Ready Or Not

Are you ready for Christmas? I hear that question often. Most of the time, I receive those words as an offering of enthusiasm, anticipation, and loving concern. The warm smile from the person asking lets me know that they are excited about Christmas, realize it will be here before we know it, and hope that I am surviving the busy season. Occasionally, however, the mischievous look in the eyes of the inquisitor tells me they already know that I am far from ready and that they enjoy seeing the panic that I cannot suppress.

I still have sermons to write and liturgies to think through. My shopping list is still taking shape, and I will not attempt to wrap a present until Christmas Eve. I still have people to visit and thank you notes to write. And, no matter how much work I still have to do, Jesus is coming, whether I am ready or not.

I am comforted by the fact that the story of Jesus’ birth is full of incomplete tasks and haphazard preparations. Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem without a place to stay. The inn was full, but an act of pity by the innkeeper provided them a place to bed down in the barn out back. Sleepy shepherds were watching over their flocks in nearby fields when the angel startled them. Having gone to work that night with no idea that they would be meeting royalty, they probably kicked themselves as they walked into town, wishing they had at least put on clean clothes.

For nine months, Mary had anticipated that this night would come, but how could the unwed mother be fully prepared for this birth? She delivered her child without the support of her own mother and the other women in her family who knew the ways of childbirth. We can imagine that some of Joseph’s relatives showed up to help that night, but can you imagine meeting your future mother-in-law for the first time as she helps to catch the baby whose father was not her son?

We do not hear much about Joseph in Luke’s gospel account, but Matthew, who opens his version of the good news by tracing Jesus’ ancestry back to David through his earthly father’s family, tells us of Joseph’s struggle with his fiancée’s pregnancy. When he learned that Mary was pregnant, Matthew tells us, Joseph planned to break off the engagement quietly rather than cause her any additional embarrassment. Before he could, however, an angel appeared to him in a dream, letting him know that her child was from God and that he should not be afraid to marry her. We know nothing about Jospeh’s frame of mind except his admirable decision to follow God’s command, but our experience of human nature tells us that a part of him must have felt unsettled.

Our first child was born more than seventeen years ago, but I can remember that strange feeling that I was absolutely ready to greet her and also absolutely unprepared to be a father. Even if the nursery is finished, the overnight bag is packed, and the birth plan is well-rehearsed, is anyone ever truly ready for a birth?

Christmas is coming. It is less than a week away. In some ways, all of us are ready, and in others we still have much work to do. Advent is a season of preparation but not for Christmas shopping, party planning, or even sermon writing. Advent is a time for us to get ready to greet our savior at his coming. It is, therefore, primarily a season of spiritual preparation. It is a time for repentance and renewal. Isn’t that true all year long?

These four weeks of Advent are not only for remembering that December 25 will be here before we know it. They are about remembering that one day Jesus will come again and complete the saving work which he began long ago and which God began with the creation of the world. Ready or not, Jesus is on the way, and that is good news.

Because our God is a God of love, grace, and mercy, we realize that, even though we can never fully be ready for the coming of Christ, his return will be for our salvation. We spend a lifetime getting ready not because Christ’s coming depends upon the adequacy of our preparation but because getting ready is how we anticipate the coming of the savior for which this world still longs. Preparing our hearts and minds to receive Jesus is how we remember that he is coming soon.

Yours faithfully,

Evan D. Garner