Dear All Saints Family,

Advent greetings to you this month!  It is hard to believe that another year has come and gone.  Christmas and the New Year are right around the corner.  I must say I love this time of year, the Advent Season.  There is always an excitement in the air.  A festive spirit begins around Thanksgiving and builds week by week until Christmas.  The child in me comes alive with anticipation…I love the smell of fresh trees and wreaths, the sound of the familiar music almost everywhere you go, the sight of the lights that dress up the houses and yards, the delicious treats, the busyness on the street and in the stores, and even the Christmas shopping itself.  I always take great comfort that family will be together.  It is an exciting time, and in my childlike naiveté this time of year, it is a safe time, where all seems well in the world.

While I love the Advent Season, I also find it to be one of the most hectic and stressful times of the year.  Today, I am reminded that Advent is not supposed to be a daily pursuit of checking things off of the to-do lists, so that on Christmas Day, at long last, we can put our feet up, relax, and exhale.  In my being shamelessly caught up in the very things I love about Advent, it is very easy for me to forget that this holy season is less about holiday cheer and more about the Holy One, who came once, and will come again in great power and glory.  Beware the inadvertent tendency to miss the meaning of Christmas in the rush of Advent busyness!

I heard one of my former priests echo a similar sentiment one time, his tendency to be drawn away from the central story behind the Advent Season in all of the busyness and excitement.  He offered to us, in the manner of David Letterman, “A Top Ten List of Things Not to Do During Advent this Year.”  It is one I have tried to live by since, some years better than others.  I thought I would share it with everyone today that we too might not succumb to the same temptation.  In descending order:

Number 10:  Do not forget your rituals. Be cautious that you don’t treat Advent as just another busy time of year.  Embrace rituals in your personal and/or family life that help you stop and prayerfully ponder the gift of the Incarnation.  When we enter the Advent Season, life is supposed to be and feel different.  It is no longer “ordinary time.”  What do you do out of the ordinary each year to mark these special weeks leading up to Christmas?  Consider meditating on Scripture, talk with your children about meaningful Christmas experiences from your past, and share with them your own experience of the Good News again.  As you decorate the home, look up the background on the theological symbolism of wreaths, greenery, and the Christmas tree, candles, lights and the star on top of the tree, gifts and angel decorations, etc.  If you have children, share these meanings with them.

Number 9:  Do not add to the frenzy. Children will be frenzied enough about the excitement of Christmas from their friends and the culture; they need no further encouragement in the home.  If you are a parent, try not to add to the stimulation by being frantic yourself about last minute shopping, entertaining, and decorating.  The best way to communicate that Advent is a time of prayerful and deliberate preparation for the coming of the Christ-child is to be prayerful and deliberate yourself, which need not negate the fun and excitement of the season.

Number 8:  Do not forget your Bibles. What biblical texts point to Advent themes of preparation, promise, hope, expectancy, God’s enduring faithfulness, and the time when God’s kingdom will be fulfilled?  What is the reason for Jesus’ coming in the first place?  Out of what context and hopes did the incarnation happen for God’s people?  Advent is an excellent time of year to familiarize one’s self again with the Scriptural narrative that leads up to the birth of Jesus.  Consider ways you might make extra time during the season to be more deliberate in spending time immersed in the Bible.

Number 7:  Do not try to be perfect for the holidays. I think it is fairly safe to say that God will still love you if the Christmas tree has a bare spot on one side, if a bulb in one of the window candles is burned out, if you cannot find just that perfect gift for your Uncle Bob, or if you lost that gravy recipe your grandmother left you.  The holiday season can be stressful enough without allowing the drive for perfection to overwhelm us.

Number 6:  Do not overdo your schedule. Learn to say “no” to some of the demands or events that may beg for your presence, however enjoyable or good they may be.  Know your limits.  If you are one who tends to receive a lot of invitations to various gatherings around the holiday season, be thankful.  However, perhaps you can ask yourself if your presence at each one is really critical to your social standing in the community, not to mention truly necessary for the furtherance of God’s kingdom.

Number 5:  Do not overdo gifts. I heard recently of a study that indicates children on average receive 60% more for Christmas than they expect.  This statistic ought to sound like very good news to parents! Exactly what message is being communicated to children about the meaning of Christmas if parents overly indulge in this department?  Remember, the focus is Jesus, God’s supreme indulgence of us, not the indulgence of ourselves.

Number 4:  Do not go into additional debt. Perhaps this is easier said than done.  However, it is important to remember that the gift-giving of Christmas is supposed to spring from and be a sign of our gratitude to God for His gift-giving of Jesus.  A true gift has no strings attached.  When we end up having to pay interest on our purchase of a gift, we obviously end up paying more (perhaps over time, much more) for the gift than it was really worth.  That original gift in this way, therefore, takes on “attached strings.”  Thus, it is easy for the gift to become less an expression of gratitude and love and more a burden we carry financially.  And, as we all know, those burdens then begin to infect and bring stress to other aspects of our lives.

Number 3:  Do not expect the culture to follow your lead. More and more, a truly Christian approach to the month of December will be counter-cultural.  If you embrace much of this list, please have faith in what you are doing.  Resist the message that Christmas is about the latest fashions or electronic gadget or video game.  The health of the economy largely depends on strong retail sales in December. Jesus came into the world to die for a very different reason.

Number 2:  Do not forget the less fortunate. Remember the real Christmas story is not set in a warm and cozy house, tastefully decorated and filled with more gifts than can fit under the tree, however wonderful all that may be.  The real Christmas story is set amidst those who know enduring poverty and danger.  Do not forget the desperate plight of Mary and Joseph. “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?”  (1 John 3:17)  Advent is an excellent time to remember that not everyone in Spartanburg, not even close to most people in this congregation, enjoy the prosperity we generally do.  What more loving witness could you offer than to seek out the downtrodden as God does?

And the number one thing NOT to do during Advent this year (drum roll please)…Do not wait until Christmas Eve to come to church! Worship in the church is absolutely beautiful this time of year.  Everyone loves his or her favorite Christmas hymns.  I love Advent hymns!  I love the Advent wreaths and candles.  And while you are wise not to confuse Advent with Lent, an often-overlooked theme for the Advent season is one of repentance, our confession that the distractions and busyness of life have turned us away from all the ways that God wishes to bless us in Jesus.  Come and allow your Advent worship to bring you back to a sense of expectancy and alertness for the coming of God into our world, into your very life.  Ask God in your worship this Advent to sharpen your vision of the gift of Jesus, strengthen your love of him, embolden your witness to him in the world, enhance your expectations of all that is yet to come.  The Scripture readings for Advent not only give shape and context for Jesus’ birth narrative heard again on Christmas Eve, they bathe us in a certain spirit of watchful hopefulness.  And it is that heightened spiritual disposition that will best serve us as God seeks continually to surprise us with ever new ways of coming to us in Jesus.  May God do so again, and may we be present to receive the Lord when he comes…

Brothers and sisters, my pastor friend has spoken very wise words.  This Advent, may God grant to each of us, a special measure of grace to keep first things first.

God’s peace,

Charlie+