I love to hear how people prepare for Christmas. When I was a a child, it was around this time just after Thanksgiving, that our dad would climb up our tall windmill which stood just outside of the front of our house.
We had a two story farmhouse and that windmill was almost twice as tall as our house. Every year around this time, dad would go up to our attic and bring down our giant Christmas star. He would then make the long climb up those little metal rungs and he would tie that Christmas star at the very top of that windmill for everybody to see during the weeks leading up to Christmas.
The McDowell family was known as that family on Plank Road that had the large Christmas star.
Someone shared with me that his little Christmas tradition is when after his family puts up the Christmas tree and they decorate it with ornaments and the string of lights, he always sticks his head under that tree. And with his head under that tree, he loves to look up at the lights and the ornaments from that angle.
Family Christmas decorating traditions are significant because they they serve as familiar landmarks along the journey of life. These traditions connect us to the past and bring back important memories and help us to prepare for this special time of year.
ADVENT = Preparing for the arrival of a significant event
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. The word “advent” means to prepare for the arrival of a significant event. We join Christians from all around the world in a journey toward the celebration of a very significant event, the coming of Jesus into the world. This is the meaning of the season of Advent. It’s not just a season of waiting. It’s also a season of preparing.
On the Christian calendar, Advent reminds us to prepare for two very important events, actually. The first event is the celebration of Christ’s birth and the second event is anticipating the second coming of Jesus into the world that still awaits us.
Our Advent and Christmas theme this year is inspired by the Advent hymn, “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.” In 1744, Charles Wesley, the brother of John Wesley who founded what we know today as the United Methodist Church, wrote this hymn to help those early Methodists prepare for the coming of Christ into the world.
Many of you are probably familiar with this hymn. I always have us sing this hymn on one of the Advent Sundays. For this year, we are going to sing this short hymn every Sunday, including when we gather for our Christmas Eve service. This hymn will serve as a framework to help us remember and anticipate the coming of Christ into the world.
This Advent hymn, “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” helps us to anticipate not only Jesus first coming into the world when he was born at Christmas, but also his future 2nd coming when God’s kingdom here on earth will be established fully and completely. Think of Christmas as the first part of a two-part drama, the first part is Jesus’ birth and the second part is when Jesus will return and make all things new.
To help us prepare for the 1st part of this two-part drama which is Christmas, our New Testament reading from Galatians, chapter 4 offers us these words that point us to the birth of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul writes,
“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to son ship. Because you are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer enslaved, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.”
The Apostle Paul is offering us this summary of the first part of the drama which is Christmas when Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph. God sent Jesus to be our redeemer and savior, to set us free from the bondage of sin and brokenness.
This is why Charles Wesley begins his Advent hymn with these words, “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.” The coming of Jesus into the world is the beginning of how God is seeking to make us and the world new again. No wonder, during this time of year, we sing, “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.”
Notice that Paul included in that Galatians passage the words, “But when the set time had fully come.” Christmas and the birth of Jesus marks the beginning of the good news of our faith. It’s why we put up with pine needles getting caught in the carpet and it’s why my dad was willing to climb up a tall windmill during cold temperatures to hang a Christmas star.
Christmas is a time for us to prepare for the celebration of the good news of Jesus birth. I often think of how the people of Israel had to wait centuries for this holy moment when God sent his only Son to be born in our world.
When I think of all of the centuries that the people of Israel had to wait, it puts these four weeks of Advent into perspective. “But when the set time had fully come.”
Have you ever noticed that on this first Sunday of Advent, I never feel the need to announce to you, “Hey, spoiler alert. Jesus will be born on December 25.”
We already know this because we prepare for Christmas every year. That’s why these four weeks of Advent are so important because they help us to prepare ourselves to receive the good news of Jesus’s birth in a new and fresh way.
Christmas is a time for us to celebrate the good news that Jesus is alive and with us today. Jesus is someone who wants to walk alongside us when we are facing a difficult decision or situation. Jesus is someone who carries us when life knocks us to our knees.
And when we mess up and do something for which we feel shame and remorse, Jesus is there to forgive and cleanse us so that we can keep moving forward in life. No wonder, Charles Wesley wrote this hymn. “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.”
Our prayer during this Advent season is for us to receive once again the incredible gift of Jesus who is the embodiment of God; the embodiment of a loving, gracious, merciful, compassionate, understanding, forgiving, guiding, and giving God who wants to be in a personal relationship with each and every one of us.
Advent is a time for us to anticipate this incredible good news not just for ourselves but to share with those around us. I’m so glad that Christmas is rooted in history when God sent Jesus to be born in a specific time and place.
I love that our faith isn’t simply a philosophy. It’s rooted in a historical time when God risked everything on our behalf by becoming one with us.
Jesus identifies with our hopes and dreams and with our longings and heartache because he was one with us, fully divine, but also fully human.
Having a God who can identify with our weakness and our struggles is one of the reasons Christmas is so meaningful because God knows the pain of feeling alone, in being rejected, in experiencing hunger and grieving the loss of a loved one. God knows because Jesus was one with us when he was born into this world.
A pastor shared with me that one day after worship, a young woman came up to him and shared her struggle with anorexia. The pastor then offered a brief prayer for this young person. This pastor knew another person in the church who was struggling with anorexia and with her permission, he was able to have them connect with each other.
When they met, he said how moving it was to see them share their struggle and pain with each other, shed some tears, and then hug each other. Just to know that someone can relate to us is such a powerful human need that we all have.
This is what Jesus does for us because he became one with us, and this is why we sing, “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.” Jesus is someone we can always turn to for healing, encouragement, forgiveness, and redemption.
But remember, there is also a 2nd part of this two-part drama. The 1st part is when God sent Jesus to be born into this world and identify with our brokenness, our shortcomings, and our need for a Savior.
The 2nd part of the divine drama is that God also has plans to send Jesus again and this time, God will make make this world new again. This is our ultimate hope as Christians, that God will renew the face of this earth.
Just like the people of Israel didn’t know when God would send them a Savior, we also don’t know when Jesus will come again and when heaven and earth will finally be as one. Advent is what helps us to keep waiting and keep anticipating this future promise.
I know it’s hard to wait for that time. It was only a little more than a month after we blew our our Christmas Eve candles that a nation invaded another nation causing horrific pain and suffering which continues to this day.
Even after Christmas comes and goes, we still yearn for that time when there will be no more suffering, no more homelessness, no more hunger, no more injustice, no more oppression, no more hate speech, no more mass shootings, and no more pain and grief.
When we sing, “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” we are anticipating that time when God will transform this world where there will be nothing but peace, joy, goodness, and love.
During these four weeks, allow this hymn to be your prayer. “Come, thou long expected Jesus. Born to set thy people free; From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in Thee. Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art; Dear desire of every nation, Joy of every loving heart.”
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus!
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