Advent Peace

The prayer I pray every morning now during Advent is really very simple. So simple I don’t even know why God has used it to help me. It certainly isn’t original, nor is it like a lot of written prayers the people of God have used for centuries to orient or center their thoughts and lives. Also, it is no literary masterpiece written to sound like music to the ear. No, it is just a prayer that showed up in my email at the beginning of Advent and has every day this week. It is from a friend of mine, Matt Brown, who pastors a church in Brooklyn, New York. If you subscribe, his church will send the “Morning Prayer” to your email account every morning. It is a very helpful guide which I have been using to pray. It contains written prayers, psalms, and a gospel lesson. I personally use written prayers, particularly the Psalms, because my mind wanders, and I need “borrowed words” that keep me focused. Anyway, every morning I have prayed this prayer and have found it so useful for my soul that I put it in my Journal to use for the rest of the season. It is as follows:“Unexpected God, your advent alarms us. Wake us from drowsy worship, from the sleep that neglects love, and the sedative of misdirected frenzy. Awaken us now to your coming, and extinguish our fears with your hope. Amen” I suppose the one line that moves me as a needful reminder and corrective is, “Wake us from drowsy worship, from the sleep that neglects love, and the sedative of misdirected frenzy.” Frenzy, I think that is more the word that describes for most of us our Advent Season. It is the opposite of peace. It suggests you are running from one thing to the next, almost in a panic to try and get it all in. It is the nature of the season to put us all in frenzy, is it not? We have holiday school programs, Christmas parties, extra shopping to do, and kids who have their own agendas once school is out. All of these are good things, I might add. The problem is we only have so much time! So, the challenge for us becomes figuring out how to keep the Feast of Christmas well, without it becoming so much dread, because at the end of the day we are not built for frenzy.I was meeting with our church leaders last night, and we discussed this very subject, though not in exactly this context. We all want to be caught up in the wonder of Advent, and we know that if we do that it is going to express itself in ways that sort of look like the culture. I mean, we have a Christmas tree in our sanctuary, for goodness sake! Also, like the culture, we give gifts, spend lots of money, and express our joy in an excess and abundance of things. What, then, makes our celebration different from the culture? Let me give you a short answer, and then seek to give some details as to how this season, even if its rhythms make us more busy, can still bring sweet peace to our hearts.One writer made an intriguing statement – and I paraphrase because I can’t remember who said it or in what book I read it – but I remember when I read it that it struck me as true. He said, historically all feasts and festivals are a celebration of the Divine – if you lose the Divine then you wind up with carnivals. I think what he was saying is true in our cultural context. If we really are about keeping the Feast of Christmas – spending a month pondering the Incarnation of God and what that means for us – then it means that we will indeed be people who throw parties, give gifts, festoon our houses, and mark our joy in special celebration. It will also keep us somewhat sober as it reminds us that God’s coming into the world was the most generous thing God could do for us. God, in this offering, gave His most beautiful gift to us. Advent forces us to ponder this, and this will keep us from a rampant materialism. It will force us to be radically generous because that is what God did. As we do this, we will draw close to the true nature of God and Christianity. How can this lead to a frenzied thing? How can this leave you drained?No, I suspect that if we are drained after Christmas instead of filled up with more peace and joy of Jesus, then we have reduced the Christmas Feast to just a materialistic holiday. When we lose the “telos” or purpose of why we throw parties, why we drink buckets of eggnog, why we have special candles, why we buy gifts, etc., it is no wonder it all becomes a frenzied drain. It becomes a season that will run you ragged, create short-lived happiness, and leave you in debt and bitter and/or depressed in January.So, how then do we keep the Feast of Christmas? How do we do this season of Advent well? How do we use this season to teach Godly rhythms to our children? First off, there is no formulaic answer. Even if I could give you one, many people would just turn it into another legalism. Secondly, it is mostly about intentionality. If we are intentional about why we do what we do – feasting, giving gifts, going to parties, etc., – then we can keep in front of our hearts and minds that the reason we do most of these things is love, not show or to impress. I can throw a party (for 50 people at Christmas, and we do!) and it can be about Teri and me – and impressing people; or it can be an expression of charity – “we love you and this is how we want to express our joy with you, for you, and in you”. The last thing we must remember about Advent is – this is high worship! If we neglect the Christian liturgy because we are so busy enacting the secular liturgy, then surely our hearts will grow drowsy instead of being refocused and renewed in the gospel.So here is to the King of the Feast – Jesus Himself! May you feast and express your joy in abundance! And may the Lord of Abundance be pleased with your offering.