Advent Appearances
by the Rev. Grey Maggiano
Advent looks different this year.
I was contemplating this as I moved our battery-lit, always-on Advent Wreath outside along with this beautiful icon John Seeley has shared with us (read more about it below) and prepared for communion.
I contemplated the message of ‘no room at the inn’ with this message of ‘you aren’t welcome in the Sanctuary.’
I reflected on the loneliness of this Advent for many of us - with the loneliness of Mary and Joseph as they prepared for the birth of the Christ Child.
And I pondered whether this advent would change how we view all other advents going forward.... or will we just forget?
Well—Mary and Joseph did not forget. Herod did not forget.
The Shepherds and Angels did not forget.
And the wisemen did not forget.
You may be tempted to ‘skip Christmas’ this year. To just chalk it up to a lost year. This terrible virus. To our failed national leadership. You may want to pack in the decorations, ghost church for a while, and just suffer through until there is a vaccine or a break in the pandemic.
Well—I am here to encourage you.... not to do that.
Church was meant for times like these. Our faith was meant for times like these.
In Advent we wait. We contemplate our own mortality. We re-build the foundations of our faith. We prepare for salvation. And we welcome the light back into our lives. This year more than ever we need Advent.
Because to go right back to ‘normal’ will be so jarring, so internally upsetting that many of us won’t deal with it well if we have not prepared. Consider how anxious you feel when you watch a TV show with big crowds of people. How stressed you get when two people hug in front of you.
Consider how long it has been since you touched, hugged, shook hands, sat within six feet of someone you don’t live with?
We have to prepare ourselves. Or we won’t see, accept, understand the salvation when it comes.
Herod was not prepared. All he could think about was how this new reality threatened all he had built and he tried to destroy the light.
But you can’t destroy light. Light shines in Darkness and dark can not over come it.
Now the Shepherds, the wise men, they were prepared. Mary and Joseph? They had time to prepare.
But Joseph’s family who couldn’t make room for him? They weren’t ready.
The people who went out hunting for the Christ child at Herod’s command? They weren’t either.
When we are confronted with a radically new reality — be it a life-saving vaccine, a change in administration, a sudden job loss or loss of a loved one, or a sudden gift of money, things or even love — we don’t always react well. Particularly if we are not prepared to receive it.
So this Advent - let us all spend some time preparing ourselves to receive salvation. To accept new realities, new leadership, new hope, and a new birth into our lives.
Because if we can wake up on December 25th ready to accept that God has become flesh, to walk among us, to share in our love and loss, our joys and sorrows... then well, we can probably be ready for just about anything.