Draw Nigh, Emmanuel

It seems to happen more quickly every year: the holiday season returns! If we’re going to be picky, however, we cannot actually call it “Christmas” just yet.

We’re already hearing the call to “get into the Christmas spirit.” But calling it “Christmas” is something of a misnomer. The word “Christmas” gets turned into an adjective, used to describe other words or events (i.e., “Christmas cheer”, “Christmas sales event”), instead of being the focus itself. “Christmas” isn’t shopping, present-wrapping or even movie reruns on TV, however deeply woven into the holiday as they may be. They are simply the tokens that surround this particular holiday. It can be all too natural to treat Christmas music on the radio and God’s less-than-glittery entrance onto Planet Earth as if they were equal parts of the greater Christmas puzzle. But I have yet to see mention of tinsel or stockings hanging in the barn (or anywhere in the Gospel account)!

Now don’t get me wrong: I love this season! I love the decorations and seeing the candle-lit windows as I drive down the road. I love the cold weather and the promise of snow on the wind. I love visiting with family and eating savory home cooking. I love the Poinsettias and the Chrismon tree gracing the sanctuary. And believe me, I love the presents! It is not a sin that Christmas is fun!

But we expend shopping bags of energy and fray quite a few nerves on the filler that surrounds Christmas, like negotiating mall traffic or clamoring after the highly sought-after toy. But we give precious little time preparing ourselves for Christmas. We fret over menus and tidying up guestrooms but do not spend the same energy in changing the sheets for the most important Guest of all. The church calls this season “Advent” (from the Latin for “arrival” or “coming”) for a good reason: because the arresting mystery that God would come and be a human with us is worth slowing down to get ready for. The carols, rolling off our lips as fluidly (dare I say, inattentively?) as the Lord’s Prayer, deserve a new hearing:

O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel

“Captive Israel”: that’s us. How captive we can become to our culture’s picture of the perfect White Christmas, and often we don’t even know it. We get wrapped up in celebration but also distracted from the truest joy: that God is not far-off but Emmanuel: “God-with-us.”

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel has come to thee, O Israel!

Rejoice indeed! God is coming! Emmanuel ransoms us from the hostage crisis of sin and a culture that does not know Him. He refuses to abandon us to our own devices or leave us blissfully caged in unawareness. Advent is our season to get ready for Christ is coming!

Is this a guilt-trip against reveling in the holiday? Absolutely not! It is a call back to the source of peace on Earth: the Holy One, the Hero who rescues us from captivity. It is a challenge to not fixate on the things that surround Christmas, but to worship with joy and wonder, the One who is Christmas itself!