A couple of years ago I was pulled over for speeding in South Carolina. As I later discovered, I had been traveling through one of “those counties” that picks off drivers as a source of local revenue. I looked up the County Sherriff’s office online and they celebrate their Route 95 unit and how many tickets they write. They even had a glamor shot of one of their special highway cruisers. Such policing is sometimes debated with regard to its motivation, whether it is truly about public safety or whether it is more accurately described as a revenue source. Either way, I had been exceeding the speed limit and I got nabbed. At that point it didn’t matter if it was a purely virtuous stop or something else.  

I have been reflecting on that in this season in my role as a sworn officer of the Advent Police. Yes, it’s a seasonal assignment. A special task force, as it were. Our mascot is the Grinch, or so I’m told. Each year I clip on my badge and use the training I’ve received over the years. It takes practice to get the “tsk, tsk” right when the neighbors put up their Christmas Tree at Thanksgiving. And the eye rolls over the displays in the stores – no one wants a repeat of the incident that put Father Andrew under the surgeon’s knife because of an eye roll he hadn’t properly trained for.  

I do my priestly duty when it comes to making the Advent season a bit more penitential – not too penitential, but just enough. We use the appropriate liturgical colors, like purples and blues. They are the modern throwbacks to the faded blacks of prior centuries when black dyes were hard to come by. We have quietly tucked away the use of alleluia (don’t read this out loud!) for the season. We’ll bring it back on Christmas like an extra gift. I’ve even appropriately teased a local Baptist pastor who celebrated his congregation’s “Advent” decorations in their sanctuary over a week ago, replete with red bows and Christmas trees. I mean, really. Christmas trees?

But you know what? I’m tired of being a member of the Advent Police. Don’t get me wrong. I still sigh at the irony of a culture that does Christmas up so much that it gets bored with it by the time Christmas actually gets here. It’s almost painful when people forget that Christmas is a SEASON that starts on Christmas morning and concludes with Epiphany. Even the County Christmas tree recycling program seems designed to get the trees out of the house sooner rather than later, once the jolly fat man squeezes back up the chimney.    

I still have a claim to my membership on the force, yet my heart isn’t in a lot of its work. Full confession:  my own “Advent Tree” is already up. I’ve been practicing Christmas carols here and there, though I can’t do the all-Christmas-all-the-time radio stations yet. I know full well that certain former Altar Guild members from prior congregations would roll over in their graves to know that we have a RED bow on the wreath on our front door. It’s shameful, really. …And I love it.  

I understand why we want to celebrate Christmas as much as we can. It’s a special time. It’s a special story, and a special feeling. And if we do it right, we can prolong the celebration with copious preparations and still include the Advent themes and contemplation. The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive, even if there are those who claim that the baby won’t come on Christmas morning if we wear too much red and green before Christmas Eve. I manage to do both at the same time, and honestly, I think everyone is capable. Whether we do it or not is the reason for the preaching and the lectionary. When it comes to policing lights and trees, however, I feel like we’ve missed the point. There are better things to get worked up about.

Here I am, for the first time in my priestly ministry, saying publicly, that you should feel free to prepare for Christmas however you wish. If you want a Christmas tree up for six weeks, go for it. Lights for eight weeks? God bless you. If you want to say, Merry Christmas, from Black Friday forward, be my guest. But promise me this: don’t forget to enter into the mystery of Advent at the same time. Find ways to sit with the feeling of uncertainty and expectation around the first and second coming of Jesus into the world. Prepare your hearts, not just your homes. Find time for the stillness and the patience that is so elusive in the ramp up to Christmas. If you start celebrating early, don’t lose sight of the twelve actual days of Christmas that come much later – those days matter, too.  

For my part, I’m not going to be issuing any Advent tickets just for the sake of it. The truth of the matter is that the extended Christmas spirit has a lot of positive effects on this world and on us, too. My Advent-soon-to-be-Christmas tree makes me feel good. I can’t help it. So I won’t.  I will enjoy the tree, and the ornaments, and the Christmas ear worms that get stuck in my head every time I visit a public place. I will actually smile at Christmas come early, instead of scowling with my stern priestly Advent face. 

It’s always bothered me that at the same time the world gets bright with Christmas, we go dark in the church for four weeks. It’s the exact opposite of showing the world what light in the darkness looks like, another of our Advent themes. So live it up. Keep Advent in your hearts even while Christmas keeps a tight hold on your calendar. Celebrate safely and keep it within a reasonable limit and I promise I won’t get out my ticket book.

Tom+

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.