Advent and Other Sacred Seasons

Advent is a season of remembering and celebrating the humble First Coming of Jesus and of anticipating his apocalyptic Second Coming. While Christmas is a day, Advent is a sacred season or a sacred series of weeks leading up to Christmas day and beyond that many churches observe. Churches may offer a short preaching series related to the season, for example. This holiday (holy-day) season can challenge pastors to introduce their congregations to the concept of sacred times and seasons, in which we order our days to keep God and his ways on our minds.

Our Lord’s birth happened but once, but we celebrate that birth annually to keep it in our awareness and act accordingly. But we can practice sacred time in more ways than observing Christmas.

Secular Time Keeping

The contemporary sense of time is secular, not sacred. It is of this world and does not consider the higher world of God and his ways with us. In the phrase of philosopher Charles Taylor, we have adopted the “immanent frame,” in which everything relates to what is observable and measurable in the space-time-matter world. It excludes the sacred as a matter of concern. Related to time, the immanent frame concerns the mere passing of time in relation to measurable goods such money, power, or personal satisfaction. What matters day to day in the immanent frame is that we do enough work and get enough rest and entertainment.

The way many people mark their days typically has nothing to do with their Maker. Even as we divide time into smaller and smaller units and record it on our devices, we have little sense of what God has done in time or will do in time. As such, it is all too easy to forget about God, and forgetting about God is the essence of our waywardness as sinners.

“Advent is a season of remembering and celebrating the humble First Coming of Jesus and of anticipating his apocalyptic Second Coming.”

Sacred Time Keeping

In the history of Israel, God ordained many feasts, festivals, and ceremonies, each with a sacred meaning that spoke to transcendent realities. The sacrificial system of the Jews has been fulfilled in Christ (see Hebrews), but the concept of sacred time is crucial to godly living. We need constant reminders about God and his ways with us. Otherwise, the world will “squeeze us into its mold” (Romans 12:1-2, Phillips translation).

A pastor need not be part of a liturgical denomination to help a congregation develop a deeper sense of sacred time based on sacred history. Of course, the faithful preaching of the Bible roots us in God’s character. But in addition, other reminders can be given, all which flow from the biblical story.

Each Sunday, the church can be reminded that we meet on this day since Christ was raised from the dead on the first day of the week. Every Sunday is a remembrance, then, of the resurrection. Without the resurrection, there would be no church at all. The meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus is especially evident in the observation of the Lord’s Supper, and a good reason to celebrate it frequently.

In fact, the very concept of a seven-day week traces only back to the creation week of Genesis, chapter one. (The anti-Christian French Revolution [1789-1799] attempted to replace the creation week with a ten-day version, but ultimately failed.) The idea of six days of work and one day of rest is a pattern that Christians can tie into their Sunday worship observance, since a day of rest was laid down by God himself at creation (Genesis 2:2-3). Rather than observe this sacred pattern of time, many people today tend not to work enough, or they overwork and then burn out. But as Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). (Church ministers and others who work on Sunday can find another day to rest.)

But beyond the observance of Advent and Sunday worship and rest, pastors can lead congregations into a sense of sacred time by marking the seasons and events of the church such as Pentecost and Easter. Many churches (including Protestant ones) anticipate Easter by observing the season of Lent. Rather than just legalistically giving up something of pleasure, Lent is a season to reflect on one’s sin and one’s need to repent. Lent leads to Holy Week, which can include a Good Friday service in anticipation of Resurrection Sunday (Easter).

I write as an Evangelical Anglican, whose church observes liturgical seasons with great care and with a biblical focus. But one need not be an Anglican to recognize the human need to make time meaningful by relating it regularly to God’s character and his revelation in history. Pastors of all kinds can lead their congregations into a deeper realization of God’s presence and purpose for his people as the days go by. As David writes, our times are in God’s hands (Psalm 31:15), and we should develop a sense of sacred time in relation to God’s purposes in history, at Christmas and always.  

©2023 Douglas Groothuis. All rights reserved. Used with permission.