Extended Season, Diluted Message

I am always amazed at how early the Christmas “season” starts. In most parts of the country, it seems to begin after Halloween and ends after all the deals of Black Friday and Cyber Monday have expired. There is so much preparation for the big day and it all occurs before Advent begins. Thus, by the time Christmas Day arrives we are suffering from mission creep. We are tired and bored with the whole ordeal and ready for it to end. We want it over with, so we can go back to life as normal. Christmas is turned into a to-do list instead of having child-like expectations and faith. In all of this we miss the most important preparation that we sorely need.

            The purpose of the season of Advent is not to have a well decorated house, gifts smartly and neatly wrapped and placed carefully under the elegantly decorated tree. This superficial preparation focuses on the temporal and not the eternal. While we do look back and remember Jesus’s first visit, we also need to look ahead to his coming again. As Anglicans, we affirm each week in the Nicene Creed that “he will come again.’ When he does come he will not be as loving merciful Savior but as just and righteous judge.

            Preparation is important. I realized this the other day as we hosted the ladies of the church at our house for their monthly Women’s Fellowship. This was the first time most of them to come to our current residence. So, we had to make sure it was clean and straight and everything in its proper place looking just right. In my years of ordained ministry, we have hosted many distinguished people at our house form archbishops all the way down. I quipped that the getting ready for an archbishop’s visit requires a whole lot more cleaning and preparation than for a bishop. And hosting a bishop requires more than a visit of a canon or other lesser dignitary. Either way, we have to clean house for whatever visitor is coming!

            Our life with Jesus Christ calls for more than just rearranging the decks chairs on the Titanic. There are requirements for a stringent cleaning. But when Jesus comes, he does not just visit but he takes up residence in us. This cleaning needs more than Lysol and Mr. Clean to achieve the desired results. Clorox will not accomplish it. We can only be cleansed by the precious blood of Christ. This cleansing is not automatic. It is not as simple as having a computerized floor cleaner that sweeps floor all over and gets every nook and cranny while we watch in amusement or sleep through it. No, this cleaning – this preparation – requires our active participation. We need to be intentional in our cleaning and preparing of getting our interior house in order. We need to engage in practices that will help us to welcome the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 

            This time of year, so many people have their house exquisitely decorated while their lives are a mess. Much like their artificial Christmas trees, they look good but there is no life in them. They are nicely adorned and when the season is over, you put it back into the box until next year. If they have a real tree, they have spent time picking the right tree, placing the ornaments and lights so as to give off a glow for the season. All of this is time is spent while neglecting the more important issues that are actually smothering their Christmas joy. At Christmas, it may be unseemly to be more worried about my joy in the Lord than to the joy of the world. Am I ready to receive the Savior by offering him the best I have to give? Or am I faking it by putting on all the correct wreaths, garlands and lights, making me look good on the outside and totally ignoring the darkness and chaos on the inside? It takes lots of preparation to receive a baby into the world. How much more do we need to do for the coming of the King of the Universe? Take the necessary time and effort to prepare yourself this year. Then, when Christ does arrive you will be more than ready, and you will have abundant joy in his presence and the best Christmas ever!