Advent and Disappointment

"This year, give them what they want for Christmas."

Each year I marvel, at least once, at the audacity of the advertisers during the Christmas season. The loser this year, in my estimation, is the commercial that compels us to give our loved ones what they want, followed by visual images of (mostly) children laughing and smiling as they open their presents.  The narrator of this particular commercial manages to sprinkle in the word "joy" about a half-dozen times.  Apparently, the only thing that is required of us who would bring joy to our loved ones is to buy them the stuff they want this year.

I admit it, I'm offended.  I'm offended that the profound and powerful word "joy" has been so easily co-opted by an industry that stands to gain much if we believe their story.  I'm offended that the visual images portrayed on the commercials raise expectations to an impossible level.   I'm offended by the very notion that joy and more stuff are somehow intrinsically related.  (What is the message here to those who cannot afford all that stuff?)  I'm offended that many unsuspecting souls who believe the story of the advertisers will spend themselves into oblivion.  In short, I'm offended that a word with rich and powerful resonance in the Christian story--joy-- is used in manipulative ways for self-serving ends.

The story of Advent grants a necessary and honest critique of the idealized American Christmas.  If the dreamy Christmas the advertisers want to give us (and we are so quick to believe) is one of realized joy, the story of Advent speaks of joy that comes.  That's an extraordinarily important difference.  The idealized version of Christmas promises joy here and now, if you simply meet the right requirements.  Advent reminds us that we can expect visitations of joy here and again as hints and promises of the joy that is to come.  The first Advent of Jesus opens our hearts and minds to the visitation of joy, to be sure.  Our encounter with the love of God, poured out in Jesus, cannot help but bring with it occasions of deep and profound delight.  But just as the healing ministry of Jesus was a promise and sign of that healing which will come to our world on that great and beautiful day, so our experiences of joy today point to the "everlasting joy" that will be upon our heads (Isaiah 35:10) at the next Advent of the the Christ.

I go on a bit long in this blog today because I believe that our Americanized version of Christmas sets us up for disappointment, while the Advent story gives us resources for becoming courageous in the midst of disappointment.  The one says"you can have it all now"--and fails to deliver, while the other reminds that here in the time in which we are living between the first and the second Advent we can expect much heartache and pain, but the delightful visits of joy are portents of the everlasting joy that will come when, at last, the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven.  Advent invites me to live hopefully, to pray unceasingly and to work fearlessly toward that day.