Third Sunday of Advent

Advent has rushed past. This Sunday is the third Sunday of advent. It has gone by far too quickly. Our preparations are not complete.

When we say that, most of us mean our shopping, decorating, card writing, and cooking preparations. Most of us don’t take near the time we should with spiritual preparation. There’s always time for that once the holidays are over.

However, once January 1st rolls around it is quickly back to business as usual. Then it is time to lose those pounds we gained with all the holiday food. Life chews up our spiritual time, doesn’t it?

For some reason, this season more than others in the past I have noticed the absence of Christ in Christmas. Don’t worry. This isn’t going to be a call for a boycott on whatever store is saying “Happy Holidays” as opposed to “Merry Christmas.” It doesn’t seem to be a removal of Christ from Christmas but more of an ignoring that he was ever there in the first place. We forget that St. Nicholas was just that, a saint, a person trying to live out the call of Christ to make an difference in the world through his Christian faith, a man obeying the Great Commission. Somewhere along the way following Santa became more attractive than following Jesus. No, I am not a Santa basher either. I love the Jolly Old Elf. I watch Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer almost every year. I love Miracle on 34th Street, The Santa Clause, and many of the other holiday favorites.
Face it; the Santa stories are more interesting than the original Christmas story, unless you happened to be one of the actual participants in the original. I mean, really, babies are born all the time. As far as we know there wasn’t anything spectacular about the actual birth of Jesus, I mean the actual birthing process. No Hallelujah Chorus sounded as Christ was laid in the manger. I do think it would have been a nice touch though, don’t you? Certainly, God could have arranged an angel chorus to back up the birth of Christ rather than just sing to a few shepherds.

It is hard for us to grasp the idea of God being born in a barn. It is so other worldly that it seems EXACTLY that, something from another world. Somehow Santa seems more personal, but I can’t possibly comprehend how someone breaking the bonds of time and space, bridging the gap between the divinity and humanity, taking our ugliness and transforming it into something worthy of a seat at the Christmas feast of our Creator could be anything other than personal.

Imagine, a person shows up at your door after you have done some the most horrific things possible to them and they want to tell you how much you mean to them. They want to show you in the most meaningful way possible. How could that be ordinary? Certainly, one of the details about Christmas is that Christ is in the details. Christ is wrapped around every aspect of Christmas. He isn’t the center of it. Rather, he is the whole thing. Our preparation involves giving him exactly that place, allowing him to wrap himself around every aspect of our lives and holding us in his ever-loving arms.

Pastor Craig