In Advent, we are called upon to take both our God and ourselves seriously. We are called upon to recognize that life can be snuffed out in an instant and to live accordingly. We are to stay awake, to watch out for signs of God’s activity in the world. This is a difficult thing to do in the midst of modern, secular, consumerist, Christmas. After 2000 years, we’ve sort of stopped looking for Christ to come, and we’ve settled for a pale, weak, neon lit imitation. We schedule office Christmas parties and celebrate family dinners. We buy presents for our spouses and partners and children and other significant others. We decorate our homes with lights and trees and ornaments. We send out holiday greeting cards to people over the country and we hope that our sanity and our bank account will hold out until New Year’s Day. The church’s plea during Advent is that in the midst of all the “Holiday Hoopla” we will remember to look for Christ, to seek signs of his coming, to be alert for his presence “in, with and under” all the gifting and decorating and partying.
Many of us have for many years held onto a vision of a hopeful future, a future in which no children starve or fall victim to incurable diseases, a future in which people lay aside their differences to worship a common God at a common altar, a future in which peace reigns, where military budgets are empty and schools and hospitals are fully funded. And yet we wait, and we wait, and we seek to stay awake, and we seek to trust and hope and believe that God is coming; God is really coming. And we continue to look for signs that God is just around the corner.
Let me suggest that instead of merely looking for signs of Christ’s coming – our more important invitation is to be a sign of Christ’s coming; in our families, in our communities, in our world. I am inviting us to a season of active waiting, of busy anticipation, of involved preparation, of participatory readiness. As we enter this season of Advent, I invite each of us to not only look for signs, but also to be the signs, of Christ life in the midst of the world.
1) Take five minutes every morning and make a Christmas list. Not a list of things to buy, or things to do, or things you want. Instead, make a list of blessings in your life, a list of people you love and who love you in spite of yourself, a list of the signs of Christ’s life in your day-to-day world. After you’ve made your list, pray a prayer of thanks for each thing on the list
2) Take another 10 minutes every day and read a chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. There are only 28 short chapters in Matthew, so you should be able to finish it. By Christmas morning, you will have been reminded of why Jesus came and of what he did for us. By Christmas morning, you will be ready to celebrate with thankfulness and joy, and to praise the Coming of the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us.
3) Pick out five names from your Christmas card list. Pick out five people that you have almost lost touch with, five people you seldom see or speak to. Call them up or write them a personal letter or send them an email and tell them how much they mean to you and why. Thank them for being a sign of God’s presence and love in your life.
4) Perform a totally “new to you” act of charity this year. Reach out and surprise someone with the unexpected love of God. Give a part of yourself to someone in gratitude for the fact that Christ gave himself for us.
5) And finally, spend the last five minutes of every day asking God to come into your life in a fresh, new, unpredictable way this year.
But I must warn all of us to be careful. Watch out! God just might explode into our lives at a time and in a way we would never expect!
Delmer