Ready for Christmas
Most of the time, our small talk begins with a friendly "How are you?" And under almost any circumstances, the proper response is, "I'm fine, how are you?" For example, if you just won the lottery, "I'm fine, how are you?" is an entirely reasonable response. But if your hair just caught on fire while you were stopped at a red light, "I'm fine, how are you?" still works really well. This is so because we usually ask "How are you?" more as a courtesy than as a sincere question. We do hope the other person is doing well, but we don't really expect to hear much of a status report.
Armed with an understanding of this basic rule of communication, I can normally cruise through a whole day's worth of "How are you?" without batting an eye. I do have good days and bad days, but usually I'm close enough to "fine" to just offer the standard answer and keep moving. But all of that starts to change for me around this time of year. As we move through November and into December, I begin to hear a different question with increasing frequency:
Are you ready for Christmas?
I know this question is just as benign and well-intended as a standard "How are you?" I can answer with a "you bet" or a "not quite," or even a vague, "it'll be here before we know it!" and no one will think badly of me. But still, the question causes me to pause. I don't feel any need to take a mental inventory before telling another person I'm fine. But telling them that I'm ready for Christmas feels like a more substantial claim. Before I can answer, I have to reflect. "That's a good question," I'll think to myself. "Am I?"
Now, I'm always excited about the Christmas season. I love the music and the decorations, the movies and the school choir concerts, the family gatherings and the church services, the food, and all the rest. I always look forward to Christmastime, so in that sense I'm always ready for Christmas. But I never feel like that's the question I'm being asked, and the internal question I find myself asking is clear enough: "Have I done all the work?" Because Christmas introduces a lot of extra elements and responsibilities to our lives. There are lights to check. There is garland to hang. There are trees to decorate. There are meals to plan, and travel arrangements to make, and a thousand other things. And then there are the gifts! In light of all that, it can be tempting to think of Christmas as a giant checklist. When I'm asked if I'm ready for Christmas, I feel a need to run down that checklist before I answer.
Of course, we know that Christmas is ultimately a celebration of Christ's birth. We know we should reflect on that. We know we should prepare our hearts for worship. But even those things can begin to seem like items on our checklist. It can feel spiritual to think of those as the really important, bold-faced items at the top of our list. And certainly, we should do them. But so long as we remain focused on our list, we are still mostly missing the point of Christmas.
To help us see it, we might recall an occasion recorded in Luke's gospel, when some Pharisees and teachers of the law were bothered by the way Jesus spent time with sinners.1 In response, he told them a story of an awful son who demanded his inheritance from his father prematurely. The son took that wealth and left his father behind, traveling to a distant country where he squandered it on prostitutes and wild living. He wound up a starving pig farmer, desperate and alone, and only then did he come to his senses. He resolved to return to his father and admit his wrongdoing, hoping to work as a slave to repay the inheritance he had squandered.
The father's response is rather surprising, and it is the point of the story Jesus told. While the son was still a long way off, his father saw him. He was filled with compassion for him. He ran to him and kissed him. The son made an effort to offer his prepared apology, but he couldn't even get the words out before his father interrupted him to offer him a robe, a ring and sandals. He prepared a grand feast in his son's honor. When the prodigal son decided to return to his father, he believed he was returning to a life of disgrace and slavery. He had racked up quite a long checklist of offenses. But in fact, his work was done the moment he turned towards home.2
Are we ready for Christmas? If we imagine that we are, we deceive ourselves. We cannot be. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, and each of us has turned to our own way.3 Each of us, like the prodigal son, has wandered and squandered the riches entrusted to us. But the Father's response is the point of the Christmas story as well. Christmas is God saying, "You've really made a mess of things. Here's my solution. His name is Jesus."
Our Father sees us when we turn back to him, even from a long way off, and he rejoices! His boundless grace, extended through Christ, is an occasion for great joy for all the people.4 So this Christmas, as always, let us be sure to take our seat at the banquet he has prepared. We are not ready for Christmas, but Christmas is ready for us.