The first Sunday of Advent reminds us that how we prepare for a moment affects how we experience the moment when it arrives. Does that make sense? How we prepare for a moment affects how we experience the moment when it arrives.
How we prepare for Christmas affects how we experience Christmas. Or, to state it in reverse, How we experience Christmas depends on how we prepare for Christmas.
Christmas is coming. We see the signs. The decorations are up. The sales have begun. Coffee shops have replaced pumpkin spice with peppermint.
Just as Jesus told us to, we can see the signs. Jesus said that when you see the leaves start to appear, that’s the sign that summer is near. Well, when we see all these things, we know that Christmas is near.
So it certainly shouldn’t be a surprise when Christmas day arrives. The signs are all around us. Christmas is coming, but it’s only December 2; we have plenty of time to prepare.
But it still happens, doesn’t it, that Christmas day arrives, and we wake up, and we think, “Where did the time go? I’m not ready.” And on the day of celebration, the day of feasting, we’re stressed because we haven’t finished preparing.
And our experience of Christmas is shaped by how we have prepared for Christmas.
This is true for just about anything.
The wisest ones among us tell us that the first few minutes of our day can give shape to how the whole rest of the day will go for us. They advise taking a few moments in the morning to prepare for the day ahead.
When you first wake up: take a few deep breaths… focus your mind on gratitude… and set your intention for the day. A moment of gratitude in the morning will help you find things to be grateful for throughout the day. A moment of peaceful intention in the morning will help you find peace throughout the day.
A nice, relaxed breakfast, is a good way to do this. A moment of peace. A moment of thanks for a good meal. A moment of positive intention for the day ahead.
I know: starting your day in such a prayerful way is easier said than done. We hit the snooze too many times, we rush to do the tasks that we should have done the night before (but didn’t), and we frantically make our way out the door behind schedule.
That’s how our day starts,... and that’s how our day goes.
How we prepare for the day affects how we experience the day.
We really need to start our intentions the night before. Do those tasks that need to be done before bed, instead of leaving them until morning. That way your sleep won’t be interrupted by thoughts of all the things you’ve left undone. Set your clothes out. Have your bag or purse packed and ready to go.
And then, when you go to bed (at a reasonable hour), spend a few moments taking deep breaths,... and giving gratitude for another day.
Then crawl into bed, and just listen to the silence. If the noise in your head continues, be patient; it may take some time for it to settle down. Just let that silence wrap around you like a blanket. In that silence, find peace.
Whatever you do, do not interrupt this calming down process by checking your phone or having the TV on!
I know: ending your day in such a peaceful, intentional way is easier said than done. Yet, how we prepare for a night’s sleep affects the sleep we get.
We know what else needs to be done: exercise during the day helps us sleep well at night. Taking care of stressful tasks at least an hour before bed, so that the last hour we’re awake is calm and peaceful, helps us sleep well at night. Avoiding caffeine and alcohol and any kind of heavy eating in the hours before bed helps us sleep well at night.
How we prepare for a night’s sleep affects the quality of the sleep we get.
Jesus teaches us to prepare ourselves for the arrival of God’s kingdom. People in Jesus’s day measured the arrival of God’s kingdom in generations or centuries. After all, they had been waiting many generations for its arrival.
But Jesus said: “Look at the signs. Already the leaves are coming, and when that happens, you know that summer is near.” God’s kingdom is near. But how we experience God’s kingdom depends on how we prepare for it.
For some who are unprepared, it will be a terrible day of judgment. But for those who have practiced the ways of the kingdom, the kingdom is already present, and it is a glorious kingdom of love and peace.
These past few weeks I’ve been reading some works by Henri Nouwen, a Catholic theologian who died in 1996. His writings are intensely personal, and in much of what I’ve read, his focus is on preparing for death. He wrote of his mother’s death, and of his own preparations for death. This is not as morbid as it sounds. It’s all about a search for peace and meaning in death.
Many people die unprepared. Many more are unprepared for the death of their loved ones. And yet, there can be tremendous peace and tremendous meaning in dying, for the one who has died, and for their loved ones, as long as we have prepared ourselves for death.
How you prepare for death determines how you will experience death. (I’m so glad I found these books by Henri Nouwen!)
Let’s talk some more about Christmas: how, exactly, are you preparing for Christmas? Is it all about shopping and decorating and filling up your schedule with activities?
In the song “Joy to the World,” we sing: “Let every heart prepare him room.” How is your heart preparing? How are you preparing room in your heart for Christ this Christmas?
