Advent Themes

During Advent, as in Lent, Christians traditionally practiced prayer, fasting and self-examination. It is worth pausing to reflect on Advent themes. They are not all comfortable, but they can provide a welcome contrast to the glitzy and sometimes exhausting merriment of a commercial Christmas.

Advent is a time of both expectation and fear: God is coming among us. But the expectation of God’s arrival is surrounded with images of struggle, mortality and judgment. To recall the birth of the child at Bethlehem is also to recall when Christ will come again to hold to account the living and the dead. There is a sense in which we must engage with death in order to understand the nature of eternal life.

It is significant that, for us in the northern hemisphere, Advent coincides with the time of year when the days are becoming ever shorter and darkness predominates as we come towards the winter solstice. The weather may be extremely cold, or at least filthy and unpredictable, and travel may be difficult or even dangerous. Winter illnesses are on the increase and death is more common in the elderly. Poverty becomes harder to endure, as fuel is both necessary and costly.

During Advent plants, trees and wildlife are retreating into their winter hibernation, in an effort to survive the time of greatest austerity. It is no coincidence that Christians have chosen to celebrate the birth of our saviour, the coming of light into the world, at the time of year when, for countless generations, humans have celebrated the return of the sun, announcing the turn of the year and the expectation of growing daylight and warmth.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, wrote this wonderful poem entitled ‘Advent Calendar.’

He will come like last leaf's fall.

One night when the November wind


has flayed the trees to the bone, and earth


wakes choking on the mould,


the soft shroud's folding.

He will come like frost.

One morning when the shrinking earth


opens on mist, to find itself


arrested in the net


of alien, sword-set beauty.

He will come like dark.

One evening when the bursting red


December sun draws up the sheet


and penny-masks its eye to yield


the star-snowed fields of sky.

He will come, will come,

will come like crying in the night,


like blood, like breaking,


as the earth writhes to toss him free.


He will come like child.

Blessings for a Happy Christmas to you, your family and friends