Why Advent is Relevant in 2020
By: Kat Gaffney Jellicorse
Tags: Christmas, Advent, 2020, Christianity, Faith

Christmas is normally a time for celebrating. We all get together with our families and friends, exchange gifts and hugs, and sing carols while sipping on hot cocoa. The caroler is not wrong in saying that it’s the most wonderful time of the year. There truly is magic around Christmas. People seem to be more jolly and even scrooges hang a wreath on their door.

But this year, Christmas feels almost irrelevant. We’ve been told that we can’t see our friends or family for indoor holiday gatherings, we can’t sing carols because the hot air from our voices could put us in danger, and we can’t even see the smiles on other peoples’ faces because we are all hidden behind masks — literally.

The Christmas that Hallmark produces is not this year’s Christmas and quite frankly, there are days where this just doesn’t feel like it’s a very merry Christmas at all.

But I’m not here to talk about Christmas, I’m here to talk about Advent which I think might resonate more with the 2020 vibe.

In the 4th and 5th century church, Advent was a time of preparation for the big feast in January to celebrate Epiphany. They would spend the month leading up to the feast fasting, repenting, and praying. Eventually, this practice of preparation fused itself with the celebration of the birth of Christ, 12 days prior to the day that the feast of Epiphany was held.

But let’s look at the practices the ancient church used to prepare themselves for this feast: fasting, repenting, and praying.

Fasting is the act of giving something up, most often food. However, fasting can mean giving anything up and in 2020, we have given up a lot of things. We’ve sacrificed our comfort for the health and safety of others. We’ve given up parties and get-togethers, worshipping in person, and even school. Small business owners have even sacrificed their lifelong dreams. In short, 2020 has been a long year of fasting for the bigger picture.

Repenting is the act of turning away from sin. We repent of things we know we’ve done wrong and look to Jesus who is the savior and who redeems us from all of our sins. I don’t know your story, but 2020 has done a lot of sin revealing in me. In the stark reality of being forced to sit inside of my small apartment day in and day out, I’ve had to face myself. I’ve sat in the darkest, most selfish, and prideful corners of my soul and recognized sins that I had managed to cover up prior to the lockdowns. Yes, 2020 has been a year of repentance.

Praying is the act of not looking inward for answers but instead looking upward towards the Heavenly Father. I know that I can’t do this on my own because I will always fail, but God has never failed and will never fail. He is the sustainer of all things. 2020 has been a year of recognizing that I am strongest when I am on my knees in prayer — acknowledging my weakness and allowing Christ to strengthen me in His spirit.

Essentially, I’m saying that 2020 has been one long advent.

So now, here we are celebrating the actual season of Advent which is the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. The four Sundays represent hope, love, joy, and peace. In a year like this one, those four words may feel completely out of reach; and they are if we strive to achieve them on our own.

But with God all things are possible and we can rejoice in our weakness, we can find hope in our trials, and we can even have peace in 2020. The message of Christ’s birth is not only relevant in the years that we feel like celebrating, where there is snow on the ground and our hearts are filled with cheer. No, Jesus was born into a broken world over 2,000 years ago and that same weary world will rejoice again over His birth in 2020.

Jesus came to heal the sick, give strength to the weary and brokenhearted, and radically transform the way that we live our lives. In Jesus’s book, the first is the last and the last is the first. The ones who mourn will be comforted, the meek will inherit the earth, the ones who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be truly satisfied, and the peacemakers will be called children of God. Yes, if any year was the year for us to rejoice in Christmas, it’s 2020.

What great hope we have in Him who came on that silent night to a little town called Bethlehem. In the bleak midwinter, with no room at the inn, born into a feeding trough…that’s our Savior.

In a year that feels like everything has been turned upside down, there is one thing we can know is always true: we are a broken, sick, and sinful world desperately in need of a Savior. Jesus is that Savior — He gave up His heavenly crown for a crown of thorns hanging on the cross for our sins. The death we deserved, He took on Himself. After three days, He conquered death in its entirety by rising from the dead and now He reigns at the right hand of God in heaven. This is good news. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. No matter what our “today” or our year may look like, we still need Jesus and He still comes to save us.

This advent season, I urge you to spend time looking to God and thanking Jesus for coming into this broken, smelly, sinful world and saving us. This is where true hope, love, joy, and peace are found.

Happy Advent, y’all.