April Buske

Last year at Christ Church, we delivered Cheer Bags (or Grinch Bags, as some of you called them) for Advent. I believe many of us needed the coloring sheets, family activities, and more to endure 2020.   This year, I believe we need something a little different. It doesn’t seem that coloring sheets, and cocoa packets are the correct answer for Advent this year.

After prayer and reflection, we felt God leading us to use this year’s box as a way to teach about Advent and the traditional lighting of Advent candles in both our Traditional and Modern services. So we’ll be going on a journey together: exploring the Advent candles and what they mean and symbolize in our faith life.

With seemingly no explanation, we bust out five candles and put them on display in our services each year during Advent.  We want to take some time and give an explanation and reason behind where they came from and how we use them today.

The tradition seems to originate in 1839, when a German pastor who worked with kids in a mission school got tired of answering the question: Is it Christmas yet? (As a momma, I can relate to having to answer this question a lot!) So he grabbed an old wooden cartwheel and added 24 candles: big candles for Sundays and little candles in between.  Each day he would light a candle to help the kids count down to Christmas.

The custom quickly spread among German protestant churches. It was adapted and changed as it moved from one church to another. It eventually settled with five candles – one lit each Sunday of Advent (there are four) and the final candle lit on Christmas. Tradition has added meaning to each candle during the season: Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace for Sundays and Christ for Christmas. Some traditions have added evergreen wreaths around the candle. They symbolize God’s everlasting love and eternal life.

This year, as we celebrate Advent, my hope and prayers are that you light your candles at home with us. I pray you teach those around you about hope. About love. About joy and peace. About Christ Jesus.  If you’ve never done Advent candles before, you’re in good company – this will be the first time at our house to do these, too.  I’m excited to go on a new journey with you. If you’ve done them for many years, I’m grateful that you’ve continued the tradition. Thank you for letting me be a part of that tradition this year.

Thank you discipleship team and creative worship for vision and direction. Also, thank you to each person who folded boxes, labeled candles, sorted cards, assembled the kits, and delivered them. I am grateful for your hard work that went into making sure each household (more than 275!) received a box!