Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park

You may have noticed that Sunday, November 10 is the first week of Advent this year. No, we didn’t misread the liturgical calendar. Like last year, Augustana is experimenting with an expanded, seven-week season of Advent. We are joining a number of congregations – mostly Episcopal, Methodist, and Lutheran – who are intentionally leaning into the season’s themes of waiting, expectation, preparation, and hope.

How do we meaningfully observe Advent when Christmas decorations begin appearing in stores in late August? How do we prepare meaningfully for the birth of Jesus Christ, when our culture is eager to designate November 1 as the official start of the Christmas season? The Advent Project, which began in 2006 as a continuing seminar of the North American Academy of Liturgy, proposes that we observe a seven-week Advent. As an eschatological season, Advent offers a meaningful antidote to the consumerism and hurriedness which often mark this time of year. During Advent, we prepare for the coming of Christ, by remembering his first coming in Jesus of Nazareth and looking expectantly for his second coming at the end of time. In this in-between time, we celebrate Christ’s presence among us in our weekly assembly, as we read the scriptures together and share in the means of grace. An extended Advent invites us to slow down and savor the gift of what we have now, even as we look eagerly to what lies ahead.

In many ways, we are returning to the roots of our faith. Advent has not always been four weeks. In late antiquity, most of Western Europe observed a six- or seven-week season. To this day, Eastern Orthodox Christians still observe a longer Advent. It was only around 1000 CE that a confluence of factors led to the establishment of a four-week Advent in the west. Although most Western churches still observe a four-week Advent, we will remain in sync with them by retaining the current cycle of readings in the Revised Common Lectionary. Since the majority of readings in November already have an eschatological focus, we retain the readings but simply give them an Advent overlay. And since the Eastern churches already observe a longer Advent, this proposal actually brings the Eastern and Western liturgical calendars closer together.

When evaluating any doctrine or practice, we Lutherans always have a clear norm: does it proclaim Christ? Does it proclaim the gospel? We hope and pray that this expanded Advent season will be a meaningful time to prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of our savior. May we be strengthened, in faith toward God and in fervent love toward one another.

Pastor Goede and Pastor Stuhlmuller