This Advent season at Messiah the Advent Wreath is going to guide our worship as we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Savior. However, as with many long-standing customs, the origins of the Advent wreath are somewhat debated. Some histories of the advent wreath say that Christians simply adapted an even earlier custom from pre-Christian Germanic tribes. Supposedly, then, these pagan people tried to break the darkness of winter with candles and invoke the sun god to return with the warmth and light of spring. According to this viewpoint, Christians later placed new and Biblical meaning to the old customs. Now the candles pointed to Jesus, the Light of the world.
The advent wreath became quite popular in homes in post-Reformation Germany. Many attribute the popularity of the Advent Wreath to Johann Hinrich Wichern. Wichern was an 19th century Protestant pastor who did mission work in the inner-city. During Advent, children at his mission school would ask daily if Christmas had arrived. In 1839, he built a large wooden ring made out of an old wagon cartwheel. The wheel had 20 small red and 4 large white candles on it. The small red candles were lit successively every weekday and Saturday during Advent. On Sundays, a large white candle was lit. In this way Pastor Wichern hoped to focus the children’s attention and manage their excitement.
The custom gained ground among Protestant churches in Germany and evolved into the smaller wreath with four or five candles known today. Roman Catholics in Germany began to adopt the custom in the 1920s, and in the 1930s it spread to North America. (Too bad they didn’t adopt some our doctrines also, but we can save that conversation for another time.)
Today the Advent wreath is a common symbol of the season in our churches. Pastor Wichern’s wheel of 24 candles has been replaced with a wreath of five candles. There are many explanations concerning the symbolism of these candles, but in general the first candle is called the hope candle. It reminds us that God had promised throughout the Old Testament that He would send a Messiah to save His people; this is the candle that will guide our worship today. The other candles are known as the Love candle, the Joy candle, the Peace candle, and last but certainly not least the big white one in the middle is the Christ candle. Over the next few weeks we will talk about all of them, but, as I said, today, let’s just focus our attention on the Hope candle.
The world could use a little hope, don’t you think? The Christmas season can trigger a bout of the blues or perhaps ignite a depression that has been smoldering under the surface for months. Busy schedules, poor diet, lack of exercise, burning the yule log at both ends can all play into a feeling of holiday hopelessness. You see, what all of these things tend to do is make us less capable of covering up or ignoring problems that almost every one of us struggles with on a daily basis.
Problems like, people problems. I have a friend who often says, “This world would be great if it wasn’t for all the stinking people.”[1] We probably all have a relationship that we wish was better. A co-worker we can’t seem to get along with, a teacher we can’t seem to please, or an estranged family member we can’t seem to connect with. Some of us might even be dealing with an antagonist that seems to go out of their way to make our life miserable; constantly criticizing, passively demeaning, and secretly undermining us. And it feels like no matter what you do you just can’t make that people problem go away.
Another common problem is the money problem. This problem is especially prominent at this time of year when we are trying to buy presents for three dozen people at the same time. We want to spread some holiday cheer, but the bills keep rolling in and debt keeps piling up. It seems like money problems have been part of your life for as long as you can remember. It seems like just yesterday you finished paying off your college loans and now you are realizing that you have not put enough away for retirement.
One of the more frustrating problems is the me problem. Forget about loving your neighbor as yourself. We are not really that great at loving our friends. We can’t even love our spouse the way God wants us to love them and we can’t love our children the way they need to be loved. As it turns out we are people. We are not always easy to get along with, sometimes we are the ones it is impossible to please, and occasionally we are the reason for estrangements in the family. Whether we want to admit it or not sometimes we are someone else’s people problem.
We all have problems, but the worst problem of all is our God problem. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”[2] On a good day I can and do love God with my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength. Loving God is not the problem. Loving God more than I love myself, is. Loving God with our “all” is a problem that everyone of us has. We are all Christians here, we all want to love the Lord our God with our “all” but… we just love ourselves sooo much. Try as we might we just can’t seem to find a way to love God with our all.
People problems, money problems, Me problems, God problems can cause even the holliest and jolliest of us to slip into holiday hopelessness.
