Advent as Resistance

What season are we in? The person on the street would probably answer this question in a variety of ways. The commercials tell us it’s the “holiday season.” Others choose the more explicitly faith-centered designation of the “Christmas season.” Nearly all agree, however, that this is the time of year when Americans frantically shop for deals. As soon as the Thanksgiving leftovers are stored into the fridge, we enter the highest holy days of American consumer culture—Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the shopping countdown to Christmas Day.

The world conspires to disciple us in its ways, and the way we organize the calendar plays a significant role in its plan. We may never say it out loud, but our shopping habits reveal that we too believe the lie that happiness comes via spending—that peace can be dropped on the front porch by the UPS driver.

I’ve often used an analogy to describe our relationship to the world and its values. Imagine hanging out on an inflatable raft in the ocean at the beach of your choice. If you do nothing, you will drift in whatever direction the tide takes you. This dynamic describes perfectly the Christian’s relationship to what the Bible designates “the world” (1 John 2:15-18; Rom 12:2; Jam 4:4). When the Bible talks about the world in this way, it refers to the systemic way the culture around us conspires to interrupt wholehearted devotion to God. If we offer no resistance, it’s safe to assume we’re adrift in its current.

While shopping itself is a morally neutral act, our culture assigns tremendous meaning to it. While we convince ourselves that we’re merely making a necessary transaction, the advertisements preach a different message—that its featured products provide portals to the good life. As we participate in the routines and rituals offered to us, we absorb those values. Eventually, as the habits of the world become our habits, the values of the world become our values.

Since at least the fourth century, the Church has celebrated a season called Advent. Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. It is a season of waiting and anticipation as those who hope in Christ look reflectively back at our Savior’s first coming and longingly forward to his promised return. I believe that observing Advent holds much promise for enabling God’s people to resist the soul-shrinking liturgy of American consumer culture. It helps us as we seek to resist conformity to this world while simultaneously pursuing transformation by the renewal of our minds (Rom 12:2).

First, Advent helps us face reality. We often hide our eyes from reality, and the Christmas season is a good example. We put out our plastic decorations and hide behind our plastic smiles. We like to pretend everything is cheery and bright. We’d rather ignore our problems than face them during this season, and shopping often provides the perfect distraction. When we fall for the temporary happiness of a Target spree, we are reprieved from having to face our real issues. But those issues remain unsolved, which might be why January is on record as the most depressing month of the year.

As Fleming Rutledge writes, “Advent is a time for making a fearless inventory of the darkness. This is a call for character and courage, because we would prefer bland sentimentality and cheerful inoffensiveness.” As we await God’s solution for all that ails us, we must face the ugly reality about the state of our world, our own sin, and the death that awaits us. Avoiding reality will never help you live a better life. Facing reality head-on is always a necessary step into the arms of our Savior.

Second, Advent teaches us to wait. We need to wait. We can’t have everything we want right now. I often teach young parents to make it a regular habit to tell their small children no to inconsequential things. My counsel is not given in cruelty. If we don’t use the muscles of resistance, they will atrophy. Our children need to learn how to handle small disappointments because life is full of big disappointments. As parents, our goal is not to give our children everything they want; it’s to train them for real life in this world.

Similarly, God calls his people to wait while our culture is hellbent on eliminating it. Advent provides the perfect opportunity to train those waiting muscles. Tell your children that you won’t open the presents early to build anticipation and excitement. Use an Advent calendar and devotional to count down the days to Christmas. God’s people will not survive without waiting. According to Paul, God’s grace trains us “to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Tit 2:12-13).

Finally, Advent teaches us to hope. Hope is related to waiting in that you can’t hope without it. However, hope adds confidence to the equation. As we face reality head on and await the coming of our Lord, we do so with confident hope that he will deliver us. He has already accomplished our deliverance through his life, death, and resurrection so that we have nothing to fear. Let us face the uncertain future with joyful confidence that the Savior who came unexpectedly once has promised to do so again.

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