Have you ever considered just how shocking and counter-cultural Advent really is? While our supermarket soundtracks lull us into a dreamland of sleighbells and snow, the church calendar yells “Wake up! Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed!” “Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your hearts be light” murmurs cosily and comfortably in the background of days. But then we arrive at church, and, as in today’s gospel reading, come face to face with a camel-clothed, grasshopper-gulping prophet who shouts “repent!” and who tells the religious leaders “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
It’s shocking. It’s jarring. It feels almost bizarre! So why do we keep these strange and hard words of warning and judgment at the heart of our preparation for Christmas? Is all this business about repentance just a killjoy for our celebration?
On the contrary, there is great wisdom in the church’s tradition. Indeed, I believe that one of the reasons we need to walk the serious road of Advent is that it is the only road to serious Christmas joy.
You see, if we put aside all the talk of judgment and repentance, we may well feel a warm sweetness as we think about Jesus in the manger, looking all cute, surrounded by glowing angels and cuddly farm animals. But the problem is that we then keep Christ there, locked into the front of a Christmas card…and all too soon forgotten. We squeeze him in somewhere between the glittery tinsel, huge spending, and frantic galloping from party to party. But we never see who he really is. We forget that the tiny voice crying in the manger is the same voice that said “Let there be light!”—and called all of creation into existence. That the hands helplessly wrapped in swaddling clothes are the very same ones that will one day hold the sceptre and judge the nations.
He is not just a cute baby. He is the Lord of all. And the purpose of Advent is to clear away all the things that distort, divide, and distract us from him so that we are ready not just to say “Aw, how cute”, but to fall on our knees and say “My Lord and my God”. Only then are we free to receive true Christmas joy: in the gift of Christ himself.
Reflection by Laura on Matthew 3:1-12