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December is a month of anticipation: Christmas is coming! Our celebration of the earthly arrival of God Incarnate is rapidly approaching, and with it a significant “TO DO” list. We send cards, shop for and purchase gifts, decorate our homes, bake goodies, and plan for guests and parties. These may all serve a good purpose, but it strikes me that the most important preparation is that of our own hearts…. It is what the liturgical season of Advent—Coming—is all about.
John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ, called to proclaim the kingdom of God. In the Gospel of Matthew we read these words of John:
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Make ready the way of the LORD,
Make His paths straight!
The trappings of Christmas are not necessarily inappropriate, but we do not want them to become a trap! They are secondary to John’s message. If we are to recognize and welcome Christ into the depths of our beings, and if we are to embrace His work in us and through us, it is important to turn our minds and hearts to the Kingdom of God. We can prayerfully identify and repent of sin, and we can look to remove the life clutter that could make it difficult for the Lord to reach us. In doing so, we become more able to receive our Lord and respond to His indwelling work in us via the Holy Spirit.
John also proclaimed the importance of bearing fruit in keeping with repentance (Luke 3:8). Genuine repentance means that again by the power of the Holy Spirit, we change direction from self-focus to God-focus and become more closely aligned with Christ. When we do this in the here and now, we are better able to manifest Christ. Our lives echo John’s words to the world, that the kingdom of God has come!
And now if we circle back to our Christmas “TO DO” lists, it is easy to see that the trappings of our celebration will have deeper meaning and impact if we see those trappings not merely as something we traditionally do, but as expressions of the kingdom of God within us and pouring forth. Joy to the World!
