Be Prepared!

First published in The Daily Sentinel, Friday, Dec. 7, 2007

When I was in my later elementary years, my mother made a discovery that truly changed how we celebrated Christmas. She discovered Advent.

Advent, of course, is very old. Its origins date back to the early Christian church – somewhere during the 4^th century – as Christians remembered and celebrated events of Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection. The name originated from the Latin word “adventus”, which means “coming.” During Advent, Christians through the centuries prepared themselves for the coming of the Christ Child.

But some Christian traditions, including most Baptists, do not celebrate Advent or other special seasons. Since all of these special celebrations are found in the roots of Catholicism (which was the predominant church for most of Christian history until 500 years ago), many post-Reformation Christian groups chose to eliminate these practices in favor of a “simpler” worship.

My family’s Baptist history goes back many generations. In fact, my 3^rd-great grandfather is credited as being the first Baptist preacher to cross west of the Nueces River in Texas back in the 1840s. So when my mother discovered Advent, it really WAS a new thing for us!

Mom bought a special candle holder that held five candles: one central candle surrounded by four additional candles. The center candle is the “Christ” candle, and it is not lit until Christmas. The four surrounding candles represent the four Sundays before Christmas. As each Sunday is reached, an additional candle is lit. When Christmas arrives, all five candles are lit.

But celebrating Advent is more than just lighting candles each Sunday and Christmas. She also bought a family devotional that had suggested Scripture readings, meditations on those readings, prayers and songs. Our family made it a habit to gather around the kitchen table and have these “mini-worship” services together.

We read passages that prophesied the coming of the Messiah, such as Micah 5:2, 4-5 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times… He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.”

We sang songs like “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” – “Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee. Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art; dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.”

You will not find many references to that Bible text or song in our modern preparations for Christmas. In fact, in the rush for today’s Christmas, we are often neglectful of Jesus himself. Unfortunately, this was true 30 years ago, so my mom’s discovery of Advent was especially welcomed in our family. We wanted something to help us slow down, to help us remember the true meaning of Christmas, to help us be READY for Christmas!

And what does it mean to be ready for Christmas? Its not getting all the presents wrapped and under the tree before the family arrives from out of town. It isn’t getting the car loaded before taking the trip to Grandma’s. It isn’t even simply getting to a Christmas Eve worship service.

To get ready for Christmas, we need to recognize what’s really happening at Christmas: God is coming to earth! In this little baby, the Savior of the world enters the world. God becomes human and thus fulfills Micah’s prophecy: the one from old becomes the one who leads the flock into peace.

To put that into a 21^st century context, this little baby is born from a homeless, unwed mother who’s had to travel to pay taxes for governmental services she didn’t necessarily receive or want, in a town that didn’t have affordable (or even available) housing. Yet that little baby was also the Creator of the universe.

So be prepared … in all the ADVENT-ageous ways!