Has Advent become a non-event?

I do sometimes wonder if we miss the purpose of Advent confusing the Christmas rush with the contemplative time of considering the One who came, the One who comes and the One who is to come.

Recently, a long established Christian Bookshop in Exeter, UK has closed and I sometimes wonder if I had to anything to do with its demise, by once suggesting to the manager that he should sell a different kind of Advent Calendar.

In the UK, we share the German Lutheran tradition of Advent Calendars where children of all ages open one door each day to receive a chocolate treat. I merely suggested that the bookshop should create calendars with empty compartments into which we place thoughts, gift promises and prayers. Perhaps it did not catch on! Or is it that today's society is actually saying, "It is better to give than receive, as long as I'm still on the receiving end.”

Advent has been defined as "The arrival, coming, or discovery of something, especially something extremely important."

Perhaps we also need to rediscover the advent of Jesus return. Customarily in the Christian tradition, the focus has been on these two “comings” of Christ. However, St. Bernard in the 11th Century identified a “third coming” that Advent leads us to await—the coming of Christ in our own soul. While the birth of Christ and the second coming of Christ are important to Christians, we must all still move through this earthly life on a day-to-day basis.

Keeping a watchful Advent reminds us that we do not tread these days in isolation. We can live in expectation of the movement of Christ in and through every moment of those days. Even though we are frequently distracted and diverted from attention to this movement within us, the season of Advent reminds us to turn inward yet again and seek the God that is to be found within us.

Some years ago, I wrote a musical called 'Daystar' that explored the essence the Coming of Jesus. In it a time traveller looks for the coming Christ and arrives at the manager having also had a vision of Calvary.

As he kneels he speaks

His the gift of bitter pain,
A pain so deep that speaks my name.
A gruesome hurt of human shame;
Impaled within his form my name.
O infant now, how can you bear?
This awful pain; why do you care?

He takes from me that selfish greed
And with his bread the crowds he feeds.
He takes from me my selfish pride;
Transform it now, a seekers guide.
O infant child within the hay,
Where is the life, the truth the way?

His gifts of time, of love, his wealth,
His patience long, that wills my health
Is but a part of God's good grace
That saves transforms our fallen race.
O Holy child within the hay
Will you for me meet death's dark day?

What sin, what guilt do I now bring?
What hurt, what pain, what shameful thing
Do I before his throne now fling?
Love in exchange he's offering.
O Saving child within the hay,
Change my dark night into your day.

O Holy infant gift, I pray,
For me, when comes my newborn day?
When will sin's power within my life
Release its grip and end its strife?
O Calv'ry child within the hay,
Arise, be born in me today.

(c) 1988 Paul Collings