Advent Thoughts, continued...

This is such a weird time of year. You know, we all run around trying to find the best gift for the right person while running into all of the other people that are out doing the same thing. We proclaim this time of year a "season of giving." It is a time of love and hope, and peace even, but our actions speak only the opposite. Moreover, there are so many people just like me, writing articles and blogs observing the paradoxical nature of this time of year. Why don't we ever learn?

Maybe we should just embrace the horror of this time of year. It will relentlessly visit every year and test our resolve (a test that most of us fail). Thank God that he is full of kindness and slow to anger. Our actions speak of a frame of mind that just doesn't really take Jesus seriously. Let's just call it what it is. Jesus as a baby is a nice idea. It's a warm feeling at Christmas Eve when the family is singing Christmas carols at the midnight vigil. The power of the incarnation is lost on us. I can't even say that I really understand the implications of the incarnation of God in Christ. I know that it is integral, but it is lost on us for the commercial-ness of what has become Christmas.

People are sad. People are lonely. People die. Yet we run around listening to our cheery music, starbucks in hand, while the world falls away around us. Christ offers hope to all, but every year, we have only a hair of a grasp on the real "reason for the season."

What do we do? I know what I have said, heretofore is somewhat depressing, but there is hope. There is always hope. If we embrace Christ as a family of the redeemed, what a radical change there could be. Embracing the love and hope and peace of the season is the gift that keeps giving. Eating with family and looking in the eyes of those whom you love is a gift that gives beyond our imaginations. Really observe those loved-ones. Faults aside, embrace the love that Christ gives us for others. Let the love of the incarnate God become incarnate in our actions.

And, watch therefore, that you be ready. You never know when Christ will come, but he will. Even so, come resurrected Christ, come in your power and love, and come in the actions of your followers. Amen.