Moving through Advent
Are you ready? Advent is a season of preparation and whether we are ready or not, the time has come. The baby will be born. The angels will sing. The shepherds will witness the glory. The magi will come to pay homage to a newborn king. The push to get ready for Christmas is part of my Christmas memory-bank: parents urging excited kids to go to bed, so they could begin the assembly of new bikes or Barbie dream cars; the rush to finish Christmas cards before Dec. 24th so they could be postmarked before Christmas Day; the last-minute shopping for that one elusive present; the hurry to finish house-cleaning before company comes. The rush to be ready.
Maybe that urge to have everything in the proper place, the urge to have everything finished, perfect, clean and ready is born from our need for control: that Christmas only comes when everything is in its place: ordered, structured, controlled.
But Christmas comes whether our house is clean or dirty. Christmas comes even when our to-do list is unfinished. Christmas comes in the messiness, challenge and randomness of our lives. And our scripture reassures us that - even if we are not ready - God is born in the mess. From the gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verse 7 says this:
“And [Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them at the inn.”
What were the conditions into which Mary gave birth to her baby? In her book, “Light of the World,” author Amy-Jill Levine explained, “Inns were public spaces; Mary needed privacy.” So, she was taken to a place that housed animals, apart from the bustling crowds of pilgrims traveling to their hometowns to register for the census, apart from the prying eyes of strangers and into the mess of a stable.
And God is born in the mess. It’s a profound image for us today - that God doesn’t wait until we are ready. God is coming and he is born in the mess of our lives, not in a sterile environment, not when our to-do list is complete, not when we deem we are good enough, but right in the middle of the messiness; Jesus is born to us.
“What I am coming to learn as I grow older now, though, is that he doesn’t just come to us there, but [God] uses those moments to offer us opportunities to grow closer to him.
After all, Jesus has plenty of his own experience with the messes of life, from being born in a messy stable right through to the horrible mess of the Cross. When we follow our own plans, we tend to want to keep things picture-perfect. God’s plan for us is entirely different and fraught with messes of all shapes and sizes.”
As we move through this season of Advent and prepare to welcome Jesus into our lives once again, we want to be prepared – with the house cleaned and decorated, with all our relationships mended, with only joy and happiness in our homes… But that is not always possible. But the birth of Jesus reminds us that God is born in the mess of life, too. That God comes into the world when the world is a mess, to an ordinary young woman and her very confused partner. This EXTRAORDINARY gift comes to us in the ordinary mess of human life.
Blessings to you during Advent and always,
Pastor Krista