Our Journey to Christmas and Beyond
December 20, 2009
Luke 1: 39-45

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

What business do you have with me? asked Scrooge.
“Your welfare,” replied the Spirit of Christmas Past.
“I can think of nothing more beneficial to my welfare than a night of unbroken sleep!” countered Scrooge.

The older I get the more I appreciate Scrooge’s sentiment. This very week I had one of those nights when I was awake at 2:30 and could not go back to sleep. At that time of the morning, and at other busy times of my life, I too could think of nothing better than a good night of unbroken rest.

Like many of us, Scrooge could not could comprehend the reason for, and the final destination of, the journey he was about to undertake. Like many of us, he could only see the moment in which he found himself, the needs of that moment, and nothing beyond.

How often are we blind to the lessons that God would have us learn from the expediences of our life’s journey when we first encounter them? How often, like Scrooge, do we overlook the things around us, because we are too busy, or too involved with our own selfish desires. And perhaps most especially at this time of the year, when we should be more aware of the needs of others than at any time of the year.

Mary, approached by the Angel Gabriel, immediately accepted the challenge and responsibility presented to her by God, and willingly began a journey that would first take her to her cousin Elizabeth; then to the stable in Bethlehem; to Jerusalem where her son would explain to her why God had sent him to earth; and finally to the cross on Golgotha, where she would witness, with others who had followed him, the death of her son. And, then with John to Ephesus where she would live out the rest of her days serving God and working to build up the new church which her son had established.

Her entire life and her very soul would be, as she said a magnification of the blessing that God had given to her. O that we all could be so willing to serve.

At the visit of the second spirit Scrooge began to appreciate all that he had experienced the night before, and responded to the spirit’s invitation, “Conduct me where you will, for I have already learned a lesson from my travels with the Spirit of Christmas Past which is now working in me. Tonight if you have the aught to teach me, let me profit by it.”

What are you doing this Christmas? Will it be a time filled with so many things: the parties, the presents, gatherings of family and friends, trees and brightlights; will these so fill your time that you are unable to see the journey that God has set before you? Will you be too busy with all that you have to do, to listen and respond to the voice of God calling you to serve, to learn again from the lessons of the Advent and from those that life of Christ would teach.

Sometime soon, and for many, very soon, Christ will approach you, calling you to serve and setting you on a new path. How will you respond? Will it be as Scrooge originally did: “What business do you have with me?” Or will you answer as Mary did, and as Scrooge did on that second night, I am ready for you to conduct me where you will? I am ready to serve you as you, and my neighbors, as you would have me do.

This Christmas and in the days and weeks that follow, let us all be ready to serve when we are called. Let our lives and spirits be a magnification of God’s love in the world for all God’s children. And, let us love one another like we have loved ourselves as we journey to Christmas and beyond, guided by Christ’s Holy Spirit.