Dear friends in Christ,

The holidays are upon us! This is that special time of year where ministers around the world prepare to tell their flock that the season is about Jesus, not commercialism, ad nauseum. We also like to remind our parishioners that we are in the season of Advent, not Christmas, and then argue whether the liturgical colors in the weeks leading up to Christmas are purple or Sarum blue. Finally, on Rose Sunday, when we light the pink rose candle and the priests wear pink rose vestments, we argue whether a man wearing full-length pink rose dress robe vestment is still manly. Never one to question tradition, I am warming and gearing up for the rigor of the next six weeks.

Here’s the thing about the true nature of missing the point every year: Advent is about waiting. It’s about anticipating. It’s about delayed gratification. It’s about the fact that there is nothing, nothing you can do to make it get here faster, and nothing that will stop it from coming even if we’re not ready. Thanksgiving is such a wonderful beginning to the holidays because it is about thankfulness and togetherness and a time when folks who were enemies put aside their differences to eat together – or at least that’s the story we’re told. But then we launch into Black Friday like a horse out of a starting gate and we forget that we’re actually waiting quietly and noticing.

We are allowing the details of the brokenness of the world to come into sharp focus around us and wait in anticipation for God’s perfectly-timed gift and solution. So I’m not going to tell you not to sing Christmas carols early or shop til you drop or even decorate in red, white, and green during Advent. What I am going to do is invite you to notice the things that make you sad, or worried, or frightened, and wait for God’s perfect intervention. Because if you do this, you’ll be in good company. The ancient peoples like Mary and Joseph and the folks in Jerusalem and Galilee and Rome all hustled and bustled, too. They shopped til they dropped and dressed in garish, out-of-season colors and sang songs in the wrong month and argued what men and women and even priests should or should not wear. They debated appropriate liturgical colors and rituals, too. But they also were surrounded by circumstances that saddened them, worried them, and frightened them. And they trusted that God would intervene and provide a solution. They waited. They waited in anticipation of the fulfilment of the same words of Isaiah that we read every Christmas Advent:

Then Isaiah said: ‘Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:13-14)

Now is a time to consciously turn all of your weariness over to God as you go about all of your regular Christmas Advent Holiday activities. Don’t sweat whether you are doing the holidays right or wrong. Trust that sometimes, everything is wrong, and God will make it right.

This Sunday we will be studying a passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans, about how God is in fact making everything right whether you notice it or not, and all will in fact be all right regardless of any circumstances human beings can create.

At Bible Study on Monday 11/25 at 6 PM, we will be trying to answer the question, “How did America get Christianity so wrong?” The answer may surprise you.

We will look forward to seeing you there.

Many blessings,

Pastor Tracy