December 9, 2010
Thursday

It started well enough. A friend, recently ordained as a Lutheran pastor and leading her first congregation through Advent and Christmastide, posted on her Facebook page that she couldn’t remember whether she should light the pink candle in the Advent wreath this Sunday (the third Sunday in Advent) or another blue one (and presumably leave the pink one until December 19).

Her helpful friends, I among them, offered what we knew. One said oh it’s this week, Mary Sunday, a term I had never heard associated with Advent. This coming Sunday does happen to be a Marian feast in the Roman Catholic calendar, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

It is also Gaudete Sunday. I quoted the refrain, or burden, of one of my favorite Christmas songs, a 16th century song of praise:

Gaudete! Gaudete! Christus est natus,
Ex Maria virgine. Gaudete!

“For me, it’s the pink candle among the purple,” I told her. That’s what I knew as a child growing up in the Catholic tradition. Advent had a solemn, almost penitential quality to it, I was taught, a little Lent, and the pink on Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday was a shout of joy that the waiting was almost over.

Modern Lutheran practice, at least in my congregation, uses blue as the color of the season, and the candles in the wreath in the sanctuary are white. Richard explained on the first Sunday in Advent that the purple traditionally used in Advent was not supposed to signify penitence, as it does in Lent, but royalty. We are awaiting the birth of a king. To get away from the penitential notion and focus on the hope and the ways we can change to meet the challenges of a new year, we use blue vestments and altar cloths and white candles.

Others offered their own variations. Purple and pink at home but all blue candles in church, all purple, three whites with a pink. Some were glad to be reminded.

And then someone, an older, more experienced Lutheran pastor, said, “This is not in the Bible.” And someone else grumbled about what on earth might young pastors be taught in seminary these days! There ensued then something of a brouha (less contentious and extensive than a full-bore brouhaha) in which the “This is not in the  Bible!” commenter held forth on what we should be paying attention to — grace and the Power of Almighty God!! — and not what color the candles are, since there is no standard color for Advent candles nor order for lighting the wreath!

Well, alrighty then, I said. No one had claimed this was a matter of dogma or scriptural authority. Is there no place for tender tradition? If we rely solely on scripture for the symbols and practices of the Christmas season, we’ll have no kings named Kaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar arriving at a stable along with the shepherds, we’ll certainly have no Little Drummer Boy, no Strega Nona, no Befana,. Even, really, no tree.

There were some more exchanges, and I withdrew, not wanting to turn my friend’s comment stream into a battleground. The original poster, the new pastor, thanked everyone for their input, and said that her main goal was to understand and respect local custom and tradition.

Well said, I thought. The trappings of a traditional American Christmas, even the silliness of the Grinch and dogs barking out Jingle Bells, need not destroy anyone’s capacity to know and understand The True Meaning. I remember Lynn’s early attempts to tell the Christmas story. She pointed to an illustration in one of our favorite books of a woman in first century desert garb sitting on a donkey and being led by a man toward an inn (so labeled) with a stable behind it. “Mary Joseph come a long long way on a reindeer,” was Lynn’s interpretation. And why not.

If there is a War on Christmas (which I don’t think there is), let it not be among ourselves.

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