but as liturgically minded Christians, we shouldn’t overlook how our social and societal calendars dictate and shape our lives. This is the quiet challenge and transformative nature of the Christian calendar in general and the season of Advent in particular. They offer us a chance to resist absolute conformity to the timetables of consumerism, even if it’s just on a Sunday or for a season. It points to something more than just counting down the shopping days until the Big Day. Advent invites us to resist our monetary timetables, the notion that our months are actually billing cycles or that our weeks are meted out in paychecks rather than in meals with our families, memories with our friends, worship with our faith communities. By Grace,
