Repent and Prepare: The Ancient Wisdom of Advent

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The liturgical year is a gift that has been passed down to us by the Church over the past 2,000+ years. By observing the riches of the liturgical calendar, pilgrims are invited to journey through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and anticipate the second coming of our Lord. As we follow Jesus and orient our time around his story, the Church learns who and whose we are. Those incorporated into the Body of Christ through baptism, once individuals without a story, learn about and identify with the story of God. Additionally, the liturgical year functions as a means of grace and a disciple-making tool for our congregations. It provides pastors and church leaders with a rule of life for the church, a holy blueprint for worship design and congregational spiritual formation. It is a treasure of the faith that must be guarded and passed down from one generation to the next. 

A Time of Preparation 

This week marks the beginning of the season of Advent when the church prepares to celebrate the mystery of the incarnation (God made flesh) at Christmas, while also anticipating the second coming of Christ, the final installment of our baptismal inheritance. It is a season that calls the Church to remember the past, but also encourages active waiting for the new creation. January 1 is the first day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar, and we often mark this day by scrambling to come up with resolutions pilfered from self-help books or throwing money at gym memberships. Advent, however, is the beginning of the Christian year (the liturgical year), when we remember the hopeful words and warning of the prophet Isaiah:

Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
And all people will see God’s salvation. (Isaiah 40:3-6)

The manner in which we steward the gift of our health (mind, body, and spirit) is crucial to holy living. Gym memberships aren’t bad. Advent, however, is a set-apart season to prepare for the work of new creation that only the Holy Spirit can accomplish. It is a season to reorient and reorder our lives around the vows made in our baptism, and to confess our sins and repent of the habits and practices that have disconnected us from the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. It’s a time to renounce the devil and all his works and pledge to serve Christ and his Church. Essentially, Advent is a season of holiness and release from spiritual bondage. As Charles Wesley penned in the beloved Advent hymn,

Come thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free.
From our fears and sins release us.
Let us find our rest in thee.

Advent was first recorded in 7th century Rome as four weeks to prepare for the Feast of the Nativity. Prior to this we can unearth periods of fasting in December; however, there is less evidence for a season in preparation for Christmas. One antecedent to Advent has its roots back in the late 5th and 6th centuries in northern France as a roughly six-week period of fasting throughout the months of November and December. This season was referred to as St. Martin’s Lent, commencing following feast day of St. Martin (Dom Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year: Advent). The connection with Lent is noteworthy as Lent is a time marked by fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, culminating with the entrance of catechumens into the church on Easter Sunday. Both Advent and Lent utilize purple as the liturgical color because it symbolizes repentance and self-denial. St. Martin’s Lent was particularly associated with fasting three days per week leading up to Christmas Day.

Similarly, the practice of the Nativity Fast in the ancient church (still practiced by various Eastern Churches) is concurrent with the modern season of Advent. This includes abstaining from meat, dairy, fish, wine, and oil on certain days of the week. The practices of fasting and self-denial are directly connected to the season of Advent and have been throughout the centuries.

This understanding of Advent has mostly been lost in the modern evangelical church. Yes, it is a special time to decorate the tree, visit with friends, and get ready for the feast of the incarnation. However, throughout history, the Church has focused more on the eschatological nature of Advent and the parousia (the second coming of Christ). In my tribe of Methodism, it is uncommon to encourage practices of fasting, self-denial, or repentance during the season of Advent in preparation for the second coming. However, the theme of preparation is found throughout the scriptures. 

Advent and New Life 

A key figure in the season of Advent is John the Baptist. Sent to prepare the way in the prophetic line of Isaiah, he is described as a voice crying out in the wilderness for repentance. He says in Luke 3:16-17, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” He understands with urgency that the Messiah is coming and he will bring with him the gift of salvation through the fire of the Holy Spirit. John encourages readers to make the path straight for Christ, to smooth out rough places, and to prepare for the salvation of God.

In his work On Repentance (2), Early Church author Tertullian says:

John called for the baptism of repentance to prepare the way for the Lord. He himself led in that way by means of the sign and seal of repentance for all whom God was calling through grace to inherit the promise surely made to Abraham….He called us to purge our minds of whatever impurity error had imparted, whatever contamination ignorance had engendered, which repentance would sweep and scour away, and cast out. So prepare the home of your heart by making it clean for the Holy Spirit (Arthur Just Jr., ed., Luke, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture).

John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance, but Christ’s baptism is filled with Holy Spirit fire. When we step into the waters of baptism, we die with Christ and are raised with him in new life through the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead (Romans 8:11). There is resurrection power in the water. In Romans 6:4 Paul writes “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Through the cleansing of our sin and purification of the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to live a life in the new covenant of God, no longer ruled by the flesh, but governed by the Spirit. We become a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Baptism also brings us into a community of new creation. Through our confession of faith in Christ and the affirmation of the apostolic witness of the Church, we are incorporated in the body of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). The Body of Christ encompasses all who have gone on before us in the faith: the communion of saints from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Revelation 7:9). Our baptism is a preview of the world to come. Paul speaks of this as the first installment of our inheritance as Christians: “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13b-14). The seal of the Holy Spirit marks us as God’s chosen people–the bride of Christ–the one whom he washes clean to present us as blameless and radiant before the Father. As God’s people we are gifted and graced for ministry to serve Christ until the final installment of our inheritance when the Kingdom comes in fullness.

Reclaiming Repentance in Advent 

In baptism our life becomes fully identified with Christ, hidden in the paschal mystery as we engage in active waiting for the day when he will return again in glory. This is rehearsed every year during the season of Advent when we set aside dedicated time to prepare. As baptized believers, God calls us to be modern day John the Baptists pointing people to a life in holiness and perfection in love, but to also heed his words of preparation within our own hearts. Like those who have gone before us in the faith, it is the ideal time to reclaim the penitential nature of Advent, examine our baptismal vows, and ask God to align our lives in true discipleship to Christ.

In great wisdom the Church has passed down a calendar to teach and enable us to experience the soteriological rhythm, God’s rhythm of salvation. The practices of the liturgical year are not rote, dead ritual, but rather opportunities to participate in the sanctifying work of God. As a means of grace, the liturgical year through the power of the Holy Spirit shapes and forms us as citizens of the new creation. The repentance and celebration pattern enables Chrisitians to experience the power of God physically and tangibly. It tames the passions of the flesh and increases our desperation for holiness. Ultimately it functions as a means for us to be free from sin so that Christ may reign in and over us forever in his gracious Kingdom.

Until then, let us continue in prayer:

Born thy people to deliver,
born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit
rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all sufficient merit,
raise us to thy glorious throne. (“Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus,” st. 2, Charles Welsey)

Tesia L. Mallory is Dean of the Chapel and Lecturer in Worship at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.