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Now when they drew near Jerusalem,
and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying
to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a
donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if
anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and
immediately he will send them.” All this was done that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophet, saying: “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold,
your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of
a donkey.’” So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought
the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. And a
very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches
from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before
and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed
is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!”(Matthew
21:1-9).
Growing
up at Immanuel – Hodgkins, the color for the season of Advent was purple. That
was just the way things were, and I never gave it a second thought.
Alternatives listed in the calendar printed in Lutheran Worship notwithstanding, it wasn’t until I left Immanuel
that I even realized there was another color designated for Advent. Blue
paraments at my next two parishes seemed to me jarringly out of place as we
looked forward to Christmas. When I asked why blue was preferred instead of
purple, answers varied as they often do among Lutheran clergymen.
Purple
is somber and penitential; it is appropriate only during Lent. Blue is the
color of hope; Advent is the season during which we look hopefully toward the
coming/return of Our Lord and Savior. Blue is the color of the pre-dawn sky.
Just as the color of the sky heralds the return of the light of the sun, it was
explained, so the color of the church heralds the coming/return of the true
light of the world (That is way to artsy and emotional for my taste…gag!). And,
possibly, the most frustrating explanation of all: Rome uses purple for Advent;
It’s too Catholic.
Advent
is indeed a time of expectant waiting for Christ. The Church teaches that
Christ comes in three ways: 1) His incarnation, 2) His spiritual coming in the
hearts of believers and his constant presence in the gathered assembly of the
Church, 3) His return to judgment on the Last Day (Lueker 1984) . With those things
in mind, I certainly understand the expectant, hopeful character of Advent. Why
the color blue is associated with the concept of hope eludes me though. Advent
is also penitential, and we shouldn’t forget that. We are preparing for the
coming of the Savior, both in the sense of celebrating his birth at Christmas,
and looking forward to his second coming on the Last Day. I can think of no
better way to prepare for Christ’s coming/return than to follow the direction
of John the Baptist, the one who prepared the way for him, and to repent.
For
those who think purple for Advent is “too Catholic,” consider this: blue is the
color traditionally associated with the Virgin Mary, though white is the
prescribed Marian color in Roman liturgical practice (Penkala 2000) . That’s pretty Catholic,
if you ask me. Though she has no “official” color, in Byzantine iconography Mary
is often portrayed in blue, along with red. This practice was adopted in the
west and seems to be where we get imagery of the darkness of night giving way
to the dawn:
Yet the mandorla[1]
of the Mother of God differs from that of the Saviour both in colour and in the
absence of gold work. Bluish-green, with pink round the edge passing into red,
it seems to be a visual expression of the words of the akathiston to the Mother
of God, in which She is sung as “the fiery chariot of the Word”… “The brightest
morning…bearing the sun-Christ,” and so forth. The symbolism of the combination
of those colours evidently corresponds to the darkness of the night of sin and
ignorance and the dawn of the coming day of the restitution of the world. This
emphasizes the cosmic significance of the Mother of God and her role in the
restitution, for She has “renewed the whole world in her womb” (Ouspensky and
Lossky 1982) .
The
blue pigment used in painting in centuries past was derived from the rock lapis
lazuli, a stone imported from Afghanistan of greater value than gold. In
Medieval and Renaissance Europe, an artist’s patron was expected to purchase
any gold or lapis lazuli to be used in the painting (Marian
Colours and Religious Art 2014) . Hence, it was an
expression of devotion and glorification to swathe the Virgin in gowns of blue.
Transformations in visual depictions of the Virgin from the 13th to 15th
centuries mirror her "social" standing within the Church as well as
in society (Marian Blue 2016) .
I
like to argue about things such as the appropriate color for Advent with tongue
planted firmly in cheek. In reality, it matters little what color the paraments
are, so long as we remember the purpose of Advent: to focus our attention on
Christ and to prepare us for his coming. Advent begins the church year because
the church year begins where Jesus' earthly life began — in the Old Testament
prophecies of his incarnation (Frequently Asked Questions:
Worship and Congregational Life n.d.) .
Whatever
color adorns the altar this First Sunday in Advent, blue or purple, our prayer
is the same[2]:
Stir up, we beseech Thee, Thy power, O Lord, and come, that by Thy protection
we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Thy
mighty deliverance; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost,
ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Works
Cited
"Frequently
Asked Questions: Worship and Congregational Life." The Lutheran Church
Missouri Synod. http://www.lcms.org/faqs/worship (accessed November 27,
2016).
Lueker, Erwin L., ed. Lutheran Cyclopedia: A Concise
In-Home Reference for the Christian Family. St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 1984.
"Marian Blue." Wikipedia. August 23, 2016.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_blue (accessed November 27, 2016).
"Marian Colours and Religious Art." Churchmouse
Campanologist. January 3, 2014.
https://churchmousec.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/marian-colours-and-religious-art/
(accessed November 27, 2016).
Ouspensky, Leonid, and Vladimir Lossky. The Meaning of
Icons. New York: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1982.
Penkala, Gary D. "The Advent Blues." CanticaNOVA
Publications: Traditional Music...for the Contemporary Church. December
2000. http://www.canticanova.com/articles/xmas/art1c1.htm (accessed November
27, 2016).
[1]
Mandorla: A pointed oval figure used as an architectural feature and as an
aureole enclosing figures such as Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary in medieval
art.
[2] Some
have exchanged “Thee” and “Thy” for “You” and “Yours,” a heresy which we will
address at some other time.
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