Prepare the Way ...

The Advent message of prepare is one that we understand far better than the message of waiting. We do so many things to prepare for Christmas that preparation for anything is something that is easily taken into our routine. However, when we hear the message of “Prepare the way of the Lord,” the mistake is made that we are to prepare by figuring out what it is that we are going to do to the said coming Lord, or perhaps what we are to do for the coming Lord. After all Jesus will need me to do something to or for him right? Wrong my friends, completely wrong.

Preparation for the coming Lord is preparing for what Jesus is going to do to you. The God in the flesh, Jesus, the coming Lord, whom John the Baptist warns us to prepare for, is coming because of what people are already doing and have done, not because of what we do for him. This truth is what we remember in Advent.

Forgiveness is coming at Christmastime and during Advent we remember that forgiveness is what we are to prepare for: being forgiven and freed from death. In Scandinavia there is a tradition on Christmas Eve that North Americans find shocking. The people go to the cemetery on Christmas eve, in the darkness because there is no sun during that part of the winter, and put eternal candles on the graves of those who they love, or if there is no one they love buried there, in the center of the cemetery. The entire cemetery is eventually lit up with the light from the candles on the tombs, graves and common area. The candles represent the presence and forgiveness of Christ to those who are present and those who are dead. It is to help them remember that the Son of God died because he did the one thing that people could not tolerate: forgave them. This Christmas practice of the Scandinavians is also a reminder that you are already forgiven for the failings in your life and humanity so death is not the final word to life.

Christmas is prepared for by being ready to accept the gift of the savior to the world, God who came in the flesh to forgive all and save them from death. Advent is a solemn time because of this remembering of the consequences of sin and of being saved: death to us, and death to our savior at the very hands of the people He came to save. But the joy of Christmas is that we know that this savior is a gift for us and that on Easter morning we learn that death no longer holds us in its clutches.

Something happens when we begin to remember what happened at Christmas. Perhaps we become angry. After all we don’t want help, forgiveness or any of that! We want to prepare to do something to or for Jesus, or our family in Jesus name. Or perhaps we want to do something for the world in Jesus name, wouldn’t that be great if we could make peace in some troubled part of the world and do it for Jesus? Or would we know in our heart that we were distracting from our own guilt? Trying to make up for what we know is not right in ourselves? Or simply being a theologian of glory instead of understanding the theology of the cross. As one of my colleagues once screamed in my face while pounding her fist on the table, “Jesus doesn’t come to this church until I bake the Christmas ham.”

Ready or not here Jesus comes. Bringing a gift that is as often unwanted today as it was 2000 years ago, forgiveness. Remember, like the Scandinavian Christmas celebration reminds us, that without this gift, death awaits as a permanent condition. Remember, and be thankful, for in remembering this, peace will be with you.