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Advent Candles: Advent 1

© John L. Hoh, Jr.

It has been a tradition in the Church to light candles during the four weeks of Advent, the season that leads up to Christmas. Advent is a Latin word meaning "to come," and for the Church serves a two-fold purpose. We await the coming of the baby in the manger like the Old Testament believers did. We also look forward to the return of our Lord on Judgment Day.

The candles are arranged in a wreath of evergreen branches. The evergreen reminds us of life even when all else has died. In like manner Christians have evergreen trees for Christmas trees. There are four candles in the circle, with a fifth white candle placed in the middle. The four candles differ in color depending upon which tradition one uses for the meaning of the candles.

One tradition has the candles represent Hope - Peace - Joy - Love. Another tradition assigns to the candles the representation of the Prophets, the Angels, the Shepherds, and the Magi. In a sense the two traditions line up very closely with each other.

This the first Wednesday of Advent. We will look at the first candle lit, which can stand for Hope (a purple candle) and the Prophets (a gold candle).

The Prophets brought hope to the Old Testament believers. They brought light to a sin-darkened world. Even when the prophet was sent to foretell the destruction of a nation, imbedded in that message was the message of the coming Messiah, the Savior of the world. Often the prophets added another Messianic clue so that when the Messiah did come, the believers in Messiah's time would know Messiah had come. Even the Roman centurion on Good Friday could not help but cry out, "Surely this is the Son of God!"

We also place our hope on the Lord. The prophets justify this hope by their prophesies. The Gospel writers inform us that many of the events and miracles in Jesus' life were "just as the prophets stated." The prophets told of a Virgin birth, a birth in Bethlehem, from the line of David, that the child would be called out of Egypt and be known as a Nazarene. Yes, even the unfortunate slaughter of the Innocents of Bethlehem was prophesied!

We as New Testament Christians have the prophesies of the coming Judgment to look forward to. One can read Jesus' account in Matthew's Gospel and be frightened by what appears to be horrendous events. The book of Revelation can also have some vivid and frightening imagery. But in the end, God wins and these things will be like birth pains as we are born into eternal life in the presence of our gracious and merciful God who saved us not by what we do or who we are, but by the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which pays for all our sins.