Welcome to a breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Though much of America celebrates today as Black Friday, Christians anticipate this time of

the year for a very different reason. This Sunday begins Advent, a season set aside in the

Christian calendar to reflect on the coming of Jesus

into the world the first time and also that he will return again a second time.

Now, for many Christians, Advent's thought of as just kind of an extended Christmas, but it's

much more than that. In fact, this season is one of the greatest gifts from the early church to us. I've asked my

friend and colleague, Dr. Glenn Sunshine, to share his thoughts about this very important time of year.

Here's Dr. Sunshine. As Christmas approaches, I always find myself connecting to the past, both my

family's history, and beyond that, to my family's history and beyond that to the more

distant history of the Church through the ages. Perhaps I do that because the theme

of Advent is waiting for God to fulfill his promise to save his people. We think

back to the centuries the people of Israel waited for the coming of the Messiah,

and we look ahead to Jesus' return, and remember the centuries

that church has been longing for his coming. And pondering those long centuries of

waiting gives me a feeling of connection with the past, and makes me want to join in

with the history and practices of those who, like me, were looking ahead in hope for Jesus'

return. In line with this, I'd like to introduce you to the O antiphants, an Advent practice that

goes back at least to the 8th century and possibly to the beginning of the 6th century, or

even earlier.

An antiphon is a short response recited or sung during a church service before or after a psalm

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