Kids, who’s done with their Christmas shopping? Does anyone have their Christmas lights up? Me too. What about their tree – who has their tree up?  Not yet in our house, but soon. So, I will be the first to say, welcome to Advent! You know, Advent, the season that comes before Christmas. Wait, I know, we often sit there and wonder what’s the difference between Advent and Christmas anyway? Aren’t they kind of the same?

It is easy for Advent to get lost in the runup to Christmas. We all know what Christmas is about right? Santa, Christmas trees, watching Elf… Well, that’s what the society and Amazon thinks Christmas is all about, but we know better. So, why do we celebrate Christmas? We celebrate Christmas because God chose to send his Son, his divine Son, into the world to save us. That baby who will be laying in that manger in a few weeks is our Savior. We didn’t merit God sending him to us, but he sent him, nonetheless, didn’t he?

Why? Why did God send his Son to us? Well, when God created the world, he created people in his image to be in communion with him forever. That’s what God wants! Us to be with him forever. Well, we know that we humans messed that up. So, God sent only Son to repair that, to fix the relationship between us and God, and he did that at Easter. 

So, at Christmas, we celebrate the birth of our Savior, and thank God for loving us so much that he desperately wanted to repair that relationship with us. So, he sent the Savior to us. 

OK, so that’s what Christmas is really about, but what about Advent? As I said earlier, I think it is easy to miss Advent in all the rush of getting ready for Christmas. The lights, decoration, shopping, cooking… it’s a full sprint sometimes to get ready, to prepare for Christmas because we want it to be great for our families. And that is important. But lost in all of this is Advent and that is more important. 

Advent also calls us to prepare for the coming of Christmas, but to prepare spiritually for that coming, for that baby in a manger. I mean, God sent his only Son on Christmas to save us… shouldn’t we work hard to prepare for that too?

We see that today in the Gospel. Jesus tells his disciples to watch and prepare for his coming. He said, “You do not know when the Lord of the house is coming. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.” 

You know, throughout the Old Testament, the prophets repeatedly called upon Israel to prepare, to be ready for the coming of the Messiah. John the Baptist does the same in the New Testament Gospels. Advent is a time when we heed that call and prepare by reflecting on our own desire for his coming – both in the manger and when we will see him face to face. 

He is urging us to prepare, to not put off searching for him in our lives, to not put off turning to him with our needs and our hurts. To not be unprepared because we are too busy right now. 

So, how do we prepare? How do we get ready spiritually?

As the days get shorter and it gets dark earlier and earlier, Advent calls us to find his light in our lives, to find his joy and pass it on. Pass it on to our kids, our families, and even those we meet. Let them see what is means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, to be a light in a world with too much darkness. If, though, we are too busy, if we are in a rush right up until Christmas, our light is dim, hard to see, hard to pass on.

If instead we take the time to turn to him with our troubles and hurt, to pray earnestly, to find quiet and solitude, our light instead burns brightly, it is easy to see, and it gets passed on without our even knowing it.

Be that light! Our own lives and those lives around us certainly need it. Because, behold, our Savior is coming… the light of the world. 

Let us watch and be ready.

Let us be that Advent light in this dim and dark world.