Advent: Ready, Set, Go

El invento se inventa una vez por todas.

La idea tiene que ser reinventada cada vez.

The invention is invented one time for all times.

The idea has to be reinvented each time.

-An aphorism of Don Colacho

Advent is upon us, and to be honest, the idea can just make me tired.  I've got so much to do, church-wise and family-wise.  I wish I could receive the gifts of this season with the same excitement as my kids.  I actually just wish I could fool myself into believing that they're excited about something other than presents.

While I'm no proponent of the "war on Christmas" mentality, I do see how our ultra busy-ness and hyper-materialism can absolutely wring the life out of the next month.  All of this absolutely enforces the need for the season of Advent, a build up, a sorting out, a preparation, a recovery of an idea that has and is in the process of transforming the world.

We remember a single event: the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.  It happened a long time ago, among people we can scarcely even imagine correctly through the mists of history.  Let's call that the invention of the incarnation, the physical process of God becoming a human being.  It only needs to happen once, in that particular way.  However, the life and teachings of Jesus point us towards a reality that it needs to continue to happen.  Christ needs to be continually present in a broken world.

How is that going to happen?

You could choose to believe in some ethereal mystical presence of God in the world, and vaguely hope for peace on earth, good will to men.  You could just not think about it and go about your business.  Or you could accept the challenge of Advent: being ready for Christ to come alive in your life.

But let me warn you: that guy is disruptive and troubling, and will take you places you probably don't want to go.  Look at what he did to Mary's safe little life, and Joseph's careful little business.  Look at what his arrival precipitated in Herod's palace, a murderous rage and a slaughter of infants.

From the very beginning this event was a source of drama.

We have so carefully sanitized it.

We have so thoroughly buried it under an avalanche of tinsel.

The idea must be reinvented.  The incarnation must happen again... every year.

That means a ritual observance, that means a liturgy, that means a repeatable observation, which can also lead to death and emptiness.  We can go through the motions and never think about the incarnation, which is the core of why we do all this.

Learn something new about the old stories. Check this guy out for a minute.  Don't get scared, he's on our side, but he brings a way of looking at those Christmas stories that may be entirely new to us, but insistently truth telling.

This Advent, don't just go through the motions, let God's grace be born anew in your life.