Advent Light in Theology - Term Paper Example

Advent Advent is the commencement of the church calendar in most of the traditional Western churches. It normally commences on the fourth Sunday prior to Christmas. The advent period in these churches runs up to the Christmas Eve. It is of great importance to know the meaning of the word advent before outlining what it entails. Advent means arrival, which refers to the coming of Jesus Christ. The first advent is to celebrate the birth of Jesus while the Second Advent is based on the expectation of his future return. It involves celebrating Gods revelation to humanity through Christ. The Second Advent is characterized by scriptural references with themes majorly inclined to being accountable during his second coming. Judgment of sin and hope of everlasting life is given preeminence in the Second Advent. Advent has deep-rooted focus in the past and the coming future. It is characterized by great symbolism that refers to spiritual journey of individuals and utmost the congregation. The congregation celebrating the advent should be encouraged to do so with hope, anticipation and a spirit of longingnes.They should yearn for deliverance from temptations and evils of the universe. The advent service should start by deliverance to resemble the Israelites who wept out to God to deliver them from bondage in Egypt. The cry of the faithful should rest in the fact that, there is still future hope for deliverance despite being part of a world full of sin and exploitation. The hope by the faithful fills them with anticipation that in the near future; a Just King will come whose rule will be marked by righteousness. Themes on anticipation that signifies a new dawn with the royalty of the anointed are to be included in the service. The introduction part of the advent service begins with a song. The song must be relevant to the season and introduce the theme. Songs related to the scriptural readings of the day should be encouraged. Church ministers gather as the choir continues singing. The congregation is to stand as the church ministers get into church. As the liturgy begins, a song is sung, which probably reminds us of God’s love. The composition of the liturgy starts one week to Christmas and it lays emphasis on the welcoming of Jesus Christ. At this stage, reconciliation is encouraged among the Faithfulls, which signifies that the Christ who is to be born is a prince of peace, and he will bring peace on earth. In the liturgy of the scripture or the word as it is sometimes known, one or even more verses from the scripture are read. The reading can come from the book of psalms. Duration of silence would be observed accompanied by reading from the bible to allow the word to be well understood by the congregation. Preferably in the case of one reading, a verse from the gospels should be read. In liturgy of reconciliation, the minister opens a reconciliatory statement then the congregation joins in. The congregation confesses their sins and prays for those who have wronged them. Musical instruments and the tunes they play should match with the theme of the season. Musical instruments play a great role as they focus thoughts of the congregation on the main theme of the day. A prayer of thanks giving should conclude the Advent service. The prayer gives gratitude to God for His constant love and redemption. The priest concludes the service by blessing the congregation. Words of Gods constant love, care, and protection dominate the blessings. The priest then ends the service by releasing the gathering. He proclaims Gods peace on the congregation. In Barth’s shoes, the advent session service would be a period of fasting and repentance of sins. The service would derive its concept from that of Lent season. When fasting, the congregation is expected to anticipate for good things in future when Christ comes. This should happen even though the return of the Messiah in both Judaism and the Old Testament shows no connection with the aspect of remembering sins. On the contrary, it was marked by oppression and social injustice, which called for redemption.This redemption, was not inclined to individual guilt but the evil world full of injustices and oppression. The advent service begins with prayers that portray commitment and humble devotion. Prayers on deliverance and submission are also made. The spirit of the advent season resembles that of the waited bridegroom and the joy associated with his coming. However, a warning is given to those who are not prepared to receive the bride. The colors of the celebration should be in line with the theme of event. Color purple is used as the color for repentance and fasting and as a royalty color, which signifies the expected king. The color purple in advent celebration also stands for the persecution of Christ. These two connections intertwine the birth and death of Jesus Christ. Great consideration must also be given to color green and red to symbolize traditional European secular belief that Christ will be born with hope. Color green is hung all over the church, which portrays the symbol of eternal life brought about by the birth of Jesus Christ. A weekly church service may be incorporated during this period to offer the congregation the opportunity to decorate the church and place Advent wreath. In addition, three candles of blue and purple color would be used to compliment the alter colors. If it is the first the first Sunday service of advent, only purple candles are lit while a pink one is included on a Sunday which comes third after the advent. A wreath is always kept green since it would be used in the advent mass. Four candles should be arranged around it and the fifth one placed at the center of the wreath. This too would symbolize the hope and participation associated with the birth of Jesus Christ. The circle, which is the shape that the wreath takes, represents the personality of God characterized by unceasing mercy to humans and His everlasting nature. The color green in this setting would symbolize the unquestionable hope that we have in God. The kind of hope, which is associated with everlasting life of those who believe in Christ. The lights produced by the candles during the service are also a symbolic part of the advent service. God is believed to be the light of the world and this should be affirmed through the advent season. He brings his light to the world through the birth of Jesus Christ. The light that is brought by Jesus Christ shines through the darkness of the world. The lights also remind the congregation that because Christ is to come, they are also lights of the universe. The fear of darkness goes down as we move closer to the birth of Jesus. When one candle goes off, a new one is lit and this signifies occurrence of a new beginning and new things with the coming of Christ. The climax is reached during the Christmas day, which is marked by jubilation since the expected light is already in the world shinning to all humanity and to every corner of the world. The first candle carries a symbol of hope. Hope that is only realized through the coming of the Messiah. It stands for the hope which may seem far and not attainable but which definitely comes with the introduction of the messiah. Christ in this case is the anointed one, a Just King coming mainly to judge fairly and deliver his people. The other three candles can symbolize the three shepherds who the angels spoke to on Jesus birth. The expected messiah comes to this earth as a shepherd to guide the confused flock with no direction. God redeems the