We are through Advent and awaiting the big night to celebrate the birth of the Messiah. We have waited and watched, we have prepared. But we have also heard again the promises of God given in Advent stories. Advent stories that give context to the Messiah who is about to come, stories that help us to understand just what it means for Messiah to come into our world. 

Then something odd happens after the fourth Sunday in Advent and Christmas Eve, between our hearing of the promises and news given to Mary about just who she will bear in her body for the sake of the world. 

Some kind of switch flips in our brains, and all the Advent preparation and context is pushed aside in favour of the deep-set memories and nostalgia for Christmas. 

Maybe it is hearing more voices than on a usual Sunday stand together and sing, “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”

Maybe it is when the lights are dimmed, and the introduction to “Silent Night” begins, as a flame is passed from person to person bringing a warm glow to faces gathered in darkness.

Maybe it is when the reader moves to the ambo and begins to read, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”

There are all kinds of moments in the Christmas Eve service that catch our attention and bring us back to cherished Christmas memories. 

Memories that have the power to push our readiness for Messiah out of the way, and make Chrismas all about those powerful feelings that orient us to the past. Because for many of us, Christmas holds an outsized place in our hearts and minds.

It makes for an odd transition from Advent to Christmas, an odd experience of thoroughly preparing our hearts to hear a story with care and attention. Then, only when it comes time to hear that story, can we shift our focus to re-creating Christmas moments and memories from the past. 

Of course, I don’t think God is one bit surprised by this. In fact, I think this is all part of the Christmas story. We aren’t the first people to get wrapped up in our own things at Christmas and we almost miss the point. 

God is born into the world among a community that has little space or time for  Messiah. A world where the only available parents were two Israelites living in poverty. A world with no room for a baby to be born. And a world where social inferiors like Shepherds were the only ones to hear the Angelical announcement of Messiah’s birth. 

But God has chosen to join humanity in our mess, and that includes a messiness that has little room for Messiah. God chooses to come near anyway. God chooses to fulfill the Advent promises even as humanity is too busy with other things. 

I won’t tell anyone to try to hold back the Christmas memories in order to listen to the incarnation story more carefully and deeply… it is just too hard not to be transported back to Christmases of old when “Silent Night” starts playing on the organ. 

Instead, know that Messiah indeed has come. Messiah has come to fulfill the promises of God, right here amongst us.