(submission for column in Nov.28/13 issue of Blyth-Brussels Newspaper The Citizen)
This Sunday (December 1) marks the first
Sunday of Advent, the roughly four-week period leading up to Christmas.
“Advent” derives from a Latin word meaning arrival or coming; each year
Christians recall the coming of Jesus, the Son of God, in human form to heal
and deliver, to teach us truth from the Heavenly Father, and become our perfect
substitutionary sacrifice on the cross at Easter.
Another similar word that derives
from the same Latin root is “Adventure”. According to the dictionary, an
‘adventure’ is a “daring enterprise, unexpected incident, hazardous activity”.
Yet it’s easy for Advent not to have much “adventure”! As years pass and family
traditions and social commitments accumulate, the month of December can become
cluttered with reunions and parties and routines that are definitely ‘activity’
but hardly ‘unexpected’. For example, perhaps we always put up our
Christmas lights in the same place (and we always wait until it’s thirty
below to put them up, so nearly freeze our fingers off!). We always get
together with her side the Sunday before Christmas and his side
on Christmas day. We always go to the office party that weekend and always
eat (or drink) too much. We always find ourselves in a panic to get the
gifts wrapped on Christmas Eve, and always rush through the opening of
gifts because we’ve got to be on the road by 10 a.m.
Does the sight of your calendar when
you flip to December make you groan because of all the extra activities leading
up to Christmas? Do you arrive at Boxing Day ready to collapse, almost to be
laid out in a box yourself, because of the hectic pace of activities this
month? Is non-stop busy-ness and getting frazzled really what this season is
supposed to be about?
Perhaps it’s time to re-examine our
usual pre-Christmas routines and ask if there are things that can be dropped
for the sake of preserving sanity, and reserve some time to genuinely connect
with friends, loved ones, and God rather than continually be run off our feet
(not to mention crushed in the shopping malls). What could we do differently
this year to change what’s become a “rut” into a fresh advent-ure?
That first Coming (Advent) of Christ
was anything but usual: it was a very unique, one-of-a-kind event. Over seven
centuries earlier, the prophet Isaiah predicted to King Ahaz, “The virgin will
be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
(Isaiah 7:14) Virgins conceiving and giving birth is certainly not an everyday
event! It was so far-fetched that even righteous Joseph figured that young
Mary, who had been pledged to him in betrothal for marriage, must have
been sleeping around in order to become pregnant – until an angel appeared to
him in a dream and assured him that God was responsible. (Matthew 1:19f)
It was not usual for babies
to be born in a stable and laid in a manger. Any of us would want our own
newborns to have better treatment than that! Yet God used an emperor to declare
a census so that Joseph, a citizen of Galilee far to the north in Israel, would
have to relocate to overcrowded Bethlehem so King David’s descendant would be
born there in fulfilment of Micah’s prophecy (Micah 5:2). A baby in a manger
would be an easy (and appropriate!) sign for shepherds to find, after they’d
been clued-in by angels to this one-of-a-kind Messiah. (Luke 2:12) And to be
‘born in a barn’ was strangely fitting for the humility of One who laid aside
heavenly glory, humbling Himself to become obedient to the Father’s will that
we might be saved – even if that meant going so far as to die on a cross.
(Philippians 2:8)
And it was certainly an “unexpected
incident” for Magi from the east (probably Persia or southern Arabia) to show
up in Jerusalem at the court of murderous, paranoid King Herod, inquiring
exactly where the new “king of the Jews” was to be born. (Matthew 2:1f) All
Jerusalem was “disturbed” along with Herod, who no doubt feared yet another
duplicitous plot against his regency. And what sort of rare astronomical
convergence must it have been that prompted their long and dangerous journey?
One unique enough for the Magi to unequivocally identify it as “His star”.
It was a most exceptional concert of events that brought the Wise Men, allowed
them to find the child Jesus who’d been born essentially right under Herod’s
nose, then allowed both the Magi and Jesus’ family to escape the chilling fury
of Herod who was used to killing in cold blood to preserve his reign.
But what’s the most unusual,
unexpected aspect of Advent? Stranger than a virgin birth? Weirder than a baby
laying in a manger? More peculiar than “wise men” doing such a dumb thing as
asking a killer-king where his rival’s been born?
The most unusual thing about
Christmas is God’s motivation for the whole thing in the first place. It is
unfathomable that a perfectly just, good, holy, almighty deity would sacrifice
what was most precious – an eternal, infinitely-intense love relationship
bonding Father and Son – for the sake of mere mortal sinners like you and me!
The Apostle Paul described just how “rare” and unthinkable this was: “You see,
at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for
the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for
a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own
love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
(Romans 5:6_8) Amazing! For a world of lost sinners – He would do that?
Advent was truly a “daring
enterprise / hazardous activity” for Jesus. A real adventure, a one-time
occurrence that nevertheless procured eternity in heaven for those who trust in
Him. Surely our Christmas celebrations, then, should be anything but ho-hum.
So, as you review your calendar,
what “routines” have cluttered your schedule that could be eliminated in order
to carve out some time to focus more on the real meaning of the season? Are
there functions that have little to actually do with Christmas, and even less
redeeming value (perhaps even posing a safety threat on account of substances
consumed)? Are you absolutely sure those long distances travelled to shopping
malls are necessary – perhaps gifts might be found closer to home? Are some of
your relatives so well-off already that they would understand if, instead of
buying a gift of questionable usefulness, you made a donation in their honour
for disaster relief in the Philippines, or to help some third-world
entrepreneur receive a microfinance startup loan in order that their family
might have enough to eat? Instead of yet again watching Mr. Bean drive away
with a huge Christmas tree or get his head stuck in a turkey (funny as that
is), what about treating some elderly neighbours to a carol and some cookies?
What decorations could be left unplugged this year so you can find some
quiet moments to reflect before God on your own current purpose in life, and
how that relates to the purpose for which Jesus came in the first place?
Now, you’re starting to put the
advent-ure back in Advent! When your wheels stop churning, you just might hear
the whir of angels’ wings.
