A People Prepared

This week we start the season of Advent and unlike fall, this is a season that we can celebrate even here in Southern California. For anyone who has never had this explained to them, Advent is traditionally the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas where we focus on the build up to Jesus’ birth. We tell the stories again, we prepare our celebrations, and we prepare our hearts for the festival of Christmas. In fact, that’s what John was sent to do, it says here in Luke 1:17

Luke 1:17 (ESV)

and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

Gabriel told Zechariah, John’s father, that John would have the spirit and power of Elijah, the Old Testament prophet who did not die, he was just taken up into heaven in 2 Kings 2:11.

2 Kings 2:11 (ESV)

And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

He would have the incredible gifts of Elijah so that he can “make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” He pointed people to, prepared people for Jesus’ coming. And here, in the season of Advent, we try and point one another to, prepare ourselves for Jesus’ coming. But how do we do that? Well, I searched the internet and went to wikiHow - this is the website that taught me how to build a computer, how to wire a sub-woofer into my car, and how to brine a turkey - so I figured it wouldn’t be a bad place to start. And here were their steps to get ready for Christmas.

Setting the Scene

Planning Gifts

Eating Your Holidays Away

Planning Christmas Events

And I want to be upfront, I’m not here to tell you not to celebrate Christmas with gifts and decorations and music. I’m not here to lament the commercialization of Christmas. I’m not here to sell magnets that say “Keep the Christ in Christmas.” Instead, I want us to honestly look at how we get ready for Christmas and how our faith plays into all these different aspects of the season as we celebrate. So I want to tell you two stories about people getting ready for Christmas and compare them a little bit together.

A Christ-less Christmas

Luke absolutely loves Christmas. He starts getting excited about it in September because Christmas is only like 3 months away! As soon as Halloween is over, he pulls out all of the boxes from storage. He unpacks the wreaths and the garland and the lights and trees and the ornaments and the manger scene. Every inch of his house gets made over with Christmas decorations. Out front, he has lights on the eves, little Christmas trees lining his path, the manger scene well lit in the yard, and wreaths on every door. He spends a full day out there up and down on the ladder and carefully running all the extension cords that are going to double his power bill for the months ahead. Another day is spent fa-la-la-ing the house up. He sets up trees in every room, garlands over every door, and little elves strewn across tables and counters. He even replaces all of the candles in the house to smell like pine and cinnamon.

Once the house is decorated, Luke turns his attention to his gift planning. He spends hours coming through ads and websites for deals on the perfect gift for each of his friends and family members. He saves up money all year so that he can afford to get everyone something they will love. He gets all of the gifts way in advance, shipping delays are his worst nightmare. Once he has all of the gifts and his list is checked twice, he wraps them all carefully - each crease precisely folded and each bow beautifully tied - yeah, he doesn’t buy the stick on bows, he uses ribbon and ties them by hand, that’s how Christmas-y he is.

Along with the gifts, Luke does enough baking to single-handedly put the area in a flour and sugar shortage. Cakes, cookies, coffee rings, even fruitcake - if you can make it red and green, Luke bakes it. Every Christmas he probably gains 10 pounds. Everyone he knows ends up getting something because he makes so many different snacks and desserts.

Finally, Luke organizes all of the Christmas events around him. He always has at least two Secret Santa’s that he’s a part of and usually one Secret Satan (same principle, but you get people terrible gifts, like a twenty dollar bill in a bag filled with honey or a framed picture of an ex-girlfriend). He hosts an annual Christmas party and attends at least two more. Then, for Christmas itself, he always flies out to see family and spends the holiday with them.

Truth be told, Luke loves Christmas for like 10 months out of the year. You ask him February through November about Christmas and he will enthusiastically proclaim his love for the holiday. By the time December rolls around though, he is just exhausted, he is so tired from the decorating and the baking and the gifts and the events. And most of January he spends recovering from everything.

A Mindful Christmas

So that’s our first story, and it’s about Leia. Leia loves Christmas too. Once Halloween is over, she pulls out all of her boxes from storage. And with every box, as she pulls out the wreaths and the garland and the lights and the trees and the ornaments, she gets a little more excited. As she climbs up on the ladder to put lights up, she thinks to herself about all of the people who will drive by and have their night brightened up by it, she thinks about the light that her faith has brought into her life. And as she puts up the trees and the garland and the Christmas stuff, she looks forward to the cheer it will bring people who visit her home during the season. And as she decorates, she always spends time reflecting on how exciting it is that Jesus came to save her and to show her love.

After she decorates the house, Leia starts to gift plan as well. She feels so grateful with everything that God has blessed her with and wants to bless others too. She gets her gifts all in advance, taking advantage of Black Friday sales to stretch her budget as much as she can. She wraps all of her gifts, like a normal person though, she buys the little bow stickers or just leaves them off entirely. And with every gift, she imagines the joy and the cheer that she hopes the gift will bring into someone else’s life. And she always participates in the angel tree that her church has every year, getting her gifts in by the deadline of December 5th. *cough, shameless plug, cough cough*

Leia bakes cookies and cakes and brings them to everyone she knows, it’s her language of love to express all of the joy that she experiences when she thinks about Christmas. And she goes to Christmas parties and enjoys Secret Santa’s and all the rest. And as she drives to each event, she gets the biggest smile on her face because of all of the love that God has surrounded her with, and because of the joy she has in these opportunities to gather together with friends and family.

Truth be told, Leia really does love Christmas all 12 months of the year. Throughout the season, her spirit seems impossibly high and energized. And in January, her only disappointment comes from having to take everything down.

A Crucial Difference

Intrapersonal - Conforming

Explaining the point that mindset makes a huge difference

So those are our two stories, Luke and Leia and their roads to Christmas. Did you notice how similar they were? They mostly did the same things with how they decorated and went about gifting and baking and celebrating. But at the end, Luke was drained and exhausted while Leia actually experienced Christmas as a joyful celebration. And here is the key difference, it is in the approach, it is in the mindset, it is in the focus.

I want to go back to our reading for the day, Gabriel tells Zechariah that John will turn the children of Israel to the Lord their God, that he will turn the hearts of fathers to the children, that he will turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just - all to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. John was going to focus on the mindset of the people to prepare them for Jesus’ coming. So, like I said before, I’m not going to condemn all of the gifts, decorations, and other things we do to celebrate Christmas - although playing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in the gym might be overkill. Instead, I’m going to suggest that we shift our mindset.

You see, Luke had all of these different aspects of the celebration as the end, as the object of his joy. His entire focus was on doing and on the things. Leia did all of the same kind of things, but her focus was on her love for others and the joy she would bring them, her mindset was in seeing each and every aspect as a reminder of the Gospel. From the twinkling lights on her roof to the shimmering ornaments on the tree, everything reminded her that her God loved her enough to come to earth as a baby that would ultimately grow up, be crucified, and rise again for her. For her, all of the things around Christmas truly enabled her celebration of Jesus’ birth - because that’s what her mindset was.

So light up your houses, decorate your trees, buy your gifts, eat your cookies, enjoy the parties - but through all of it, look at it all as different opportunities to celebrate what Christ did for you. Amen.