It’s that time of year when people wax nostalgic about the year that has passed, give thanks for all of the acts of generosity they have been called to, and name the changes they want to make in the new year.

You aren’t doing that? It’s just me?

'I really can't expect a person to get that we've got the season all mixed up' Share on X

You do know that we started Advent on Sunday, which is the church’s New Year’s, don’t you? Our liturgical calendars change over and we begin to anticipate the coming of Christ.

I would understand if you didn’t get the memo. What with all the red cups, Christmas music, and the special “Christmas Blend” at your local Starbucks. Oh, and the circulars declaring the Christmas season and the appearance of Christmas trees everywhere. And certainly cable stations celebrating “25 Days of Christmas” by showing Christmas movies throughout December or, in that cruel twist, celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas at a time that isn’t the actual 12 days of the Christmas Season (December 25 through January 5).

I really can’t expect a person to get that we’ve got the season all mixed up from our culture.

How’s a person supposed to know that our culture’s treatment of Christmas is like those tribal bands or made up Chinese phrases we tattoo on our arms? We treat Christmas like another example of cultural appropriation: with the zeal of the convert but none of the wisdom of the practitioner. We shout “More glitter! More sleigh bells! More MUSIC!” and then try to find some way to squeeze baby Jesus in there.

Channelling Ricky Bobby, the baby is our favorite Jesus. The grown up one expects us to actually do stuff.

I can’t fault you for not knowing, let alone actually wanting this season of Advent. I wouldn’t blame you if you actually wanted to skip over it. It isn’t fun. And to live it out is actually hard.

Advent is a penitential season in the church, so it isn’t a season of indulgence. That alone means the annual Christmas party just got a lot less fun. And all those cakes and cookies start to taste a whole lot more like they are soaked in sin rather than rum.

In fact, nothing about our culture, or even our churches seem to help us keep a holy Advent. We are stressed, staring at a full calendar, and making all of the special arrangements which make listening, waiting, watching seem like the wrong postures for the season. Even though they are precisely what we need.

This is why I am so big on treating Advent like our New Year’s.

I know this sounds ridiculous. But these things are all attached and enmeshed. Our year begins with waiting for the coming of Jesus: what we call the Incarnation.

But Advent isn’t just about getting ready to retell the stories again, it is about commending the act of preparation as part of our work.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus speaks of being awake! Of keeping watch! Of staying ready! For we don’t know when the Son of Humanity will come. This act of waiting and being prepared is part of our holy responsibility as Christians. We hear that throughout our many teachings and denominational groups.

As we prepare ourselves for the Incarnation at Christmas, we do this not with gifts to give to our family and friends in an annual ritual, but through the act of giving and sharing and becoming people who reflect those attributes. We are preparing ourselves for the Kingdom and the reign of Christ. So we conclude the liturgical year with the image of Christ’s reign over the Kingdom and then begin Advent with an apocalyptic reminder that Christ will return.

In other words, we are preparing ourselves now for Christ’s return in the coming days. Not because we believe the world will end every year on December 25, but because that act of preparation makes us into the people to which Christ will return.

So we turn it over this week. We open ourselves to those preparation attempts. We step out of business as usual, out from our “ordinary time” and move into an extraordinary season of new life and new opportunity.

How might you embrace that new way, that preparation for Christ?

If we think of our beloved’s return from a long trip, how will we greet them? Will we cook special food, clean our house, or find some trinket we know they will enjoy? How can we show our love?

Or what if they left because we were abusive or had a problem with addiction? What if living with us became impossible? What if we drove them away? Wouldn’t we change? Wouldn’t we become a better person for them?

How do you resolve to be a better beloved of Christ? What is your New Year’s Resolution?

 

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'Our year begins with waiting for the coming of Jesus' Share on X