The prophet Isaiah knows a little something about hopelessness. The people he served had their fair share of problems. The Northern kingdom had fallen and little by little the remnant in the southern kingdom were being carried away into captivity; they had people problems. At this time the people actually enjoyed economic prosperity, but most of their wealth was spent on military conquest; they had money problems. The people themselves struggled with hypocrisy and tended to place form over function when it came to worship; they had me problems. Finally, their land was full of pagan practices and idol worship; they had a God problem.
Isaiah tells us it was like his people were “walking in darkness” like they were “living in the land of the shadow of death.” There was no doubt the people had their problems, but Isaiah wanted his people to know and I want you to know, as bad as things were and are, they were not, and we are not without hope. Isaiah writes, “2The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
Like a light shining in the darkness, hope exists among people like us. But let’s make sure we understand what this hope is. Let’s start by what it is not. Hope is not a wishy-washy, squishy-squashy, namby-pamby desire for a favorable outcome in an uncertain situation. That’s how we tend to use the word hope. We hope for good weather, we hope for our team to win, we hope traffic isn’t bad. I would guess you use the word “hope” a lot, but to quote one of my favorite movies, ‘you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.’[3]
The world’s “hope” has no power, it is empty, it does nothing. That’s not how the bible describes the “hope” that we have. The prophet Isaiah describes our hope in verse 6 where he writes, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Our hope is an anticipation, it’s an expectation, it’s an absolute certainty of a future fact. Just look at how Isaiah describes the birth of our Savior here. Seven hundred years before Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem, seven hundred years before they place their baby in the manger, seven hundred years before the child would be born and the son would be given, Isaiah speaks as if it has already happened. He says the child IS born the son IS given. Hebrew scholars refer to the verb form Isaiah uses here as the prophetic perfect. The future promises of God are present facts for the prophet. That is what hope is.
What is the cause of the absolute certainty of a future fact? It is the child that, for us, has already been born and has already been given. The child who is called “Wonderful Counselor”; a child who knows what it is like to have people problems. One of the things that makes this child so wonderful is that He is in every way human. As true man he understand the problems you have with people. His parents didn’t understand Him, His friends wouldn’t listen to Him, and the Pharisees and Seduces down right antagonized Him. Jesus knows what it feels like to have a people problem. He knows what you are going through and He wants you to know there is hope.
This child also gives hope to those who have money problems. The child that has been born for us and has been given to us is called “Mighty God”. This child has the power to provide what you need when you need it. The might of this child is a result of His being in every way God. As God who formed and fashioned the fabric of all that is, Jesus causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall so that you are well provided. He who feeds the birds of the air can and will feed you. He who dresses the flowers of the field can and will clothe you. Regardless of your ability to purchase presents, there is hope.
There is hope for those who have a me problem. The child that has been born for us and has been given to us is called “Everlasting Father”. Here we have a description of the attitude this child will have concerning us. The psalmist suggests this meaning, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”[4] Jesus knows the good you want to do and He knows that you do not want to do the evil you do. Like a compassionate Father He does not crush us when we have failed, but rather He corrects us. Like a compassionate Father He does not threaten us with the law, rather he encourages us with the gospel. He loves us like children so that we can love each other like brothers and sisters. Because of our everlasting Father there is hope for our relationships.
Finally, there is hope for those who have a God problem. The child that has been born for us and has been given to us is called the “Prince of Peace”. This child loved the Lord His God with all His and with all His soul and with all His mind and with all His strength. This child loves God with His all. And He loves you the same. He loves you so much payed for the sins that are born in your unfaithful heart. He paid for these sins so that you can be at peace with God; so that even when you fail to love God with your all, you still have hope.
Today the Hope Candle burns like a light in the darkness. The promises of the Old Testament have been fulfilled. God has sent The Messiah to save us from our sins. In Jesus we have a Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. In Jesus we have hope.
Next Sunday we will light another candle on our Advent Wreath. I invite you to join me as the light shining in the darkness grows brighter still. Amen
[1] Bob Kaylor -any and every time I complained about anything or anyone.
[2] Mark 12:30
[3] The Princess Bride – of course
[4] Psalm 103:13