Weekly Reflection - 11/30/2023

St. Mary's Reflection: The Rev. David Erickson

Wishing You a Wonderful Advent - Full of Christmas Cheer!

This coming Sunday the church year begins again with the season of Advent, a wonderful time of expectation and preparation for the coming of the Christ child on Christmas.

The world around us, though, is not waiting for Christmas at all. One of the radio stations in my car is already playing Christmas carols nonstop. Many of us have put up our Christmas trees already, or soon will. Stores are already full of Christmas decoration and such.

Now there are Advent purists who believe that nothing of Christmas should be celebrated until the literal Christmas season begins on Dec. 25. A priest friend of mine many years ago, back when his kids were younger, would not buy a Christmas tree until Christmas Eve. The family tradition was to decorate it on Christmas Day. Now while most of the Advent purists don’t go this far, many will lament the early decorations, holiday spice smells, and pervasive Christmas carols. I am not one of them.

I love listening to Christmas music as soon as Thanksgiving is over. We normally put our tree up and decorate it the day after Thanksgiving. For me, the pervasive sounds and symbols of the coming of the Christ child, and fun songs about Frosty the Snowman, actually are a part of my Advent preparation. I see and hear these things and I am reminded, through all my senses, that I am loved, deeply loved by God. I feel my heart being reminded, softened even, to the truly good news that God came among us, Emmanuel, to love us, show us the truth about God, and what it means to be truly human. The sights, smells, and sounds of Christmas don’t distract me from preparing for the coming of Christ, but rather invite and allow me to create a soft space in my heart, mind, and soul for the Christ child to reside.

I actually find it delightfully ironic, joyful even, that a world that often disregards or distances from the good news in Christ, still celebrates in song and spirit the glorious incarnation of God.

So please, however you must, dive deep into the expectation and preparation for the coming of Christ. Don’t worry about what the world around us is doing, but rather be intentional in ways meaningful to you to open up to God’s delightful love and grace, to receive the presence of God that abides in us now, and will come once again on Christmas Eve.

Happy Advent!

Rev. David