How to sequence an advent calendar? Sad
to start thinking about that at this stage of the game! I said it was
a count down to Christmas, right? Simple then – 1 through 25! But
how to sequence the content so that it makes sense? The Trader Joe's
advent calendar that my wife bought me is laid out as a board game -
“Move ahead one space”. But the Christmas story is usually
experienced in dribs and drabs. There's shepherds and angels and
mangers, oh my! Even people who are familiar with the Christmas story
have a hard time contextualizing the vignettes we usually encounter
within the larger biblical narrative. How we experience church
holidays is also of little help – Christmas in December and then
three or four months later Easter... A fairly familiar piece of music
like Handel's Messiah, while
complex, sequences texts in order to tell a coherent tale – but
even at a live performance one must pay attention to keep track of
the story line.
Where,
then, do we start with the Christmas story? Even in the Messiah
we don't hit the “shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch
over their flocks by night ” until half way through Part One. What's
with this baby showing up in a manger anyway? Many advent hymns
explicitly cry out for God to come – to bring justice, to bring
comfort, to rescue. Even this does not drill down to bedrock – to
get the real start of the story you have to go back, way back, to
Adam and Eve. Right after they rebel, the God that they disobeyed
makes the first promise -
Gen 3: 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (ESV)
Hostility between people and the snake (more specifically, Satan) is predicted. The outcome - injury to the man; a fatal blow to the Serpent. This
is the reason for Advent songs that long for fulfillment of this promise. One such old Advent hymn is "Savior of the Nations, Come", translated by Martin Luther from a text written by St. Ambrose who was born in 340 A.D.
English Lyrics based on Luther's German translation:
1. Savior of the nations, come,
Virgin's Son, make here Thy home!
Marvel now, O heaven and earth,
That the Lord chose such a birth.
2. Not by human flesh and blood,
By the Spirit of our God,
Was the Word of God made flesh--
Woman's Offspring, pure and fresh.
3. Wondrous birth! O wondrous Child
Of the Virgin undefiled!
Though by all the world disowned,
Still to be in heaven enthroned.
4. From the Father forth He came
And returneth to the same,
Captive leading death and hell--
High the song of triumph swell!
5. Thou, the Father's only Son,
Hast o'er sin the victory won.
Boundless shall Thy kingdom be;
When shall we its glories see?
6. Brightly doth Thy manger shine,
Glorious is its light divine.
Let not sin o'ercloud this light;
Ever be our faith thus bright.
7. Praise to God the Father sing,
Praise to God the Son, our King,
Praise to God the Spirit be
Ever and eternally.
(from http://www.lutheran-hymnal.com/lyrics/tlh095.htm)
