“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me…”
MALACHI 3:1 (NIV)
Our neighborhood is manic about Christmas lights. In the same moments people were deciding whether or not marshmallows-on-sweet-potatoes belong in a sandwich made from leftover turkey, my neighborhood started putting up Christmas lights. In our family, we felt like we may have needed a bit more time to let the tryptophan weaken its grip on us before we started untangling the strands of Christmas glory. We could feel the disdain from our neighbors about our lack of impetus. They didn’t say it. But we knew it. They purposely sent their dogs to our lawn during this past week (I’m sure of it) — a kind of Whoville meets A Few Good Men “code red” to get us moving. Evidently, we needed to get with the program. Lights needed to be up on our house. “Immediately” would not be soon enough. We have to be ready.
Being ready is what the season of Advent is about. Advent is a word meaning “arrival.” It’s a time in which we dually place ourselves both in the 1st century amid the shepherds, the kings, the peasant farmers, the mothers, and the fishermen who felt the very real tyranny of Rome and our present world, twenty centuries later in which we have, once again, to wonder about the reality of senseless and unthinkable violence. Whether now, or then, we’re ready for new world -a world with at least a measure of more peacefulness.
In truth, we have a reason both for sadness about the state of things and a reason to celebrate about what will someday be. We can celebrate because the work that has begun in Jesus, which will one day come to completion, is being carried out through us and into the world now. We’ll need to prepare our hearts for all God has called us to be a part of, to living in eager anticipation of His future. That future, God’s future, is one of hope, peace, love, and joy.
The Sunday night, December 6th, beginning at 5p, we’ll get ready for Christmas at our annual tree lighting. We’ll remember what celebrating looks like. We’ll leave behind the memories of dirty dishes of Thanksgiving. Black Friday, Small business Saturday, Send-your-dog-to-the-Maguire’s-lawn-Sunday, and Cyber-Monday are all in the rearview mirror. We’ll gather as people in need of celebration -even if we don’t feel like it. So, come, bring a friend. Refresh your memory about what Christmas joy looks like. We’ll laugh. We’ll throw snow at each other (we’ve ordered 10 tons of it). Our kids will eat too many cookies and drink too much cocoa. We’ll huddle around cups of chili made by our own Mariners family (if you’d like to contribute, contact Kasaundra Domen at kdomen@marinerschurch.org). We’ll wear hideous Christmas sweaters -the way Jesus would’ve wanted it. We’ll sing, perhaps not perfectly, but loudly nonetheless. We’ll prepare our hearts for the arrival of Jesus. Your heart will be aimed at Christmas, and even if you don’t feel it now, you’ll be ready too.
See you soon,
Jeff