Ho-ho-hold on a minute…

At the church where I worshiped last Sunday, the leaders of the service had decided to get a jump on the Advent season. I understand the impulse. Oftentimes, Advent begins on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and particularly given that the marketplace has had us awash in Christmasy stuff since before Halloween, it’s not too surprising that some folks are raring to get their Advent on, even though the season doesn’t begin until this coming Sunday.

Surprising, no, but a little disappointing.

I try not to get too crabby or soapboxy about the commercialism of Christmas, and how it seems to begin earlier every year. I figure it’s probably not going to change anytime soon, and so instead of griping about it, I work at discerning what I can offer in the midst of it: words, images, spaces in which folks can pause and ponder for a few moments before heading back into the holiday fray.

Still, my liturgical self is casting a vote in favor of church being a place, perhaps the last place, where Advent and Christmas come in their own good time. This sacred season of anticipation, preparation, and waiting is precisely a season that invites and challenges us not to be grabby with time. Jesus, the flesh-wearing God, took a full nine months (and untold millennia) to get here.

I think we can wait a few more days to start the party.

Having said all that, I definitely don’t feel a need to be a Christmas fascist; I won’t listen at your door to see if you’ve already listening to carols on the radio. God knows that most of us could use a good celebration. It’s practically December, we’ve got Thanksgiving (literally) under our belts, and I think it’s a fine and wondrous thing to be getting into the holiday spirit. Moving into Advent, though, is more than that. The season, which prepares us for Christmas but is not the same thing as Christmas, invites us to hear beyond the holiday hype; it challenges us to listen beneath and between and around the copious external stimuli, so that we can begin to discern and welcome the God who is seeking to be born in our midst and in our very own selves.

These last few days before Advent are also the final days of the year, liturgically speaking. In the cycle of Christian time, Advent marks the beginning of a new year. So this week is a threshold, an in-between space that invites us to ponder the year past and to look toward the year to come. As we cross this threshold, what would you like to carry with you from this nearly finished year? What do you want to leave behind? As we lean into the season and the year to come, what do you desire for the days ahead? What will you give your energy to? Where will you look for the God who is yet to be born?

Happy almost Advent to you.