whole world through the birth of the messiah who like a shepherd is keen to guide his flock. The other candle represents the joy present amidst Christians. It encourages a period of expectancy and anticipation among the congregation. The candle should be pink in color to match the theme of joy and jubilation. The last candle is placed in the middle of the alter to symbolize presence of Christ and it is lit on the Christmas Eve. Christ is expected and his presence can be felt in the midst of us. From a theological perspective, the practices and symbolism involved in celebration of the advent derives most of its traditions and symbols from the ancient Judaism. Culture is also used as an art, which is preeminent in the form of colors used during the celebrations and what they mean or represent. White symbolizes peace while purple and blue royalty, which is a key pillar in the advent theme. The music used in advent celebration services is no exception, it reflects on the aspirations and expectations of the congregation towards God. The type of music played is purposefully and carefully chosen to suit the occasion. Music played must also compliment or blend with the scriptures of the day and the intended message of the scripture to the congregation. Advent and its celebration with no doubt automatically becomes the corner stone of Christianity. This is evident in the time it is allocated and the preparation involved in making an advent service happen. The place of Christ as the undisputed leader of the church is also manifested since he is referred to as the expected messiah and a king who in his thrown is coming to proclaim fair judgment upon his people. If I were to develop an advent for worship, then I will choose to maximize the use of the lectionary tradition of the advent as the foundation for developing a reasonable worship plan for the charismas season. The first step I will take is coming up with the order of the readings compiled in a revised common lectionary. I will assign each reading to each Sunday service with the themes allocated to each reading. The readings will be used to choose the themes for each Sunday. Choosing a lectionary home based worship will introduce the congregation to living a devotional life. I will use artworks and arts media to plan the scriptures and the themes to be in the real setting and encouraging family ongoing worship. The artworks will be made available by the museums; these arts are meant to make illusions that make the congregation relate reality and what they are taught in the advent worship. The advent develops the congregation minds about the function and the significance of the Christmas season. My advent worship will enlighten the community as more often than not people misunderstand or rather misconceive the season and impose their own meanings, which is not the case. The congregation gets to understand that the season is meant for giving thanks and celebrating because of the coming Jesus who once died for our sins. About the readings theme, I will have specific ones, the first one being on thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a theme to the congregation justifying how thankful we have to be as Christ savoir is going to be born to us sinners and will die for the sake of us. I will base my support to the reading from Isaiah chapter 24 verses 1-6.that the lord is our shepherd, there is no worry, and that we have to wait upon the lord to save us. The second theme of the season will be “the coming messiah” this theme will lay a reflection upon my audience and shed some light about what will be experienced. The theme will be base on the joyfulness of the world about the coming Jesus Christ. I will justify to my congregation the way they are supposed to be as in be happy, as the messiah is the anointed son of god who shall be born to save the human kind against their sinful nature. The last theme of the Christmas season would be “the long awaited Christ Jesus.” I draw this theme from the readings about the birth of Jesus. The preaching will be based on the shepherds’ preparation for the newborn Jesus. The joy to the people savoir has been born to them. This theme will mark the most important Christmas period. I will encourage my congregation to have some demonstrations of the birthday of Jesus. These will include songs, poems, and talks concerning the birth of Christ. The demonstrations help to leave a single and a clear aspect of the birthday of Jesus that will leave to be remembered by the congregation. I will develop the litanies to fit into the seasons’ processions and services. The litanies will be directed to various petitions, for example, the litany of the holy name of Jesus, the sacred heart of Jesus, the litany of Loreto referring to the Blessed Virgin Mary who conceived y the Holy Spirit and bore Jesus Christ the savior and the litany of humility that should be imitated by the people. I will develop a litany for petitions like a prayer for the unborn and the infants this will obviously address the need for the king Jesus to be born safe. Prayer for thanks giving that is giving offerings to welcome the coming messiah of the world. The hymns will be based on the lists of themes of the season. Hymns are useful, as they will reinforce the concepts of the season as they emphasize what the themes and readings state. The Christmas season being a joyous one, I will compose songs thematically for instance; songs will include the praise of the birth of Jesus, thanksgiving and celebration of the entire season of advent Prayers of the season will be the meditation upon the love of God to us sinners. The prayers of hope among the Christians to receive Christ born to us, God would have sent us the savoir and therefore we need to be thankful for that. Welcoming songs of the coming messiah, these songs will be in preparation of the coming birth of Jesus. A prayer of peace, joy, and love seeking by the people as in the coming of Christ signifies humankind living harmoniously with each other. My sermon will be on the general behavior of the congregation. The sermon will gather people’s view about the Christmas holiday. The sermon will include the prepared preaching on the themes, the sermons will summarize the details of the. The sermon will serve to explain the meaning of the celebration of the season of Christmas. I will justify some of the demonstration during the services of the season. For instance, I will explain the importance of the Holy Communion to the congregation. Introducing worship would assist to kindle or rather to restore hope, peace, joy, and love of the season. This will help to preview the antiquity of the coming of Jesus and preparation for his second coming. Worship by the congregation activates the members of the church as they develop positive attitudes towards living spiritually. People find life enjoyable through celebration of the coming Jesus and thank God for giving humanity a savior. The congregation would gather in a sanctuary, the church building room where they would engage in praising the Lord and giving thanks to him. The church building containing the altar that is a place of the angels as the does the congregation usually does. The congregation would be divided into levels in terms of age and even the level of literacy. This is so to ensure easier preparation of the preaching to fit the each level. Works Cited Binz, Stephen. Advent Light. Maine: Twenty-Third Publications, 2004. Print. Lassen, Oliver. Meeting the Messiah: Scriptures for the Advent Season. New York: Upper Room Books, 2010. Print. Read More