Angels We Have Heard on HighНамуна

A CALL TO PREPARE

The first angelic appearance of Christmas is when the angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah, announcing the birth of John the Baptist and describing John’s life and ministry as a frontrunner to Jesus.

The Call of Christmas from Gabriel to Zechariah is a Call to Prepare. To prepare the way for the Messiah and his upcoming arrival.

Shopping, cooking, and decorating are all important preparations to enjoy as Christmas draws near. But preparing our hearts to encounter the Savior is a real life-changing moment.

Advent is a time for waiting. As we tell the story of redemption through the church calendar, we begin the sacred story not by doing or celebrating but by waiting… waiting for God to act.

In our high-tech, fast-food, instant-everything world, we don't like to wait.

Advent and Christmas are not a single holiday season. Christmas is a time of rejoicing, but Advent is a time of lamenting.

Remember, from the time of Malachi, the last prophet in the Old Testament, until the birth of Jesus, God was silent for 400 years. For 400 years, God's people waited for the promised Messiah to come.

The world has gone wrong. God is nowhere to be found. The prophets cried out, “O Lord, how long?”

The Lord is coming, and God is about to act, but for now, we wait.

In waiting, our soul grows quiet and contemplative and creates a capacity for us to be able to discern what God is doing when He does act.

We are impressed by the big and the loud. But the ways of God are predominantly small and quiet.

But, in Advent, we're not really waiting for God to act. We're waiting to become quiet and contemplative enough to discern what God is doing.

God is always acting because God is always loving His creation.

When consumed by anger, anxiety, or impatience, we are blind and deaf to what God is actually doing.

When God broke into history through Jesus' birth, who discerned it? Not the religious Pharisees, or the scribes, or the priests.

Instead, it was the Magi – the stargazers – and the peasant shepherds. They were not experts in religious activities; they were quiet people who had time and opportunity for contemplative thought.

God is always acting because He loves the world and gives birth to something.

Waiting for God is waiting for your soul to quiet.

The Jews wanted God to act in Rome, but God first acted in a stable in Bethlehem.

We want God to act in Washington, DC, but God first acts in the quiet corners of our bedrooms and living rooms.

God is about to act. In your life. In our world. But if you want to see it, learn to first wait in quiet contemplation.

Learn to gaze at the stars like the Magi. Keep vigil in the fields like the shepherds. Learn to sit with Jesus. Learn to be quiet. Learn to wait. Then, you will begin to discern what God is doing.

The first call of Advent is a call to prepare. To prepare our hearts for the coming of our King. Let's quiet our souls and wait.