12/05/2022

12/02/2022

Dear friends in Christ,

The other day someone not from our congregation, who had seen our social media posts, asked me why we use blue as the liturgical color for Advent and not the more traditional purple.

Purple is a color that represents royalty. In the Church it also symbolizes penitence, fasting, and suffering, which is why it is used during Lent as we walk with Jesus toward the cross, and through his suffering and death toward the Resurrection. In the past Advent was also seen as a time of penitence and fasting to prepare us for the birth of Christ, but it was not until the Middle Ages that purple became the color for Advent also. Before the twelfth century, “Sarum Blue,” a dark blue violet, was the liturgical color for Advent in the Sarum Rite, on which the liturgy in our Book of Common Prayer is based. The dark indigo color represented both the darkness of the waters before God created light, and the darkness of the world before the birth of Christ, evoking images of the prologue to the Gospel of John which is heard on Christmas Day:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it. It was not until the middle-ages that Penitence was understood to be an Advent practice.” John 1:1-5

Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and is a season of anticipation and waiting for Christ to come into our world, both as the baby for the first time, and his second coming to bring the world into alignment with God’s Kingdom. While Advent is still a season of preparation and introspection, recently Advent has undergone a shift in emphasis from repentance to an expectation that brings hope to those who wait. This shift was reflected in the change of liturgical color for Advent to distinguish it from Lent, and blue became the liturgical color for advent in the Episcopal Church.

The color blue symbolizes royalty, the coming of the King, hope, the night sky before the dawn, the sea before creation, and Mary. Blue is also the color of water, the water used in our baptism, over which the priest prays in preparation to initiate a new soul into the body of Christ, the Church:

“We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water. Over it the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation. Through it you led the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt into the land of promise. In it your Son Jesus received the baptism of John…”

John was the first person to preach Advent. In this Sundays’ Gospel we will en0ucnter him in the wilderness, offering the baptism of repentance and proclaiming the Kingdom of God has come near; fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy that God would send a messenger to prepare the way for the coming of God’s anointed. We are now that messenger, and I invite you into a holy Advent to prepare the world for the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom?

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Jane+