Prepare Him Room?

The season of Advent would not exist without Christmas. Like Lent, the whole point of the season is that it precedes a really major feast day in the life of Christians. That prefix pre- means "before". Advent precedes Christmas. Advent comes before Christmas. I talked last week about how part of Advent’s character as a time preceding Christmas is to train us how to look forward, living in hopeful expectancy, trusting in a future in which God will come to meet us. Another quality of Advent (and Lent) that is often highlighted is that of preparation. Another pre- word. Prepare. Preparation. A time for getting ready, getting things in order before the great event of Christmas.

This Sunday in particular this idea of preparing is before us. This second Sunday in Advent is often informally called John the Baptist Sunday. We hear John the Baptizer in this morning’s Gospel reading. "Prepare the way of the Lord." Prepare for the Lord’s coming. The collect speaks of the prophets role in preparing the way for our salvation. And although we cannot sing Christmas carols during Advent, perhaps I can quote just a bit from one of the most beloved. "Joy to the world; the Lord is come. Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room."

Let every heart prepare him room. That sounds like an Advent task… to prepare in our hearts room for the coming Christ child. Prepare. Get ready. Get things in order before Christmas. But what exactly are we supposed to prepare? How? And I think we could all be forgiven for thinking: You mean on top of everything else I still have to get done in the next 16 days I also have to prepare some room somewhere for Jesus? For Jesus of all people?

I want to reexamine this whole idea of Advent preparation… of Advent as a time to prepare. What does it mean to prepare? One sort of preparation that the church talks about is repentance. Our repentance prepares us for God’s forgiveness. That seems to be what John is talking about, and that is a sermon I have preached on this Sunday in the past. It’s a sermon worth preaching not just in Advent, but every single day of the year. Repentance isn’t an Advent message; it’s a daily message. So repentance should certainly be part of our lives during Advent, but I think many of the other ways we think about the act of preparing are not necessarily helpful to the observance of Advent.

Does Jesus’ coming depend upon our preparedness? In so much of our lives it is preparation that ensures future success. Should we think that way about Advent? Does a successful Christmas depend upon our preparation? Let every heart prepare him room, we sing. And what does that mean? Thinking of rooms, I think of all the extra-ordinary house cleaning we do before houseguests arrive… a depth and comprehensive of cleaning that is not, and will never be a part of our regular, daily living. I knew someone who made her husband clean out the inside of all of the light fixtures before his mother arrived for her annual visit. A little dust or a fly or two were OK all the rest of the year, but a houseguest produces an anxiety about appearances. The man holding in his gut when he meets a pretty girl. This seems to make Advent just a brief time of unusually intense soul cleaning so that we may appear at our spiritual best on Christmas Day. Soul cleaning is a good thing, but what happens when Christmas has passed and we are back to our regular lives? Thank heavens Jesus’ visit is over and we can relax…

Or is the focus of our Advent preparation not so much on our appearance as it is on catering to Jesus as guest? Does preparing mean figuring out what he would like to see in us when he comes, like putting grandma’s favorite flowers in the vase as we prepare for her arrival or stocking up on Black Label before Uncle Joe arrives? What would it mean to prepare a room in our hearts that would cater to Jesus’ personal preferences? Is his coming dependent upon whether or not he likes the accommodations we have prepared? Joking aside, it’s easy to fall into that way of thinking. If Jesus does not like the room I have prepared in my heart, he will go elsewhere, or not come at all.

Or is our Advent preparation just making any room in our lives for Jesus? Making some open space? That is a laudable effort this time of year. To make space in our busyness where Jesus can enter into our lives. But how much space does Jesus’ need? How can we know if we've done enough?  Will he come if we only manage to make just a little bit of extra room for him maybe on Christmas Eve?

When Mary and Joseph got to Bethlehem, not only was no room in the inn prepared with the sheets turned down and their favorite kind of mint on the pillow… no room was available… anywhere. No room prepared. No room at all. No space. And Jesus came anyway. Nothing, no one was prepared. And Jesus came anyway. Preparation didn’t have anything to do with it. Jesus came because God knew that the world needed his coming.  Jesus comes because God knows that the world needs his coming.

As Christians have sought to find our way over the centuries, sometimes we explore what theologians call the via negativa. The negative path. If we can figure out where we are not supposed to go or what we are not supposed to do, maybe that will help us figure out what the right path is. This sermon is my via negativa on Advent preparing. If we can figure out what Advent preparation is not supposed to be, maybe we'll get a better idea of what it should be.  There are several things that I think Advent preparation is not. Advent preparation is not like preparing the guest room for grandma or Uncle Joe or your best friend from college, putting out the best things so that you briefly look your best just as long as they are staying and no longer. Advent preparation is not like preparing for a test, when you have to get everything right or else fail, or preparing for shuttle launch, when all systems must be go before anything can go forward. The coming of Christmas does not depend upon our proficiency. Advent preparation is not like preparing a concert venue for a visiting rock band so that everything suits their needs or else. And it’s really not even like preparing for the birth of child, where the new baby needs us to create a place for her to sleep, a space of her own. Advent is not about us servicing Jesus’ needs.

Jesus is coming.

If Jesus honest-to-God beamed into your life sometime in the next few weeks, what would you say? Oh my God, I’m not ready. I haven’t put the Bible out on the coffee table. I haven’t prepared. I haven’t vacuumed. I haven’t yet added on that extra room to my heart for his arrival.

Or would you say: Thank God you have come? Thank God, you have come. You. The one I need. The one I seek. I have been waiting for you all my life. Thank God, you have come.

Jesus is coming. Will we welcome him? Will we recognize him? Will we see in him the answer that we need, the path for which we are searching? Will we know him to be the fulfillment of our souls’ desire?

In 16 days Jesus will be born. He will be born, not just to the people who evidence the best preparedness, nor just in the particular places where a room (literal or metaphorical) has been most appropriately prepared. He will be born where God is needed. Where do you need God in your life? Where in the unprepared, messy, busy, empty, anxious, mundane parts of your life do you desperately need God? Where does the world need God? Where do hatred, injustice, poverty, violence need God’s redemption? Those are Advent questions to ponder.

Are there dark places in your life that only God can enlighten? Do you harbor memories so marred that only God can put things right? Do you know an aimlessness or purposelessness that only God can still? Those are Advent questions. What’s the popular phrase? 90% of life is just showing up. Do you believe that? That showing up is all there is to life? The Pharisees in Jesus’ day evidently claimed that the heritage of Abraham was pretty much all they needed in life. Jesus challenges them to reconsider, to reconsider a life lived without the living presence of God in it.

Ultimately Advent challenges us to face the possibility of Godlessness. To consider a life into which God is not born.  A life of winter without Christmas (as C. S. Lewis puts it in the Narnia books). Are you prepared to live a Godless life? Or do you yearn for the savior’s birth? Don't worry so much about preparing.  Spend the remaining 16 days of Advent thinking about the places in your life, in your world, where you desperately need God, where you know a yearning that only God can fill. In those places, he will come to you.  Amen.