or have no home to speak of, trapped far from home or planning to host the gathering, or looking forward to or dreading whatever reunions are in your imminent future.
Because all that we ask of home that it can’t deliver, all that we depend on it for that it disappoints us in, all that we need and it will never be able to deliver? Your home can’t deliver it, but God can, and the porch light is on.
So today, look around at the home you’re in now. Change one thing in it to make it more like what a home ought to be: clean some old baggage out of a closet, invite a friend over to fill it up with love, rearrange a shelf to make it more beautiful, or go to the grocery store and pay a little more to buy the fair-trade option of whatever you’re getting. Make just one small change, and dedicate it to God.
God, you are my refuge and my might, my alpha and omega. You are my true home. Which is a good thing, since the one I have in this world is so weird. Amen.
December 3
Evening
I’m the root and descendant of David, the bright morning star. (Revelation 22:16)
Why is everything scarier in the middle of the night? A noise you wouldn’t think twice about if you heard it at noon can paralyze you at 2 a.m. A dream you’d totally just laugh off during your afternoon nap leaves you staring at the ceiling, blankets up to your chin, in the wee hours. A window that has never looked out on anything but the side yard becomes the potential frame for a vision of horror when you’re on your way for your midnight pee.
And that’s just for those of us who live in relatively safe houses. Never mind those who spend their nights on subway grates or cardboard, in fear of attack or invasion, in danger of spouses or temptation.
So what is it? Is it that at night, we’re more vulnerable or just feel more vulnerable? Is it that the dangers are greater or just look bigger in the dark?
Against the shadows, against the night, against that which stalks the good and the bad, for those who live their lives in nighttimes of fear and for those who just wake up alone once in a while, Jesus promises this: the night will end. The morning star will rise, and then the sun. The night will not and cannot finally win.
If you find that easy to believe in the daytime, but a little harder at night, hang a star in your room this Advent, a light-up Christmas star from Target, a glow-in-the-dark star stuck on the ceiling, or a starry night-light. You can call it a Christmas decoration so your friends don’t think you’re weird, if you want. But don’t forget what it really is: a promise.
Lord, I don’t know how long this night is going to be. But with you, I know it’s going to end. Come, Morning Star, come. Amen.
December 4
December 4
Morning
Therefore says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: . . . I will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy. (Isaiah 1:24-25 NRSV)
The Israelites have been worshiping other gods alongside their own. They have created what God, in the mouth of Isaiah, calls an “alloy” religion. Isaiah and the other ancient prophets were always worrying about purity of faith and worship; any mixing, they fretted, would bring the whole thing to its knees. To hear them tell it, God agreed.
I sometimes have a similar reaction to Christmas, to our frenetic, consumerist interpretation of its meaning, to all those catalogues and Very Special Episodes of TV shows. Sometimes, it seems to me an unholy alloy.
But then I tell myself to lighten up. I mean, is every alloy bad? And mightn’t God be powerful enough to co-opt the culture’s co-optation of the day of his birth? I think God can work with the traditions we hand to God.
In that Spirit, here are some Christmas things that have nothing to do with Jesus’ birth, but in which I believe God is at work anyway:
• Elvis’s Christmas Album. If it can make my whole family sing together while performing a complex operation involving a saw, a tree, a small living room, electricity, and water without us killing one another, it’s holy.
• Shopping. Yes, it can get out of hand, but searching for a great gift to make someone happy can be a profound experience.
• Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. In fact, Christmas specials in general—especially if they’re commercial-free.
• Your favorite. What traditions or celebrations do you love? What do they teach you about God? Have you made your plans for doing them yet this year?
God, you can make anything holy. Bless my celebrations when they increase my love, make me generous, or open me to your world. If they do the opposite, make them go the way of last year’s fruitcake. Amen.
December 4
Evening
[Jesus said,] The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from a distant land to hear Solomon’s wisdom. And look, someone greater than Solomon is here....
...The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they changed their hearts and lives in response to Jonah’s preaching—and one greater than Jonah is here. (Luke 11:31-32)
Jesus isn’t as concerned with being Christmassy as you might think he would be. Sometimes, he is positively not in the holiday spirit. What about peace and goodwill to all? Talking stable animals and cuddly babies? Miraculous stars and angel choirs? Why you gotta harsh our mellow?
I’d hate to try to speak for Jesus, but I think if he were here, he’d say something like, “Yeah, but if you believe all that stuff happened, even if you believe it happened ‘metaphorically’”—I imagine him gritting his teeth a little and making air quotes on that last word—“then can you please explain the state of the world? Can you explain to me why you did what you did last Tuesday? If you believe all that stuff is true about me and about what God did, can you explain, oh, I don’t know . . . Duck Dynasty?”
Everybody always talks about how busy they get around Christmastime. You’d think with all those Christians going full steam ahead for a month, the world would take a giant step forward at the end of every year, that the planet would lurch a little closer to paradise each December. That it doesn’t seem to work that way might suggest that we’re not busy with exactly the right things.
So how about this: take some time right now, here at the beginning of Advent, and add a holy something to your to-do list. A volunteer gig. A sizable donation to a good charity. A visit to your ailing aunt. A little political action. It won’t save the world, but it’ll be a start.
Lord, take from me the busy-ness that does not signify, and fill my calendar up with work to save the world. Because the Queen of Sheba has been dead for a long time, and I do not want to meet her face to face. Amen.
December 5
December 5
Morning
John’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, “Bless the Lord God of Israel because [God] has come to help and has delivered [God’s] people. (Luke 1:67-68)
