A Week to Get Ready

A Week to Get Ready

Next Sunday is New Year's, you know.

What? You think that’s not quite true, at least, not quite yet? You think I may have lost a marble or two, or three, or maybe flipped the calendar one too many months? Really though, what I’m saying is true. Next Sunday, November 28,  starts off the church year. Next Sunday starts Advent.

We in the church are often a bit out of sync with the world and culture around us…or, at least that’s a good idea, according to the Triune God, according to St. Paul, and, according to saints past and present. So, here’s one of many chances to shine like stars in the darkness. Here’s a chance to start the holidays, and better than that, start our very hearts with a fresh look at what Christmas is truly to celebrate…a fresh look at the season that already has the newspapers shouting get ready for a spending spree on Black Friday, and, at least in my neck of the woods, the merchants are doing all they can to entice us to gear up for loosening our tight grip on our wallet ‘cause Christmas is coming to town.  

While the rest of the world starts their new year as the chronological year flips dates, we in the church instead start a new year with a heart date. We start the church year by waiting. Waiting in Advent. Waiting for Christ’s birth. Waiting in hope for restoration to come.

Now, I don’t know about you, but a new year is usually a welcome sight. It feels fresh, full of possibility, a welcome relief from what has been to what can become. 

For a good portion of my life, I’ve actually routinely celebrated three New Year’s celebrations: one in late November/early December, one in January and one in September.  The November/December New Year focuses on my life with Christ, my life as part and parcel of the body of Christ as a member of the church universal. The New Year’s celebration in January revolves around counting the spins of the earth’s orbit around the sun from times past to times present, the chronology of earth and my years here on it. And, for most of my life, somewhere around September as summer starts to fade, the new year of the school calendar has been another celebration of sorts. As a kid, this was the time of freshly sharpened pencils, a fresh pair of back-and-white saddle shoes or penny loafers, and a fresh-faced teacher as I moved from grade to grade. Along the way, I too moved. I moved from being the student to being the teacher as well, so my vantage point changed as the year started. And then along came the blessing of children of my own, so the start of school involved new things for them and me: backpacks and back to school nights.

Three opportunities for celebrating a new year, a new start. Church calendar and my heart with Christ. Chronological calendar and the addition of a year in history for the earth and this body that occupies it. School calendar and my education, learned and offered.

A new year is coming! And, how are we to get ready for the year that’s about to begin? What difference does it make that we who follow Jesus start our year waiting, wondering, wishing? What difference does it make that we start our year at Advent, not on January 1 or when schools start up after summer’s play? What difference does my walking with Jesus make as we walk towards Christmas?

Here’s my proposal. Join me as I take this week and get ready. Let’s get ready for Advent. It’s the perfect time to do so. As we approach Thanksgiving on Thursday, let’s take the time to be grateful for the year that is coming to a close. We, as the liturgical church calendar reminds, are leaving the season of Ordinary Days to move into the new season, the New Year, which starts at Advent. So, much like we change our clothes as the seasons change, let’s ready our hearts for the year’s change.

St. Ignatius, as part of his Spiritual Exercises for Everyday Living, suggests that we examine our day and notice the movements of God in that 24-hour period. Noticing, he surmised, helped us be attentive to God’s transforming invitations, and our own response: to enter in or to ignore. So, in this week where you and I will celebrate Thanksgiving, let’s look back across the year. Notice, as I’m planning to do, what God has been up to for you specifically in the year past. Notice where you have entered into heart conversations with Him. Notice where you have moved from being all about you to being  a little bit more all about Him. Notice, too, where you, like me,  have simply not been willing to be that available, that vulnerable. I hope after you and I are done with the noticing, that we’ll both pause and thank God from whom all blessings flow for all that has been.

Instead of sharpening our pencils and buying a new pair of back-to-to school shoes or purchasing a new calendar and coming up with a new resolution, let’s sharpen, instead, our hearts and walk back across the year, noticing. I hope to see you here next Sunday as we go forward, celebrating a new year, the start at Advent, where we will be waiting once more and ever fresh, for the new invitations God is up to, for you, for me, in the offering of His best gift ever: Jesus.

Lane M. Arnold. Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved.