The First Sunday of Advent Year B

First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 64.1–9
1 Corinthians 1.3–9
Mark 13.24–37

Advent has stolen the old Christmas mystique. The symbolism of darkness awaiting dawn makes sense in a postmodern world where Christmas razzmatazz has been debunked, demythologized and deconstructed. Hope in the night, not glitzy commercialism, is what we want and need.

This is a deeply biblical move. Cut Christmas out of the Bible, and you lose three chapters (the doctrine of the incarnation hardly hinges on it, as the evidence of Paul makes clear). Try cutting Advent, and you lose half the Old Testament and most of the New. Jews and Christians have always, though in a wide variety of ways, lived within and by the story of God’s order appearing within the world’s confusion, God’s fiery light burning away the shadows....

Taken from Twelve Months of Sundays Year B by N T Wright

Published by SPCK