Sojourn Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper on the danger of triumphalism in Advent worship planning, and how to properly use this season of the Christian Year to plan meaningful, biblical worship time at church and in the home:
An Advent Challenge: Disappoint People
In The Deliberate Church, Pastor Mark Dever warns us to avoid triumphalism in our worship sets. While I don’t ascribe to all of Dever’s prescriptions for worship, I think that this one is very good - especially during Advent.
Advent is a season of endless hype. We’re hyped about toys for our kids, toys for our wives and husbands, and toys for ourselves. We’re pressed in at all sides to celebrate, to spend (our primary way of celebrating anything), and to gorge ourselves on turkey and carbs. At church, we’re tempted to gorge in a different way - to spend the next month singing victory songs about Christmas, to sing “O Holy Night” a step up each week, to spend the month focusing on the enormous and wondrous light of the Christ child. The triumphalism of our worship can dangerously become a rubber stamp and a chaplain to the commercialism around us.
When the choir only sings of triumph, it starts to taste bland. And when that song is sung in the midst of rising unemployment, inflation, terrorist attacks overseas, and a legion of other doubt-inducing powers, it starts to taste sour. Our church fathers were wise to precede Christmas with Advent and Easter with Lent. Each of our great celebrations is led forward with a season of reflection, lament, and a moment of remembrance.
In Advent we remember that Jesus came, and that He’s coming again. We step into that story. We imagine ourselves subjected as Israel to the godless authority of Rome, and we imagine ourselves reading Isaiah 6, praying and hoping for the arrival of that Redeemer. This remembrance is also our reality. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are the pivot of history, but not the end of history. We stand with a foot in two worlds - the already of the Cross and Resurrection, and the not yet of Jesus’ return and our own resurrections. It is in this shadowy not yet, this longing for the light of the world that Advent has its deepest meaning.
As people come to your church for worship at Advent, they will often come looking for that rubber stamp, for more smarmy sweetness and tinsel. Disappoint them. Instead, point to their own dissatisfactions. Show them that the impulse that drives them to spend and feast is rooted in a deep dissatisfaction and thirst that only the Messiah can quench. Invite them to step into the aching, longing emotion of the prophets, plant their feet deeply in the suffering and injustice of the world around us, and cry out with one voice, “O Come O Come Emmanuel.”
Read An Advent Bible Lesson For Children Written By Pastor Mike At sojournkids.com
Read “The Jesse Tree: An Advent Celebration” by Sojourn Kids Director Jared Kennedy
Read “What Every Christian Needs To Know About The Season Of Adventâ€
Five Reasons You Should Celebrate Advent Season
Sample “Call to Worship†Scripture Reading for the Season of Advent
Prayers Of Adoration And Invocation For The Season of Advent
Sample Prayer Of Confession for the Season of Advent
“Assurance of Pardon†Scripture Reading For The Season of Advent
Prayer For Illumination And Prayer Of Thanksgiving For Advent Season
Benediction And Sending Scripture Readings For Advent Season
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Amen and amen!
Point them to their dis-satisfaction, so that you can give them the ONE & ONLY solution ~ Jesus!
“O Come O Come Emmanuel.â€
I agree with your sentiments but have a practical question. How do you lead your congregation to the point where they appreciate the expectation and don’t simply write you nasty e-mails about being the Grinch?
And how do you pastorally lead people through a deeper celebration of the actual Christmas season when they are completely ready to move on at noon on December 25?
Great question, Eric. I think the only solution comes by immersing them in the scriptures that remind them of this reality. If you look at any of the historical liturgical resources - like the book of Common prayer or the resource we’re always pushing on this site: The Worship Sourcebook, you’ll find a lot of inspiration. Lead them in prayers of confession and repentance that acknowledge our commercialism, our distraction, and our selfishness. And point to the “not yet” reality again and again with songs and readings that make them cry out “Come Lord Jesus come.”