Reflection for 9th December 2018
SECOND
SUNDAY OF ADVENT Year C December 9, 2018
Malachi
3:1-4 •
Luke 1:68-79 • Philippians 1:3-11 • Luke
3:1-6
15 more days until Xmas – are you ready?
I have no advent calendar, I have not made a list of
things to prepare, I have been chasing my tail all year. I am hoping that really soon I will have time
to stop and do these things, but I’m sad because I do so love this time of year
and I want to have the time to really enjoy it, and for me that means to really
and truly reflect on all it means.
Christmas- some have said it is a pagan festival
anyway and as we become more commercialized it does appear to become more
pagan, but is it? I don’t believe
so. I remember looking into the sky at
night as a child and having the sense that all of creation knew that this was
Christmas the night of our Saviours birth.
Ah… and here is another thing that people argue about – was it really
that date? Actually, I did some research
and though we can’t be sure, there actually is good reason to claim this date
as the day of Christ’s birth, but regardless…. All around the world at this
time of the year people are preparing for Christmas… - Christmas being a word
that comes from two other words – Christ – meaning the anointed one (the messiah)
and Mass( meaning the service that early Christians celebrated). Therefore, Christmas is that sacred service
celebrating the coming of Christ – the fulfilling of God’s promise to all
mankind.
Now, back to preparing….. how do we prepare?
We read that John the Baptist enabled the people to
prepare by proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
For many years before Christ, the Jews had used
baptism in ritual cleansing ceremonies. John took this, already understood and
familiar ceremony, and proclaimed it to the people with a specific purpose. John was urging the people to admit their sin
and acknowledge their need of a savour.
These people knew the promise of God to send the
messiah, but they believed all kinds of things about him which were not
completely correct. I suspect, even John
himself didn’t know the full extent of God’s plan, but was faithful to what God
called him to do – that was, to prepare hearts for the coming of the Messiah.
But here we are in the year 2018. How do we prepare?
Recently someone handed me a card to hand to others…. It is a little card that says, “Merry
Christmas”. In smaller print it adds, “Are
you good enough to make the list?”
My initial reaction was a bit of discomfort…. I feel
that these kinds of cards are a bit of a slap in the face… wishing Merry Christmas on one hand, and then
pulling a swift kick in reminding all that they are not good enough.
Is this what John the Baptist did?
Not quite – John was more forthright and
straightforward and maybe we should be too.
We all need to know our weakness – then we are ready
to accept our Saviour.
In a conversation with a friend we spoke about how
when we are under pressure we become people that we don’t like. His conclusion was that he needs to stay away
from stressful situations so that he can always be a nice person. I figure though, that the person we are under
pressure, is the real person we are, and we actually need these situations to
remind us who we are and that what we really are, is not as great as we like to
think.
Our reading from Malachi talks about the coming of
Jesus being like a refiner’s fire. A
refiner’s fire sounds awesome… until you are in it! A refiner uses a fire to heat metal to a
molten state; then he skims off the dross that floats to the top. The refiner’s
fire is, of course, maintained at an extremely high temperature.
Now, to me, this seems to tie in perfectly with what
happens when we are put under pressure and stress. Those personal traits of losing our temper
and becoming quite cranky are the dross floating to the top.
My own recent bucket load of dross came to the
surface, not very long ago at all. I was
under so much pressure and then a certain person accused me of something and I
totally snapped and I snapped like I had forgotten that I knew how to – BIG TIME! The experience left me struggling to forgive
myself and struggling to justify my actions.
But there was no justification… and should be none. All the hurt and fear that was actually
present simply boiled to the top and exploded.
What was left was to acknowledge that I am no more
than a very fallible human and I need a saviour.
How grateful I am that I have a saviour who loves
forgives and accepts me as I am – and urges me to make amends – strive for
peace – forgive others… and knowing who I am, have compassion and show mercy to
others who are also fallible.
This is how we need to prepare for the coming of
Christ. John the Baptist asked the
people to repent and be cleansed. In
repenting, they were agreeing that they were fallible and in need of a saviour. The baptism was their renewed commitment to
living in that reality.
Christmas is certainly a time where we have ample
opportunity to be under pressure and stress and subjected to the refiners
fire. Sometimes it is the difficult
family situations, and sometimes it is the chaos of the business of the
season. My prayer is that we will
recognise it for what it is; A divine
gift of an opportunity to open our heart to the love of God, rejoicing in the
gift of our Saviour’s unconditional forgiveness.
So... How do we prepare our hearts for
Christmas? The message is the same now
as then... We prepare our hearts to receive him by recognizing our need for
him.
