How many of us have Christmas decorations up? Does it feel like Christmas begins earlier every year or is that just me? Someone sent me a card which says “there are twelve days of Christmas and none of them are in November.” I’m not bah humbug about things but I just want us to do Advent first. Because to do Christmas properly we need to do Advent.
How many of us have an Advent calendar the first door of which you open tomorrow? The idea is to make a journey slowly one day at a time.
Every year, I’m amazed that advent calendars continue to sell out.
I thought their days were numbered.
I came home to find all the windows wide open and everything had been taken.
Next year I'll be hiding my advent calendar.
I don't have an advent calendar
So I'm just opening cupboards and eating whatever is in there
What happened to the man who stole an advent calendar?
He got 25 days
Christmas comes like a juggernaut if we are not careful. For some reason my busiest week in December is this coming week with a village hall Christmas party, a WI carol service, a scouts carol service, a Christmas concert and a Christmas dinner. I think I can avoid Christmas until tomorrow night then it gets full on day after day after day.
The good news of Advent is that Christ comes among us in unexpected ways, at unexpected times, now. Get ready, because you never know when Jesus will show up, as Mother Teresa called it, “in his most distressing disguise.” She knew when she and the sisters of her community served lepers, the poor, the outcast, they were really serving Christ.
Jesus also said he would come to us in other ways too, ways we might miss if we are looking only for big, showy, obvious ways. Jesus Christ comes here to meet us when we come for communion in bread and wine: the body of Christ for the Body of Christ. He comes in relationships given to us. He comes in conversations and encounters. He comes in those moments of silence we create to listen for him. He comes if only we would open our eyes to see him. So, yes, Jesus Christ comes among us every day.Advent calls us to be people who believe in hope. For he is here!
I found these words of Canon Charlie Allen one of the clergy at Durham Cathedral helpful when I read them this week:
We do not give up or despair when the sands of life shift under our feet, when we are overwhelmed, or exposed to something we cannot control or foresee. When we are shaken by the conflict at display in our world, by leaders who build walls rather than bridges, by the apathy of some towards the vulnerable in our midst.
Because an Advent people are open to the possibility of a different future, to the possibility of the impossible, to the call of faith, hope, and love, of courage, compassion and beauty, of forgiveness and healing. The ways of the kingdom that tug at our hearts and at our souls.
I don’t know what the future holds and neither do you. But I know this. That the voice of Advent speaks of the possibility of a new life, a transformed life, of all that is longed for but seems improbable and out of reach.”
Christ has come, Christ is come, Christ will come. This is Advent - ‘Journeys end in lovers meeting. Before the final wedding of God with humanity the lovers meet many times… the ‘Come’ theme from whichever end we view it is about the advance of lovers…The gift is certain, because God is already pledged, already in our world, already Emmanuel. We are irrevocably, unconditionally, loved.’ (Maria Boulding, The Coming of God).
God of justice and peace,
from the heavens you rain down mercy and kindness,
that all on earth may stand in awe and wonder
before your marvellous deeds.
Raise our heads in expectation,
that we may yearn for the coming day of the Lord
and stand without blame before your Son, Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
In three days time I’ll stand and wish a lot of WI ladies a happy Christmas and I will sing carols. I will wish the church a happy Christmas soon. But I just want us to have a holy and watchful Advent first.
Drop down ye heavens from above,
And let the skies pour down righteousness.
Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people;
My salvation shall not tarry.
I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions.
Fear not, for I will save thee;
For I am the Lord thy God,
The holy one of Israel, thy redeemer.
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