From Purple to White: From Fasting to Feasting

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whose reign is coming to fulfillment in this world!


What a joy it is to start a new year together in our Lord. Happy New Year!

No, I haven’t gone mad! If you remember last month’s article, the church tells time differently than the rest of the world. For us, the season of Advent begins the new church year. We begin by looking back to our present through the lens of future fulfillment. This is the constant theme of advent and its purpose. Advent means “coming.” Advent is the time when the church anticipates and expects the “Coming of Jesus Christ” to bring redemption to consummation. Some call this the “second coming” and others the “re-appearing” of Christ.

I believe Advent is the most difficult season of the year for Christians in the United States, where capital-consumerism has claimed the Christian feast of Christmas, stretched it out over two or more months, and changed its name to the “holiday season.” Somewhere along the way, much of the protestant church has ceased keeping holy time and, instead, has been shaped by the consumerist transformation of our feast into a civil holiday. Thus, rather than slowing down with the start of the new year at Advent, the church joins the world in the hustle and bustle of celebrating what it now calls the “holiday season.”

I wonder what would happen in our parishes if we decided to live more fully in the holy time Christ has opened for us? What if we slowed down, quieted ourselves, fasted from the world’s ‘holiday’ cheer, and actively waited for the coming of Christ as the season of Advent calls the people of God?

The most important and festive celebrations and events in life are followed by seasons of preparation. Sure, we could forego the courting and the period of engagement and skip right ahead to the wedding, but there’s a good chance that the relationship will be revealed as superficial, and the marriage will not last.

More important even than the wedding together of a man and a woman is the wedding together of heaven and earth through Jesus Christ. The bride, the church, must take her time getting to know her groom, Jesus Christ. We must listen to him, align our lives with His life, and live according to the rhythm of His heart-beat.

When we truly fast, we truly feast. When we truly prepare, goals come to fruition beautifully. For those who have truly courted and have been through that season of engagement, the wedding is such a joyous and festive occasion! When Christmas arrives with our Christmas eve service, we will celebrate and feast more than even those who have rightly prepared for marriage. And our celebration will continue from December 25 through the twelve days of Christmas and on into the festive season of Epiphany where we celebrate the revelation of God in Christ to all the world. Even after the world gets back to business as usual, burnt out from it’s two plus months of holiday cheer, the sound of the true God’s praises will resound from the church, inviting the world into something different and actually fulfilling.

God invites us to the disciplined life where we wait for the coming of the Lord. Maybe we could call this time house-cleaning, allowing the Holy Spirit to put the house of our lives in order for the coming of our Christ in final victory. Could we, by the Spirit’s power, live in advent with the church this year? Will we wait to put up the Christmas decorations? Will we fast from the throwing of yet another holiday cheer party?

It is December and there is more advent in December than Christmas. I will fast from seasons greetings; I will wait to give you festive greetings in the January issue when we are in the midst of the twelve days of feasting, celebrating the glory of the incarnation of Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world.

May the Holy Spirit strengthen us to stand firm in Christ even when our stand makes us peculiar and unpopular.


Christ’s is Coming,


Pastor Tommy