Today the church starts a new liturgical year by entering the time we call Advent – which means - coming – where we’re supposed to be thoughtful, and patient and expectant.

Through the observance of a holy Advent, the church strives to help people slow down, to be open to the mystery and certainty of God’s presence and to mark time differently than those who live these days as a countdown to Christmas. The colors are changed – note the beautiful blue of the altar frontal. We read lessons from Lectionary Year C – where most of the gospel readings for a year will come from Luke whose concerns are weighted toward the poor and women.

But it is not easy, this entering into a slower pace – a more sacred pace because the reality of our times is that Advent gets mostly bypassed and mentally we are zipped into the Christmas mindset…not a mindset of waiting and expecting or inviting Jesus into our hearts but a mindset of a commercial Christmas.

We’ve hardly finished eating the leftover turkey from Thanksgiving, the stores are decorated for Christmas, some of my neighbors already have lights around their houses, and so it feels more like something other than a thoughtful, patient and expectant time.

“Stand up and raise your heads,” Jesus said, “because your redemption is drawing near. Even though you may see signs that there is distress among nations, don’t let your hearts get weighed down with the worries of this life.”

The worries of this life, oh Jesus there are a multitude of them. In this Advent of 2009, up here where it is truly dark by 5PM – and the days short, the nights long, and the pressure is on to show people how much we love them by what we buy, some of us will undergo radical personality changes -- for the worse, some of us will go into debt or even deeper into debt. There will be increased stress and turmoil in our lives. Expectations will be placed on us by others and we will place our hopes and dreams on someone else's shoulders.

Advent is supposed to be a slow journey toward Christmas…a journey that requires no baggage…a time when the journey, the waiting itself is filled with a sacred richness.

“Redeemer come, I open wide my heart for you.” What we need for this journey is an open heart and a sense of peace. Peace is hard to come by when all the messages scream at us to buy this or buy that; make this or make that; party here and party there.

It is a journey that can be dangerous because along the way we might get lost and bogged down in all the busy-ness that we take on. We can become over burdened by the tasks and expectations from ourselves and other. One year I heard a woman say not to expect her at any Christmas service because she was too busy cooking!

After the frenzy of shopping, wrapping, and opening presents; cooking and baking for days, going to at least one Christmas party a week, all of a sudden it is over -- and done -- and after all the excitement, the frantic pace, there comes a let down -- is that all there is?

Maybe you can remember counting your presents as a child. Think about children unwrapping a present, then on to the next one, then unwrapping another and another and all of a sudden there are no more. Can't you hear little voices saying, "Is that all there is?"

I have heard that here in Woodstock, the main attraction Christmas Eve is the arrival of Santa…around 5:30 in the evening. Maybe it’s not so much the arrival but how Santa arrives. And I wonder if this is the main experience of Christmas for children, how can they truly appreciate the coming of Christ into our hearts if all they hear about or see is the notion of an old man in a red suit who watches to see if we’re naughty or nice, gives us tons of gifts and who might drop from a helicopter or be shot out of a canon?

When I first interviewed here I asked about a service on Christmas Eve for the young. I was told, ‘Oh no, that’s when Santa arrives and the whole town turns out to see his arrival.’ After I got here I mentioned it again. A couple of times I got a pitying look – and people would gently say, ‘but this is about community.’

OK, community is good, BUT if there is no Christ in CHRIST- MAS…what are we doing to our children? So this year we will offer a service at 3:30 on Christmas Eve for the young and the young-at-heart. Maybe no one will come or only five but whoever is here will help to put figures in a nativity scene, sing some carols, hear the Christmas story and have the first Mass of Christ.

Christ is coming to bring new life to us, to a wounded and hurting world. And our main task is to live in hope and to make ourselves ready to receive him, and to know the story! If there is one thing you should take on this Advent it is to know the story. Read Luke. Read Matthew. These are the only two gospels that contain stories about the birth of Jesus. How can we make connections with our lives and the scripture if we don't know the story?

One Christmas, ages ago, when my girls were little, and we were in Michigan, I was not expecting a visit from my parents at Christmas. I had no Christmas food in the house. They called Christmas Eve day to say they would be there that night! I was busy all day and had to work at the 5p.m. service. As soon as it was over, I put my two young daughters in the back of the car and set out for the grocery store. It was closed. Went to another store. It was closed. And another. It too was closed. From the back seat a tiny voice said, "Well, I guess this is how Mary and Joseph felt when they couldn't find a room."

They knew the story! And they were able to connect this experience, their experience, to the story. Know the story. Make the connections.

Advent calls for less, not more. Here are some ways you can divest yourself of the excess baggage of busywork and anxiety:

1. Be a scrooge with your anger.
2. Forgive someone's debt.
3. Give the gift of your kind disposition.
4. Speak your love. Speak it again. And speak it yet again.

My father was not a man of many written words so I remember with gratitude a note he wrote one year. I was in my early 30's and had just been down to Florida with my girls. Daddy's note said ,

"Please come back soon. The world is a different place when you are here."

What a priceless gift he gave to me – that of speaking his love.

One of my favorite theologians, Fred Rogers says it this way: “If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person. As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has—or ever will have—something inside that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.”

The gifts of Advent – along with the quiet, sacred, waiting is to recognize that each person is a unique creation, valued and loved…and to figure out how to speak that love. May this Advent season help us all to travel to a simpler and more meaningful experience of welcoming Christ into our lives. May we know the story and may God bless our efforts to give God's love to others.