Thoughts from the Pastor

The pastors of this Washtenaw Cluster

had a conversation a few years ago. As I recall, it got a little heated. The topic: should we still keep Advent?

There were many arguments against keeping it. Such as the fact that stores have displayed Christmas stuff since well before Thanksgiving. Doesn’t that make a season in which we wait to celebrate archaic? WNIC has been playing Christmas carols for weeks. The world is celebrating Christmas. Why don’t we?

Then there is the argument that people don’t know what Advent is. Though, there are all of those Advent calendars one can buy. They count down to Christmas. With some, you even get a little prize each day. It all makes for great warm-up to the anticipated big prizes of Christmas morning.

Oops….slipped into a bit of Scrooge there. It’s just that commercialism thing – an issue for Christmas since the original Charlie Brown special.

All the more reason, many would say, that we just need to focus on Christmas. Advent gets us focusing on something else. People need to know the baby Jesus. That’s what it’s all about.

Advent talks about the end of the world.

That’s not warm and fuzzy. Advent talks about judgment. That makes people feel…judged. Again, not all that we’re going for. Advent doesn’t help people feel God’s love revealed in Jesus, does it? Advent doesn’t feel like Good News! So what are we talking about? There doesn’t seem to be any good reason to keep Advent, beyond counting down to Christmas.

Except…except, in this season, as we look around, we know darkness grows longer, deeper. The darkness in the world grows as well. Nation rises up against nation. We face situations that seem to have no solution – even beyond international conflict. We’re surrounded by the despair of illness, of poverty, of hatred, of senseless violence, of death. It is easy to feel we’re in situations from which there is no escape.

We want to jump to Christmas because there we hear the angels singing “Peace on earth, good will to all.” There, we have safety, and comfort, and joy.

But when we just jump to the big nostalgic celebration, Christmas becomes the great escape. It becomes wishful thinking.

In Advent, we face and live in the real world. We talk about the end of things, because they are in God’s hands. We talk about the beginning of things, the things leading to Jesus, because we are in his hands. No matter what we face. No matter what we experience. We are in the hands of Jesus. Not just the infant, but our living Savior, and our Lord.

So, Advent it is. Honest. Real. Hopeful.

Amen. Come Lord Jesus!

In Christ,

Pastor Julianne R. Smeck