"Are You Ready for Christmas?" - Luke 3:3-l4 - December 7, l997

One morning this week while having coffee with friends, one of my friends asked if I was ready for Christmas. I didn’t respond immediately because I wasn’t sure what he meant. "Do you mean, do I have all my shopping done? Mostly," I replied. What about you, are you ready for Christmas?

When most people ask that question they are referring to the purchase of presents, preparations for parties, putting up decorations, etc. It means getting boxes down from the attic, finding the perfect gift or untangling the lights. Is this what it means to be ready for Christmas?

John the Baptist was preparing the world for Christmas, the coming of Christ. He was definitely telling them to be ready for he states, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." In the midst of a people in despair he announces the coming arrival of the salvation of God. To prepare the world for what was coming had nothing to do with buying gifts or putting up decorations. It had to do with a change of heart and mind.

At last week’s rotary meeting we heard from one of our exchange students who has recently returned from Belgium. She spent an entire year there, attending school and living with several families.
She told us that it was a life-changing experience. For the first time in her life she had to let go of her home and culture and adapt to an entirely new situation, even speaking a foreign language. To survive she had no choice but to speak French and adjust to different traditions and customs. What she went though was a transformation, a change of heart and mind.

To prepare ourselves for Christmas, according to John the Baptist, is to undergo transformation. When John calls us to repentance, he calls us to a change of heart and mind. We are to live in a new and different way. We can’t be ready for the coming Christ without making some adjustments. Our hope lies in our ability to open ourselves to the creative spirit of God. Transformation can take place when we are willing for it to happen.

Our exchange student made a commitment to go abroad and live in another country during her junior year of high school. It required a sacrifice on her part and it took great courage. There was some homesickness and she had to overcome several obstacles. There would have been no transformation, however without a change of heart and mind. To prepare ourselves for Christmas is to make ourselves ready for the transforming power of God. And it requires a commitment to change which means letting go and being courageous.

John was courageous. He stood up for what he believed, condemning greed and self centeredness.
He was not afraid to rock the boat. He called people to share. He told them to be content with what they have. He told his listeners not to take advantage of others. Unless society understood their social responsibility they would never be able to hear Jesus’ message of love. He was loosening them up, warming them up for "the truth, the way and the life."

To get ready for Christmas means to listen up, to loosen up and to warm up.

John is a voice in the wilderness who is telling the people to listen up. He was a unique individual who got people’s attention. We cannot be ready for Christmas unless God has our attention. To get someone to listen you first have to get their attention. And even if they truly understand they won’t hear until they change.

In the book, "The Grip of Grace", by Max Lucado, there is a story about a man who changed. This particular man was a true slob. He didn’t believe in being neat. He saw no need to make his bed since he would sleep in it the next night. He saw no need to put the lid back on the tube of toothpaste. He even admitted to being compulsive about being messy.

But, then he got married. His wife was patient and said she didn’t care if he was messy if he didn’t care about sleeping on the couch. The man decided to change. He enrolled in a 12 step program for slobs, saw a therapist. He learned how to put a roll of toilet paper on the holder. He was introduced to Pine Sol. He became a changed man. But then came the moment of truth. His wife went away for a week. This was his chance to revert to his old habits. He figured he could be a slob for 6 days and clean up on the 7th. But something happened. He could no longer relax as long as there were dirty dishes in the sink or towels lying on the bathroom floor. What happened? He had been exposed to a different standard of living and had had a change of heart and mind.

We cannot change unless we are attentive. The people of Israel were desperate for a savior to save them. they were earnestly longing to be turned around, or at least turned to someone who could show them the way. But before that could happen John had to get their attention. I believe that many of us want to change but we can’t because God doesn’t have our attention. Perhaps no one is telling us that preparing ourselves for Christmas means to repent, to change our ways.

It’s so much easier to repeat old habits and old ways of doing things. We are more secure in perpetuating what we know rather than try something new or different. My wife and family spent Thanksgiving in the Smokey mountains. This has become new tradition for us. We no longer go to relatives or watch parades. I confess that in the beginning I resisted such a radical switch from what we were used to. But I have changed and I now look forward to the journey.

John is also telling us to loosen up. We can let go of the familiar and trust in something totally foreign to what we know. Our new Thanksgiving must be working for me. On our return trip we found ourselves in heavy traffic. My wife knows this really frustrates me. But, this year, it didn’t bother me. My wife said, "I can’t believe how patient you are." Even our son was totally surprised that I didn’t pull off the interstate and take the back roads to avoid the traffic. I was so relaxed and loose from our trip to the mountains that the journey home didn’t bother me like it had in the past.

Listen up. Loosen up. That is John’s message. But by far his most important point is that we also warm up. To get ready for Christmas means to let god’s spirit of love flow through our lives.

I was paying bills on the first day of the month. As I got ready to pay the newspaper I noticed there was a line to tip the paperboy (in our case, the papergirl). I had never noticed it before. I remembered the years I delivered papers and how I appreciated tips from my customers. For the first time I added a tip to my bill. Perhaps I’m warming up. Maybe this year I am a bit more ready for Christmas than I have been in the past. What about you, are you ready for Christmas?

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio