But it’s not. It’s still Advent.
The season of Advent is about much more than just chocolate Advent calendars or Elf on the Shelf. Advent is a time to stop and wait. It’s the time that we say, it’s not Christmas yet. It’s the time when we try to hold back the deluge of Christmas. It’s a time to prepare ourselves to greet the Christ child once again. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas. I love coming to church on Christmas Eve to light the candles and sing Silent Night, to hear the story of Christ’s birth told once again. But I also love the feeling of waiting. I love the buildup of anticipation as we wait, as we light one more candle on the Advent wreath each week, seeing the light grow until we finally light the center Christ candle on Christmas Eve.
This year for Advent, as we wait for Christmas to come again, my church has been talking about the things that can’t wait: hope for the coming of God’s kingdom, repentance for the ways we have stood in the way of peace, delight in God’s promises, and courage to show radically generous love to all we encounter. These are things that are essential to our daily lives as Christians. They can’t wait. But Christmas can. Advent makes Christmas even more special for me, because forcing myself to slow down and wait makes the rejoicing of Christ’s birth even greater. Advent makes me slow down and remember why Christ came in the first place, why we need Christ, and all the work that we still have to do to make this world look more like the kin-dom of heaven. I can wait six more days for Christmas. I can wait to celebrate. Because in the grand scheme of things, there are much more important things that can’t wait, and I choose to focus on those.
The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program provides a daily lectionary of scriptures based on themes of peace and peacemaking. Over the course of 2019-20 I’ll be basing my blogs on one or more of the scriptures from each week’s lectionary. If you would like to follow along in the lectionary with me, here are next week’s scriptures:
Sunday – Numbers 24:14-17
Monday – Hosea 2:18-23
Tuesday – Isaiah 7:10-17
Wednesday – Matthew 1:18-25
Thursday – Hebrews 1:1-4
Friday – John 1:1-14
Saturday – Psalm 147