We all piled into the van. We pulled out of the driveway and someone asked if the radio could be turned on. The van is almost always set at 88.1, the Christian music station, partially because it’s just simpler not having to worry about having to explain Sabrina Carpenter’s lyrics to the kids. The radio came to life and what did I hear? Christmas music?!?!? This was Christ the King Sunday! November 23rd. We hadn’t hit Advent, not even Thanksgiving yet. But there it was, music that ostensibly was there to “prepare me for Christmas”.
We have found ourselves in a new church year, which means that we find ourselves once again in the season of Advent. The time of Advent is a time of preparation, a time of longing, a time of looking forward – not only to Christmas, but to what Christmas brought to us, a Savior who died for us and promised that He was going to return.
Advent is kind of weird for us, I’ll acknowledge that. I mean, it isn’t that we’re against the idea of “preparing for Christmas” – obviously 88.1 has been doing that with their playlist since something like middle November, not to mention that I think I saw Christmas stuff out at Home Depot in October, and it’s probably been Christmas in craft stores since something like September. The difference in Advent is that it isn’t necessarily as much as preparing us for Christmas as it is preparing us for Christ.
Preparing for Christmas has all sorts of financial and sentimental drivers. The earlier that Amazon can get you to “prepare for Christmas,” the better their bottom line, but also there’s something to the sentimental Christmas nostalgia that we just can’t seem to get enough of: time with family, cookies everywhere, peace and goodwill toward men. Yet still, this stuff of nostalgia often hits us like “Law”. It’s stuff to strive to achieve in the hope of finding joy and peace, not something (or Someone) that brings us joy and peace itself.
To all those things, Advent brings a nagging question: But is this preparing us for Christ? Christmas is good, but without Christ, you’re left simply with a desire that is encapsulated by the rest of the word in English, “mas”, a word in Spanish that means “more”. Advent asks us, “Are you wanting Christ? or are you wanting more?” More Christmas music, more Christmas presents, more Christmas glitz — or Christ? A baby born in a manger to struggling first time parents trying to do the right thing and follow a confusing mission that God had sent them on.
This Advent, our “Advent in Babylon” series is going to ask these sorts of nagging questions as we compare the Kingdom of God with the Kingdom of Babylon, the sinful world around us. But our goal isn’t going to be to be killjoys. Rather, the goal is going to be to offer something that only Christ can offer – true peace, true joy, and true life found in His work for us. Let’s prepare for Christ and let Christmas happen, and maybe we’ll see that it is somehow different.