This Advent season at Lord of Life we have acknowledged our weariness, found joy in connection, and allowed ourselves to be amazed. This next week would be the time to sing stories of hope as we prepare to make room for Christ on Christmas Eve. The calendar this year is a bit wonky and like other churches, we will be celebrating Christmas Eve this Sunday while the Fourth Sunday of Advent takes a backseat. I’m not sure if the Fourth Sunday of Advent is my favorite, but it’s at least in the top four. How fitting for me that the calendar has us cutting the preparation short and jumping straight into action.
And yet this is one year where I wish we could savor Advent a bit longer – to hold onto the momentum of the preparation. I’m not sure why, but I just am not quite ready yet for Christmas. I don’t mean the to-do’s of the holiday which of course linger… It seems I am still working to be prepared emotionally and spiritually for Christmas morning and the arrival of Christ. I don’t want this to be another year where I am lost in the shuffle and forget to experience the amazing joy of the holiday – the promise that Christ is here with us for us. I really need this week to remember to hope in Christ’s coming, to hear the stories of hope, and to sing the songs of my childhood.
It will take some intentionality, but I am going to take some time each morning with our Advent booklet, savoring the poems and songs, and artwork in there as well as the Bible stories while I prepare myself a bit more before we jump into the action of Christmas. As I acknowledge the weariness I am feeling, the Spirit of God helps me make room for the joy of Christ. There is joy in knowing that Jesus is working in us and through us. There is joy in knowing that the world won’t be like this forever. There won’t always be war and hate and violence and need that bear down on us.
In Luke 1, we learn of Mary and her pregnancy. She was scared and went to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was also pregnant. Their greeting is so spectacular: Elizabeth’s baby jumps for joy and Elizabeth exuberantly blesses Mary. Mary responds with such a beautiful song praising God in hope for what can be. In Eugene Peterson’s translation The Message, Mary begins, “I am bursting with God-news; I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.” Mary sees what is possible and has hope. This is the hope that sustains us throughout the weariness. This is the hope that keeps us whether we are in the valley or up on the mountain.
May we all have the hope of Mary and be filled to bursting. May we dance the song of our Savior God. Rest easy, dear ones, knowing that we are held in the bosom of a loving God whose “mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before him.”
Merry Christmas!
Pastor Laura Applegate, Seminary Intern