It’s not just our decorated houses and our paper-wrapped presents that we need to prepare. We need to prepare our hearts. Too many arrive at Christmas day with unprepared hearts; this, despite the fact that the signs of Christmas’s arrival are impossible to miss.
Christmas is coming; are you preparing your heart?
How you prepare for Christmas day will affect how you experience Christmas day.
Because the future is not disconnected from the present, and the present is not disconnected from the past. How you experience God’s presence in worship this morning depends, in part, on how you have prepared your heart to be here today. How did you prepare your heart yesterday for worship today? How did you prepare your heart last week for worship today?
We can’t go back and change the past in order to have a better present. But we can make decisions in the present that will help us have a better future.
How does one prepare one’s heart for Christmas? I think you already know the answer to that.
The heart is prepared by love. When we show love, when we practice love, we are preparing our hearts for Christmas.
Love takes many forms. Mary and Joseph searched for a place to stay in Bethlehem; but because Bethlehem was full of visitors, and because Mary and Joseph were people from far-away Galilee who spoke with an accent, no one would give them a place to stay. No one would provide them refuge. It didn’t matter that Mary was pregnant; no one would show them any love.
So they had to spend the night among the livestock. And that’s where Jesus was born: out back, among the sheep and cattle.
We can show love when we do extend a loving welcome to others. To those who are forced to travel from far away, and may speak with an accent, we can extend a loving welcome. To those who have been told by their families that they don’t really belong; to those who have been told by various manifestations of the church that there is no room for them… we can say, Yes, there is room for you here. There is room at God’s table for all of God’s children. There is plenty of love to go around.
So come on in. Find refuge. You are welcome here….
That is but one way we can show love, and prepare our hearts for Christmas.
And the truth is, when we prepare our hearts for Christmas by showing love, Christmas is already present. We don’t have to wait until December 25 to experience Christmas! Christmas day may still be several weeks in the future, but that future becomes present when we show love.
African-American poet Howard Thurman described ways we can prepare our hearts for Christmas. He said we prepare for Christmas when we:- find the lost,
- heal the broken,
- feed the hungry,
- release the prisoner,
- rebuild the nations,
- bring peace among brothers,
- make music in the heart.
Actually, Howard Thurman was writing about the work we do after Christmas, but I hope by now you see how past, present, and future are all connected, and that we can always prepare our hearts for Christmas by showing love - in these ways, and many other ways.
Another way to prepare for Christmas is by spending time in prayer, and contemplating on what message and meaning the story of Christmas has for us today.
We’ve already done a little of that this morning, in pondering the significance of Mary and Joseph being forced from their homeland, and finding no refuge in Bethlehem. Though it took place 2,000 years ago, the Christmas story speaks to us today… because, again: past, present, and future are all connected.
We will hear more of the Christmas story in the weeks to come, and in so many ways, the past will become present…
And the future becomes present as well.
Jesus saw summer as he pointed out the leaves appearing on the fig tree…
The future for which we long is present here with us, now. The leaves of summer are already present on the tree, even in the cold of winter, in little nibs we can see if we look closely… and even before that, in the very DNA of the tree… and even before that, in the seed from which the tree grew.
They’re all there, every leaf of summer.
Too often, in the middle of winter, we look at a tree that has lost its leaves, and all we see is bare, barren branches. We don’t see the life within the tree. Which is understandable, because we’re used to seeing things a certain way, and since we don’t see the leaves, we think all is lost.
But there is another way of seeing, and when we tap into that other way of seeing, we see the leaves, we see the life, that is really present, there, in the tree, at that very moment.
So the future we long for, the future we hope for, the future we anticipate, is already present.
And the church we long for, the church we hope to be… we already are. I know in this New Beginnings process, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about the church we want to be, or the church God wants us to be… but we already are that church.
We’ve been preparing for a new future, but that future is already present, because we are filled with hope, and we are filled with love.
And in a world where many see only greed and hate and despair, God’s kingdom of hope and love and compassion is present and alive right now, through the church. We wait for God’s kingdom, we anticipate its coming, but God’s kingdom is present. God’s kingdom is here.
So please: don’t look at the bare tree and give up hope. Don’t look at the bare tree and say “all is lost.”
All is not lost. All is not lost because YOU are present in the world. All is not lost because you have the hope and the love of Christmas in your heart. All is not lost, because God has placed Christmas in your heart, and you don’t need to wait until December 25 to share Christmas with the world.
Christmas is coming, yes; but Christmas is also now. We prepare for Christmas, yet Christmas is already present.
Through you. Through me. Through the church.
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