Part 1: “PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD”

We are currently well into the Christmas season, which is frequently referred to as the busiest time of the year, as well as the most stressful time of the year. The stores are full & the internet is overwhelmed with people shopping in order to get what they consider necessary to prepare for the celebration of Christmas. There are gifts to buy, cards to write, cookies to bake, decorations to put up, entertaining schedules to organize, & of course the Christmas tree to purchase & decorate.

As I write all that, it sounds exhausting, doesn’t it? I have come to wonder whether it is even possible to prepare for Christmas as we know it in this secular culture in which we live. I mean really, where do we find the time or energy for all this “preparation” especially if we are working?

So, what is all this preparation about anyway? What are we preparing for exactly, one or two days of celebrating? I think as Christians about to celebrate the birth of God’s only Son, our fully human- fully divine Lord & savior, we need to pause amidst all our rushing around & re-think what we mean when we say we are preparing for Christmas. Somehow, all this superficial racing around & self-imposed pressure in the name of preparing to receive God’s gift to us, just does not make any sense, does it? All our pressure & running around of this season may get the “stuff” for the celebrating of Christmas as we have been practicing it for years, but the question is; does it get us ready to receive God’s greatest gift to us?

We have all heard the birth story many times. We have all shared & celebrated many Christmas seasons. As we think of it though, the question is; have these celebrations changed our lives? They may have built new memories with friends & families, but have they changed our lives? In order to truly receive & absorb God’s gift to us & all that Jesus’ coming into the world means, we need to prepare ourselves, in our mind, body & spirit to receive God’s gift, for with the coming of God’s gift, the world will be transformed.

We read in the Gospel of Luke that the prophet John the Baptist, the forerunner for Jesus, was called by God to announce the great things of God yet to come. John was called by God to proclaim the coming of Jesus, wholly human & wholly divine, for with His coming, the world was about to change drastically & the people needed to be ready to spread & live into the new day that Jesus was going to usher in. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, John went forward proclaiming that when Jesus came into the world; “Every valley would be filled, every mountain & hill would be made low & the crooked would be made straight, & the rough ways made smooth & all flesh would see the salvation of God”. In the Bible, it was made clear that God’s intent was that with Jesus coming, all things would be made equal & that the people needed to adjust to the coming of Jesus & to prepare the way to receive this Holy gift into their lives & into the world.

In order to prepare to open the door of our hearts to receive God’s gift into our lives, we need to start our preparation of this season by removing the clutter of our lives out of God’s way: the clutter of judgement, anger, bitterness, doubt, resentment, cynicism, apathy, & hopelessness, so that the door that leads to our hearts can swing freely open letting Jesus into our lives. We have to prepare for His coming into our lives as we get ready to have our lives: receive, live into & celebrate the transformation that Jesus alive with us will bring to the world.

~Posted by Rev Kathryn Bindig, MDiv. MS; Pastoral Care Minister with assistance from Rich Muscatello; Director of Business Development & Strategy