It’s those who seek to defer gratification, not the cheery November Noel brigade, who really understand this season’s meaning and significance

“Have you put your Christmas decs up yet?” The question shouldn’t be a serious one in the middle of November. Sure, we’re used to shops shoving Christmas in our faces from about the start of September onwards, the commercial rationale for which is well understood. But large numbers of people this year, seem to have decided that Christmas started as soon as Halloween was over, and if you’re one of those who think Christmas decorations are the preserve of December, you’re a misery.

The argument seems to run thus: people have had a crap year, and Christmas decorations cheer everyone up, so let’s just start the whole thing early this year. Except, of course, that it’s highly doubtful that this irritating new trend is an aberration which we’ll be recalling with bemusement next November. “I wish it could be Christmas every day,” goes the extraordinarily stupid sentiment of the popular festive tune. It seems that for many, that’s true for almost a quarter of the year.

Of course people have had a rough year. Of course it’s nice to be cheerful and to have things to look forward to, but if Christmas is nothing more than a carnival of sparkles and tacky decorations, its meaning has been profoundly lost.

 

Advent is the season of preparation for Christmas. It begins on 28 November this year. Its theme is preparation and anticipation: Christians first focus their minds on Christ’s second coming, before preparing to mark again the mystery of the incarnation – the word made flesh, born 2000 years ago. IT focuses the mind on the hundreds of years that the Jewish people had anticipated this messiah, whose coming was foretold by the prophets.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” (Isaiah 9:7-8)

In his infancy narrative, St Luke (2:29-32) recalls the joyful words of Simeon in the temple on seeing the new-born Jesus: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.”

 

It's difficult to overstate what the hope of a messiah meant to Israel. The prophecies were made during the Babylonian exile. Their temple had been destroyed and they had been captured from their homelands and exiled to foreign territory. This was a people who had lost everything.

To those who recognised Jesus for who he was, then, their hope in God had been validated. They had seen God’s power, might and deliverance at first hand. God had first revealed the fulfilment of his promises, so the story tells us, to poor shepherds, who saw the heavens opened and heard the saving work proclaimed by angels.

Without this background, it is impossible to understand just what joy this saviour brought to those who recognised him.

It is in Christmas that we reconnect to that sense of joy, as we symbolically journey with the shepherds and wise men to the stable in Bethlehem. But in Advent, we undertake spiritual preparation for this moment, reconnecting with that sense of anticipation, rooted in hope and trust in God, no matter the bleakness of the world around us.

This is why before the joy must come penance, quiet and reflection. This is why we must recalibrate hearts and minds. Yes, the reality of Christmas’s place as a cultural event demands that our time in Advent is, in large degree, taken up by preparations, but the spirit of Advent calls us to set aside time to remember that we still wait, in hope and in longing, trusting in God’s promises to us. Heaven’s power comes to earth in the form of this messiah, Jesus, God’s revelation to humanity, the one who is to be at the centre of our lives.

Those who think Christmas is just the next party that can get going as soon as the last has finished, have no comprehension of what they celebrate. Advent, if they had any clue what it means at all, would not be an optional extra or an extension to Christmas.

It’s those who seek to defer gratification, not the cheery November Noel brigade, who really understand this season’s meaning and significance.