The First Sunday of Advent: Happy new year, Church

I am embarking upon an experiment this year (and yes, the year starts now...more on that in a moment). My goal is to post about the Sundays of the Christian Year throughout this entire year from Today, the First Sunday of Advent, through the Feast Day of Christ the King, next November 22. Obviously, I have never tried such an ambitious project in a blog, seeing as how I've only had a blog for six months. But I have never even done this sort of thing with pen and paper, even though I have thought about doing so a number of times. The intention here is that I will not only increase my own devotion, but that I might also contribute some thoughts to other people that can take it up and read it...or click on it and read it, or whatever.

I'm not going to post the texts of the Scripture lessons for each Sunday, partly because of copyrights attached to the variations translations and partly because I do not want to set a precedent for myself of translating everything before I post it, because if I then fail at the assignment sometime during the year (as is bound to happen), then I will feel unnecessarily bad. So, here are the texts, taken this and every Sunday from the Revised Common Lectionary:

Isaiah 64:1-9; Ps. 80:1-7, 17-19; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37

Here in the Philippines, the malls and so forth have been playing Christmas music since sometime in September. I'm starting to get to the point where I don't even hear it, and I think that's rather more tragic than if it were starting to annoy me. Insert the standard critique from a Christian standpoint about the commercialization of Christmas here.

But, more significantly, perhaps, the commercialization of Christmas turns December 25 into an anticlimax. I've preached about this before on a few occasions. And I always get upset every year when the Christmas decorations come down, usually on December 26. The retailers get going on the teardown quickly, because after all they have to get the Valentine's Day foolishness up and running. I have described it also in terms of being a baseball fan. You may substitute your appropriate favorite sport. I do not wear the cap for my favorite (awful) team starting with spring training and then take it off on the first day of the season and refuse to wear it again until the pitchers and catchers report to Arizona the next year. But this is what we do when we decorate our homes, churches, workplaces, etc., for Christmas, and play Christmas music incessantly from September, only to shut it off immediately after the dust settles on December 26.

By its design, Advent is a time of preparation, an expectant waiting for the arrival of the Messiah. This is why I like the "older" text of the Charles Wesley hymn, "Hark! The herald angels sing!" Of course, this is a Christmas hymn, but allow me the indulgence for the moment. When I was growing up, we would always sing "Long desired, behold him come, / offspring of the Virgin's womb." But over the last few years I have noticed increasingly this same line as: "Late in time, behold him come, / offspring of the favored one!" I have also seen and sung "Long desired" with "favored one" and "Late it time" with "Virgin's womb." I am sure that the difference in the second line has to do with a tendency to shy away from Virgin Birth language, but they are both biblical expressions referring to the mother of Jesus. What I am more interested in is the first line, however. It seems that "long desired" and "late it time" are similar expressions (homoilogoi) but they are not the same expression (homologoi). "Long desired" captures the sense of expectant waiting far better, in my estimation, than "late in time." The latter seems to imply an attitude of "What took you so long?" which is, I fear, the wrong way to approach the Messiah. To say, "We've been waiting for you, like, forever," is hyperbole in the best sense, exaggeration for dramatic effect, but "It's about time you showed up!" seems petulant and silly. After all, it is not for us "to know the times or the dates that the Father has set by his own authority" (Acts 1:7, NIV). Amen.

Veni, veni Emmanuel,
Captivum solve Israel,
Qui gemit in exilio
Privatus Dei Filio.
Gaude, gaude! Emmanuel
nascetur pro te, Israel.

Veni, o Jesse Virgula;
Ex hostis tuos ungula,
De specu tuos tartari
Deduc et antro barathri.
Gaude, gaude! Emmanuel
nascetur pro te, Israel.

Veni, veni, o Oriens
Solare nos adveniens;
Noctis depele nebulas
Dirasque noctis tenebras.
Gaude, gaude! Emmanuel
nascetur pro te, Israel.

Veni clavis Davidica;
Regna reclude caelica;
Fac iter tutum superum,
Et claude vias inferum.
Gaude, gaude! Emmanuel
nascetur pro te, Israel.

Veni, veni Adonai,
Qui populo in Sinai
Legem dedisti vertice,
In majestate gloriae.
Gaude, gaude! Emmanuel
nascetur pro te, Israel.