December 2008
 

Counting Down to Goodness                                                        --from the Pastor

“So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart…”  Psalm 90:12

The other day, I took an armful of magazines into Baystate Hospital to distribute around one of their waiting areas.  Even as I was doing it, I wondered what had taken me so long to do this.  Maybe it was having to wait there for countless hours with only tattered copies of Field and Stream, AARP, and Contemporary Urology.  Someone else had zealously taken the copy of Good Housekeeping and wasn’t about to relinquish it.  She took it with her when the nurse called her name.  So, I went home and raided our magazine basket and returned to leave our slightly-used home-bound copies surreptitiously lying on hospital chairs, sofas, and in the magazine racks.  It felt good to do this.  At least now, when people wait, they will have more of a selection to pass the hours, which move at least three times more slowly when you are waiting inside a doctor’s office than outside.  And I was sure to leave multiple copies of GH.

Having spent quite a lot of time waiting recently, I realized that many times, the things that we wait for are not so unequivocally good.  Nor do we pass the time easily or well. Waiting for test results, or surgery, or the economy to improve, or a root canal, or even to get our hair done is ambiguous waiting at best.  We don’t know what the final result will be so we fret, pace, and pull our hair.  If we were to chart our actual waiting time, the line would look like a pendulum on steroids--full of sharp peaks and plummeting valleys.  I’m surprised that more of us do not suffer from pre-mature balding as a result. 

By the time you receive this, we will have entered into the season of Advent. Advent is precious because it is a time of good waiting.  The coming of our Savior, Jesus, the coming of Emmanuel (God-With-Us) is not a time to brace ourselves for the inevitable, but a time to prepare ourselves for the indomitable—a deepened joy and an encompassing love that knows no end.  The God who takes on human flesh desires to draw us closer to the realm of peace that God intends for us.  No hair pulling here—unless you are a King Herod and are threatened by Jesus’ very presence.

Here is why I am such a total fool for Advent calendars.  Just peeling back a door for every day before December 25^th leaves me feeling triumphant.  Behind each door, a picture, a scripture verse, or a bit of colored paper awaits.  (And if they have chocolate behind those doors, all the better!) Every day counts.  Do you see?  The little numbered door is just a foretaste of goodness to come.

The first Advent calendars came from Germany—specifically, German Lutherans.  Tradition holds that the origins of Advent calendars began when families made chalk marks in their doorways to mark each day as Christ’s birth approached.  Sometimes candles were lighted, and sometimes small religious pictures were put up each day. Some folks credit Gerhald Lang with the first printed, cardboard Advent calendar in 1908.  When he was a child, his mother is said to have made him a calendar with 24 little candies attached to it.  When I was a little girl, we made something like this in Girl Scouts, using a really long piece of red felt, glitter, bits of green yarn, and a handful of carefully rationed peppermint candies.  On the other hand, the Austrian Landesmuseum declares that the first printed Advent calendar was made in 1903.

Whatever its history, Advent calendars—indeed many of our Advent practices—help us to become intentional about welcoming Jesus into our lives. Each year, we honor Jesus’ coming by observing the days and weeks that lead up to his birth, each day offering up some wisdom, some glimpse of God’s hope for our future.  In this way, we teach our children that each day truly does count, that some things are worth waiting for, and that some kinds of waiting can actually teach us to become better, more generous, more loving people.

This year, pull back the many doors to God’s goodness.  View each day as another opportunity to light a candle in Christ’s name.  Spread the light around. Lay aside your anxiety about the future and, instead, let your urgency to experience Christmas drive you to do the compassionate thing that our world needs right now.  Maybe the door that you open will send you into the waiting rooms of the needy and the hopeless.  Maybe the door that you open will cause you to sing a song of joy that will brighten someone’s day.  Maybe the door you open will shock you into wonder for all of its beauty.  Maybe the door that you open will bring you face-to-face with the more caring side of your humanity.  Maybe you will open a door of renewed courage in your life.  And maybe, just maybe, you’ll be the door through which Jesus will arrive.

In any case, slow down long enough to savor this moment.  The good Lord will be here soon and we will be ready because we took the time to learn how to wait.

Wishing you the joy of discovery this Advent,

Rev. Dee