GENEralities

It’s Advent again. Christmas is only days away. As usual at this time of year, I’m wondering what on earth to write that can possibly be new or original; but then “new” probably isn’t the issue here. After all, Christmas comes to us wrapped in a garland of history; a gritty story of real men and women struggling with real life with all its challenges; like politics, violence, power, death, angels, poverty, injustice, sexuality and illegitimate birth.

And everybody waits.

The children, of course, are avidly counting sleeps until the big day. We wait for decisions about many things; for a call from a loved one, for Christmas mail, for the results medical tests, in hope that a separated spouse will return, to see whether the Anglican Communion will survive intact when the Primates respond to the Windsor Report. We are a people in waiting and especially in Advent.

I’m reminded of the old TV ad about the ketchup which is so rich and thick that it takes a very long time for it to come out of the bottle. The song featured in the ad was Carly Simon’s Anticipation. I Googled and here’s what I found:

We can never know about the days to come
But we think about them anyway.

Her words seem sad and not very hopeful. In our Advent anticipation, unlike Carly Simon, we Christians do know something about those days to come. The Bible is very rich and thick with hope for our future. Jesus is coming back. In the meantime, as we think about those days to come, we have to live in the here and now when the sauce hasn’t yet come out of the bottle.

Mary’s and Joseph’s here and now in the days leading up to that first Christmas must have been hard. As they thought about the days to come, they must have wondered about the mysterious, angelic messages they had both received. Childbirth was a dangerous business in those days. The prospect of giving birth so far from home must have been frightening. They would have been hoping, as we all do, that things would be well with the delivery and with their new baby. They would be hoping for joy, peace and contentment in their new baby’s life.

When her time came to deliver, Mary would have been glad the waiting was over. Joseph, too, probably. After that came the joy of meeting and admiring their new baby boy. Imagine how Mary must have felt when all those shepherds showed up in the delivery room! She and Joseph must have wondered at the tale of angel choirs.

Finally, after all that waiting; in the midst of all the difficulties and discomfort of real life; came joy, wonder and goodness. Jesus was finally there, in the flesh.

And because of that Advent, we celebrate this one in our here and now. Carly Simon again:

And I wonder if I’m really with you now
Or just chasin’ after some finer day

What does it mean to be with Jesus now? Advent is about Jesus coming again, but it is also about his presence now. An important part of the Advent task is to explore and develop the present relationship.

We must resist the temptation to fast-forward through the Advent wait by chasing, too early, after the bright sugar-plum Christmas finer day to come. We must be with Jesus by getting real. How?

In simple, symbolic ways, like using an Advent devotional and restricting our Christmas lights to blue until Christmas Eve. In more complicated, demanding ways like making ourselves present to others—the real men and women around us struggling with real life; the politics, violence, power, angels, poverty, injustice, sexuality and illegitimate birth of our day.

We must head for our own Bethlehems as we hope and prepare for new life in the mangers of our hearts. We must deal with the conflict and challenges that will come afterwards just as Mary and Joseph did. After all, “We are not here to avoid conflict,” as past Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, wrote, “but to redeem it. At the heart of our faith is a cross and not, as in some religions, an eternal calm.”

The Advent waiting will soon be over for another year and that “finer day” will arrive. In the midst of the realities of your life may you have a rich Advent and, when the time finally comes, a lovely Christmas, thick with joy, wonder and all the goodness of Jesus Himself.

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