Readings: The Lessons Appointed for Use on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A, RCL
WE’RE ALMOST THERE, O People of God! We’ve almost made it to Christmas in all its glory!
Some years, the Fourth Sunday of Advent is also Dec. 25, which means Altar Guild rushes around and changes the altar hangings from Advent’s blue to Christmas white in time for evening services.
I love liturgy, but I pray for Altar Guild daily around this time of year, especially when the two days collide: blue for the Fourth Sunday of Advent in the morning, white for Christmas Eve in the evening and the next day, red or sometimes even scarlet for St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr on Dec. 26, and then back to white for St. John, Evangelist on Dec. 27 and (this year) the First Sunday after Christmas on Dec. 28. Whoof.
And Holy Innocents? Oh, let me look that up.
Here’s the full deal; there will not be a test on this. “For the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) typically uses red or white, depending on if it falls on a Sunday or weekday; red for martyrs, symbolizing blood and zeal, but often white for its connection to Christmas purity and innocence, though some traditions might use purple/violet for mourning if it’s not a Sunday, reflecting sorrow for the massacre, as seen in older Roman rites.”
Traditionally, then, on Dec. 31, the Altar Guild resigns en masse.
It takes a skilled rector or pastor to convince at least some of them not to quit, often by pointing out that the color is white from now through mid-January.
I hear rumors that there is an Altar Guild movement to change the color of the church to white only year-round, but I do not think this will pass muster.
Now here’s another slight complication: the following prayer is from the Fourth Sunday of Advent liturgy used by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, my branch of the Lutheran Church:
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. With your abundant grace and might, free us from the sin that hinders our faith, that eagerly we may receive your promises, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
It’s one of the places that the Revised Common Lectionary deviates from that version used by Episcopalians, which has this prayer instead:
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
But the Episcopal version, that may hearken back to the days when both Advent and Lent were penitential seasons.
I vaguely seem to remember purple for both in my youth, and that the new initiates were waiting for their own entrance into the church at Easter or one of the other baptismal festivals.
Well, all of this takes us pretty deep into the liturgical weeds. (Once a professor, always off topic!)
Thanks be to God above, for both Altar Guild and for the rest of us poor souls, this Sunday will be the Fourth Sunday of Advent only, no exceptions, with Christmas four days later.
We will have lit the last candle of Advent, and will be, no doubt, baking the last bread and cookies and cake and wrapping the last packages, and checking FedEx every two minutes.
To conclude, then, and to keep it simple: “Alleluia. The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel [God with us]. Alleluia,” (Matt. 1:23).
In short, Merry Christmas, in just a few days from now!
And for the rest of y’all, enjoy Mr. Bennett and Mr. Crosby; sit back and listen to Mariah Carey and Nat King Cole and Emmylou Harris, and have yourself a very merry holiday, whatever your faith tradition.
See you next year!
________
Issues of Faith is a rotating column by religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. Previously a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, Dr. Keith Dorwick is a lay person continuing his walk with God who has just joined the community at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Port Angeles. He’s also the Executive Director of Spiritual Directions of PA (https://spiritual-directions-pa.org), his next holy adventure.
