Text: 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 9 How can we thank God for you in return for all the joy we experience before our God because of you, 10 as we pray very earnestly night and day to see you face to face and to complete what is lacking in your faith? 11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus,direct our way to you. 12 And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone, just as we do for you. 13 May he make your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the comingof our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Amen.
I am a master list-maker.
My ability to make lists and my love for lists is perfect for this season of the year: The Season of the Christmas List.
We sing about this sacred list—lists being checked whether you are are naughty or nice; making lists and checking them twice; lists with fur coats, convertibles, and yachts with promises that “Next year, I could be just as good/If you check off my Christmas list”.
This Season of the Christmas List has me planning with pens and highlighters. I love a good list.
I have news: we are not in the season of making a list and checking it twice. We are in the season of Advent which means waiting, watching, and wondering.
It’s hard to make an effort to wait, watch, and wonder while hustle and bustle surrounds us. Scaling back on your “Christmas Lists” seems counter-intuitive; perhaps even anxiety-inducing. You may experience FOMO: The Fear of Missing Out.
There is hope! We can navigate this season well if we edit our Christmas lists.
Paul writes and asks How can we thank God enough? (He’s really asking how can we thank God enough for this particular church but I don’t think it’s a far stretch to just simply ask “How can we thank God enough?”) It’s a particularly pointed question to ask during this season of list-making, gift-buying, cookie-eating, and event-going. May the Lord cause you to increase and enrich your love for each other…May the love cause your hearts to be strengthened, [May the love cause you] to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his people.
Do you hear what I hear? Paul answers his question with one simple word: love.
Love.
We must add that powerful word to the top of our Christmas lists if we are going to make it through this season of waiting, watching, and wondering.
In an attempt to cross off some of my items on my Christmas list I went to my favorite store: Red X. It’s crazy. You never know what you will find there. at the entrance an older person, wrapped in blankets, with tattooed eyebrows looked straight at me and shouted MERRY CHRISTMAS! It was the first time this season someone had greeted me this way, and it was stranger.
Not a pastor, not a friend, not my family — a stranger.
Christmas is all about strange-ness. How strange it is for a king to be born in a stable. How strange it is for angels to herald the arrival. How strange it is for smelly shepherds to be the first to visit the baby. How strange it is for this king to grow up and preach about love.
Love.
Let’s make an effort to edit our Christmas lists to add LOVE to the top if we are to make it though this season of waiting, watching, and wondering.
Amen.
AdventurouslyAuthentic 