Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
By Randy Shepley
A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 40:3-5 NRSV
The season of Advent has returned.
It is the time of the Christian year where we “unsettle” our lives to refocus on the coming of the Christ child and the hope, peace, joy and love his return promises. It is a season of redirection, repentance, reconciliation and recalibration of our souls. The season of Advent = an invitation for followers of Jesus to prepare for Christmas.
As a culture, we have little clue how to prepare ourselves for Christmas. We know how to purchase presents, decorations, cards, trees, and everything else that goes with preparing for Christmas. Actually, we are really good at it. The National Retail Federation expects American consumers to spend $655.8 billion this Christmas season.
To put this in perspective, American Christmas spending in 2016 will outpace the 2015 gross domestic product of 182 different nations. No one spends money at Christmas better than us.
Many well-meaning Christ-followers are upset every Christmas season because retailers’ advertising campaigns and employees announce, “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas,” others erupt in angry protests when manger scenes are removed from public and government spaces, and last Christmas season, many Christians even registered angry displeasure when the coffee cups at Starbucks changed to a pattern opponents deemed less connected to Christmas. Some insist conspiracies to undermine the real meaning of Christmas are rampant, and yet, insulated in the cocoon of American consumerism, our souls slowly waste away under the relentless pursuit of “more” and “enough.”
It is stunning to observe how much time, money, and energy American consumers invest in preparing for Christmas. We decorate our homes, purchase and wrap presents, spend money and time writing Christmas cards, cook food, make travel arrangements or prepare for guests to arrive in our homes, go to Christmas parties and pageants (not to mention all of the time we invest in making sure the pageants and parties come off without a hitch), stage the perfect Christmas family picture, and finally, attempt to survive the schoolwork and vocational responsibilities that triple during the Christmas season since everyone hopes to finish their projects before the end of the year.
We invest so much energy in outside Christmas expectations that we have precious little to invest in preparing our hearts for the newborn king. Consequently, we live yet another superficial Christmas season where stuff, activity, and productivity lead to an overwhelmed season of Advent.
Advent is about more, but it is not the more of our culture. In fact, we do not need more Christmas as usual. We need a rebellious Advent season. We need a time where the materialistic norms are challenged, questioned, and cast aside. We must celebrate a Christmas where people of low status are raised up by the light that shines in the darkness.
We need an Advent season where the elites in intelligence, status, and earning power lay down their pride in humility, and remember the good news of Jesus is proclaimed against the powers, to free the oppressed, and bind up the broken-hearted. It is too easy to allow Advent and Christmas to serve as busy, sentimental moments on our calendar. Our culture needs something more: we need a revolution.
How can you live a rebellious Advent and Christmas season? I would encourage you to discover the Advent Conspiracy. This Advent movement began a few years back when five pastors, disgusted with loss of soul preparation at Advent and Christmas, started a simple act of rebellion in their families and churches.
They chose to spend Advent focused on four themes: Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, and Love All. Spending less is one of my favorite parts of Advent Conspiracy, precisely because it demands our sacrifice where it hurts the most. Our culture finds every way possible to purchase one more gift.
We can intentionally purchase less and give our savings to persons who are building wells for clean drinking water, to purchase mosquito nets for areas throughout the African continent or to care for refugees from Iraq, Syria, and other desperate, dangerous places. When we spend less so that our monies can love others in Jesus name, we are engaging in counter-cultural Advent practice. We embrace Incarnational living. The people walking in darkness have seen a great Light. . . may it be so in us this Advent season.
Dr. Randy Shepley serves as senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Newport News, Va., a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship partner congregation.
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