The season of Advent and the celebration of Christmas were added to the Christian calendar during Roman times. The early church was facing two problems that the change in the annual schedule of worship sought to address. The first problem was that the influx of new members after Christianity became a legal religion in the Roman empire was so great that the church couldn’t handle all of the new converts in the old tradition of only admitting new members once per year. Before Advent and Christmas were part of the annual calendar, new members engaged in a period of prayer, fasting, and study to learn about the religion and to prepare for membership during the season of Lent. New members were baptized into the faith on Easter morning after those six weeks of preparation. Advent was added as a second six-week period of preparation for the sacrament of baptism on Christmas morning.

The second problem the season sought to address was that the wider culture was deeply influenced by pre-Christian celebrations that centered around the winter solstice. This became a problem for the early church because its members tended to drift away from Christian worship and practice in the weeks leading up to the solstice as they reverted to participation in cultural celebrations based on sun worship. The season of Advent and the celebration of Christmas were ways to bring those celebrations into the church and keep those members actively engaged in Christian practice.

Although the observance of Advent was initially one of study, prayer, and fasting with a large feast day on Christmas, there was an additional feast day during the season to keep those preparing engaged and fed. The feast day, on the third Sunday of Advent was called Gaudete Sunday after the first words of the opening introit for the day, “Rejoice in the Lord Always! Again I say, ‘Rejoice.’” (Philippians 4:4)

Not long into the practice of observing Advent and Christmas the season was shortened for a variety of liturgical and practical reasons to the seasons now observed in most Christian communions today. Advent became a four-week season, retaining the observance of Gaudete Sunday on the third Sunday. It was determined that six weeks of prayer and fasting was a bit extreme to keep the stream of new converts coming. Although the observance of Lent continued to be a six-week period, mirroring the 40 days of Jesus’ fasting int he wilderness, in general the process of joining the church and preparing for baptism was shortened during that season as well.

I don’t know all of the dynamics that were involved in the decision to shorten the season of Advent from six to four weeks, but I was reflecting on that decision yesterday when we made a quick stop at a big box home improvement store to pick up some paint. I had made a modification to our grandson’s backyard play structure to lower the monkey bars so that the drop was more reasonable for a climber of his height. The new rails needed paint and he chose green as the color, so we needed a quart of exterior latex to paint the new wood. We were greeted at the entrance of the store by a large display of Christmas decorations, including many giant, inflatable items to be displayed in yards and on rooftops. There were lots of colored lights and animated figures of Santa Claus, plenty of fake snow. This is South Carolina after all and it was 80 degrees outside. Chances of actual snow are pretty slim.

Yesterday was the third of October. Most of the houses around here have not yet been decorated for Halloween. My reaction to the display included a rant that I’m sure has previously appeared in my journal. “Why are the stores so eager to push Christmas when it is not the season of Christmas?” Those same stores will remove every Christmas decoration on December 26, not even allowing for the traditional observance of Christmas that continues through January 6 in the Christian calendar. They are so eager for Christmas music that they cannot wait during the season of preparation and then they silence it after only one day of actual observance. It doesn’t make sense.

The thoughts of the shortening of the season of Advent came to my mind as I thought that even the early church leaders who were eager to impose strict disciplines on new converts decided that six weeks was too much. If six weeks is too long, surely 12 weeks is double too long. Christmas is actually a dozen weeks away on my calendar. I am of the conviction that twelve weeks of marketing is too much to foist on the public. I had no need of Christmas decorations. I came to the store for a quart of paint for my grandson’s play structure. I was, however, forced to walk through the store’s display and will be forced to walk through store displays for many weeks before I am ready to observe Advent. Even then, the decorations and marketing materials are not focused on the season of preparation, but rather the secular holiday that in some ways the early church sought to suppress through a more religious observance of the season.

Prayer and study and fasting are not parts of the marketing frenzy that the store display is attempting to stir. I didn’t see anything in the store display that brought to mind the themes of Advent preparation, even the mandate to rejoice in the Lord always. The mantra of the display seemed to be “decorate and over decorate ad nauseam.” I’m fairly confident that the store’s choice of songs for the season will not include “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” or “Of the Father’s Love Begotten.” “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” and “You’d Better Watch Out” don’t strike the same mood at all in my opinion.

Increasingly the observance of our faith is what it was in the early days: a countercultural movement. Society goes in one direction, but faithful Christians are called in a different direction. In the midst of marketing mayhem we are called to consider the awe and wonder of God’s deep love for all of humanity, how that love involves sacrifice, and how we are called to love one another as God loves us.

I’ll pass on the aisles of decorations.