Today day was simple and quiet. I am still in recovery from a nasty virus but I figure by the weekend I’ll be 100%. I’ve pleaded and begged with my husband not to bring anything home with him from work and am drinking my greens every day so I feel good and ready to celebrate Christmas. It’s kind of funny when you think about it. How ‘ready’ we get. My dress is ready and waiting, I just need to pick out a scarf to go with it. I’m in decision making mode about whether I should wear a gown or just keep doing my ‘naked preaching’ thing. I’m getting a hair cut tomorrow and have new makeup for the holiday parties I’m going to attend. Overall my preparations far exceed those of the original participants. I wonder if I’m missing the point somehow.
Maybe the point isn’t getting myself ready but just living in a state of readiness. Like the shepherds who just happened to be there and Mary who said yes when asked without really thinking about the consequences. Maybe readiness is how we are supposed to be living. Always looking, seeking, searching for something more. Never ceasing in the effort to be experience and see. Perhaps I need to work on being always ready instead of living to prepare.
It seems as though sometimes in the Church we live to prepare. There are seasons and struggles and constant preparation as we wait for things to happen. We have emergency budgets and slush funds {many of which are falling to dangerously low levels} and for the first time in memory it appears we are reaching a point for which we can no longer prepare. We cannot possibly expect what will happen next and for that I am grateful. We need a little chaos. We need to be thrown off our game and ripped away from the rules and regulations that define us. We need to exist as God created us to exist, in loving relationship with him and others. Our obsession with preparedness is not helpful as it prevents us from living to our full potential.
Jesus himself was an inconvenience and at times if we’re honest still is. He entered the world at the most inconvenient time for his parents coming into their lives while they were sleeping in a stable. As he grew he continued to push people of balance taking them beyond where they were comfortable. At one point he sent his disciples out with nothing, completely unprepared so they would be forced to rely on others and build relationships with them. When he died he left his disciples with no plan and when he came back he was vague and they continued their wait for answers until the Holy Spirit descended. With Jesus it wasn’t never about getting ready but always living in that state of readiness to accept whatever mission one was called to.
Jesus comes unexpectedly in the night asking us to drop everything and there really isn’t any preparing for that. Are we ready for Christmas? I’m not sure it matters. It’s coming like a tidal wave and there’s no stopping it. Maybe the better question is are we ready for Jesus? For that inconvenient intrusion that inevitably shakes us to the core and forces us to evaluate everything. Are we ready for his entrance into our lives, our faith, our churches? Are we ready to hear how we’ve got to drop all we know and follow him where he’ll take us?
