Advent is one of those truly beloved church seasons. Candles start appearing in greater numbers in church and at home. Evergreens make their way indoors, substituting for the lack of real green outside. We check our basements and attics for holiday decorations. And almost everybody I know has a favorite sentimental. In our family, we love the snow angel that gets to stand tall in our foyer, lit up with electrical bulbs, greetings visitors to our home. Advent is a great time for pastors too, I can tell you that. People start coming to church in greater numbers, partly because of the atmosphere, partly because some sports seasons are finally finished, partly because, well, Christmas is coming. I enjoy the advent season as much as most people do, but I also need to tell you one thing: I still have a hard time with its actual message.
What is the message of advent? Last time I checked, advent was about the coming of Jesus, the anticipated birth of Christ; it was about preparing for God’s arrival amongst us. That seems simple enough, yet, to be honest, I feel a little bit awkward about it. I can’t help but ask, “What does that mean, preparing for the coming of Jesus?“ Do we have to pretend that we are as excited about the birth of Jesus as Mary would have been when she prepared for the birth of her first son some 2000 years ago? That’s a stretch! We can’t compete with Mary’s motherly feelings! Or do we have to spiritualize his coming by telling ourselves, “He is coming into our hearts, he is coming into our souls!” But why is he always coming in December as opposed to August or during tax season in April? And, as if these questions weren’t demanding enough, we are also hit, always on the first Sunday of Advent and almost every year following a fat Thanksgiving dinner, with a gospel passage that puts the doom and gloom on us. The texts of advent are not nearly as nice and cozy as we’d like them to be, and that doesn’t help in our observation of the season.
It’s almost as if advent is suffering from a case of bipolar disorder. There are two faces to advent, two distinctly different faces. The first face is a scary one, reminding us of the flood of Noah and the destruction that came to all those who were unprepared when a catastrophe struck. And being the global observers we are, we can relate to that. We know that nobody in Haiti was prepared for another major hurricane that took many lives and destroyed large swaths of land. I know that nobody was prepared when a truck bomb went off in a southern French city this summer, two weeks after we had been there; it hit home because we had stayed very close to the location where the bomb detonated. Scary! Of course, for most of these things you can never be fully prepared, but the advent texts still say: be alert! Be awake! Be vigilant! Perhaps in our days that also means: don’t take fake news at face value! There are too many of them floating around. Before you propagate them, make sure they are legit! That scary face of advent, which we hide very well, by the way, is urging us to live our lives with our eyes wide open, not taking for granted what God has given us. It is telling us to live each day as if it could be our last, a slogan I once saw a person using at the end of her emails. Oh, if I took that slogan seriously, would I change anything today?
The other face of advent is a much sweeter one. It is about God coming to us as a human being, a baby, with all the joy and excitement associated with that. That face is filled with smiles. In the midst of life’s many uncertainties, God is coming to us in the form of a human being, bringing out the very best in people. Who doesn’t want to cuddle a baby, make her fall asleep peacefully, make sure she is fed and safe? Who isn’t reminded in the presence of a baby that we want to make sure our world has a bright future? It is that joyful anticipation of birth that we latch onto mostly during advent, and for good reason. We are instinctively drawn to happiness, which is good.
So, if you look at advent more closely, it has this tremendous tension, making us aware that our world is a dangerous place, but also emphasizing the hope and joy that comes with new life. It has this tremendous tension between darkness and light, which fits our seasonal experience, when dusk comes at 5 in the afternoon and lights go on in streets and homes all around us, for more than 12 hours. It is as of God is asking us to feel this tension for a few weeks at least and to prepare ourselves for those times in life when darkness reaches for our souls. People who have trained in advent to be aware of both sides of the continuum will not be easily swallowed up by those darker forces. They know that there’s more out there.
I said in the beginning that I sometimes have a hard time observing advent, even as I enjoy the season. But one theme runs like a thread through all the advent stories and messages: pay attention. So, why don’t we try to pay attention during these four weeks, on a spiritual level. I will give you some suggestions, and I ask you to listen carefully and pick one for this first week of advent. Try to remember it.
Number One: pay attention to the people closest to you. How will you give and receive love in those relationships?
Number Two: pay attention to the people you encounter every day. How might your interactions aim toward being holy moments?
Number Three: pay attention to God and to what God is doing in the world. How can you awaken your senses to notice goodness and peace?
Number Four: pay attention to yourself. Self-awareness is highly underrated. How will you be awake to your body, soul, spirit, and values during Advent? How will that self-awareness translate into how you spend your time?
Prayer: Lord, during this busy season, help us to be awake and alert for your ways among us. Fill our hearts with light, even as we become aware of the darkness in our world.
Amen