In every family, there is one person who cannot wait until Christmas morning for their gifts. In my family, that person was my aunt. Year after year, she would sneak to the Christmas tree, surgically slice through the wrapping paper, check what was inside, and then tape the paper back together. When my grandparents found out, they started hiding her gifts: high up in the attic or far in the back of a cluttered closet. No matter how creatively they hid her gifts, my aunt always found them. She refused to be surprised on Christmas morning.
And yet, Christmas morning is all about surprise.
Two-thousand years ago, the people of Judea longed for the promised Messiah, who would liberate them from the iron rule of Rome and the control of a corrupt priestly class. During this time, several would-be Messiahs rose up as leaders of small and large-scale rebellions. The people pinned their hopes on these charismatic heroes, but one by one they failed to fulfill God’s promise.
No one thought to look in the backwater village of Nazareth. No one thought to look at the young man with the suspicious birth story. No one thought to look to the itinerant Rabbi with no stable income or home, whose own family thought he was delusional. No one thought to look for a spiritual leader who would choose reconciliation over revolt. God’s gift of a Messiah was not who anyone expected.
Christmas morning is a reminder that God works in mysterious (and mischievous!) ways. God will not be boxed into a neat package, and his purposes cannot be tied off with a shiny red bow. God resists our efforts to predict how he might manifest in our world. Our God calls forth life from empty wombs and empty tombs. He promises a way in the wildernesses of life and water in the driest of deserts. Our God is full of surprises.
The Advent season is upon us, and it is a time steeped in tradition. At the church, we celebrate this season the same way year after year. We light the same Advent candles, in the same order. We say the same words, and we sing much the same hymns. The sermons follow the standard themes of: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.
All that tradition is comforting.
But let us not confuse tradition with how our God is at work in this time. For our God longs to surprise and delight us – and what an extraordinary gift that is!
As we enter this Advent season, may we enter it with open hearts. May we expect the unexpected. May we rejoice in the surprises that come our way. May we embrace the new thing our God is doing and give thanks for it.
Rev. Cassie Waits, Associate Pastor for Discipleship