Nana and Pappy (my wife’s grandparents) always had lots of company for Christmas. For many families, the grandparents house is where Christmas "happens." Maybe you have a place in the treasures of your memory where Christmas happens or used to happen. Nana and Pappy’s is where Christmas happened for our family.

And it took weeks of preparation. Nana loved the holidays and the gathering of people in her home – and she was busy with all the things she would do to make Christmas happen. She started the day after Thanksgiving and worked right through Christmas day.

Pappy, on the other hand was a kind of a grouch about the whole thing. Nana used to say that he was the inspiration for Dr. Seuss' book, "The Grinch who Stole Christmas." A standard part of Christmas was Pappy’s grumbling about how much time Nana took baking cookies and shopping for gifts. If he said it once, he said it a thousand times, "That grandmother of yours is going to have us in the poor house before the New Year!" But Nana was undaunted, "Oh Jimmy," she would scold, "don’t be an old grouch. Go to the store and get me another bag of flour!"

He would snort his grouch snort, blowing a few ashes from his pipe as he lifted his newspaper back into place – cutting everyone from view. I think now he did that to hide his smile. Pappy’s grouching was as much a part the preparation for Christmas as Nana’s baking.

When Nana died a few years ago, the sense of Christmas changed for the whole family. It became clear that Pappy would give anything in the world to have Nana back so he could complain about all the fuss she made over the holidays. Now she's gone and Pappy finally spoke the words that had been there all along, "Preparing was the biggest part of Christmas. The spirit is gone without Nana and her incessant preparing."

A couple of years later, Pappy died and now Christmas means something entirely different than it did when Nana and Pappy from the "olden days" spent weeks getting ready. It is as though we no longer have time for that kind of Christmas and I fear my own grandchildren will miss something wonderful unless we take very intentional steps to really "prepare" for Christmas.

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Pappy was right about one thing. Preparing is one of the most important parts of Christmas. The Gospel of Mark begins with the theme of preparation. Isaiah had spoken of it several hundred years earlier.

"… the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord…"

One of the central meanings of Advent is the preparation of God’s people for the coming of Christ whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.

No one would deny that most of us spend a good bit of time preparing for Christmas. It is not so clear that the preparation is a spiritual thing. Advent affords us the opportunity to explore the vast difference between seasonal preparation and spiritual preparation.

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Seasonal Preparation is something all of us are familiar with and perhaps even dreading a bit.

* There is preparation of all those strings of lights for the tree.

* Someone needs to go through the Christmas card list.

* And then there’s the shopping that has to be done for the Christmas party.

* Who’s going to drive the children to the pageant rehearsals?

* Someone has to remember to get out and shop for one of those new gadgets all the kids want these days. The stores will run out and you will find yourself searching through the newspaper ads for one – and the price will be ten times the already inflated retail price!

All of us have our favorite and not so favorite ways of preparing for the Christmas season. And while this may be a generalization, I see a kind of evidence for the "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus" theory in how men and women go about preparing for Christmas.

Men are basically in denial while women generally think ahead in preparing for Christmas. If you doubt the truth of this, go to your favorite mall beginning about noon on Christmas Eve and observe who is rushing about searching for a gift with a look of panic on their face. The place will be crowded with men who are searching for a gift for their wife or fiancée or girl friend. A parishioner who worked on commission in a jewelry store told me she always volunteered to work on Christmas Eve. "The men are willing to part with lots of money in return for the promise of ‘the perfect gift.’ "

Forewarned is forearmed. So all you Martians take heed and prepare! Early!

Whatever our circumstances, we are all aware of the seasonal preparation that is a part of this time of year. We also understand the pressure that this time of preparation brings about. Each of us will have at least one experience of looking at the calendar and wondering, "Where in the world has the time gone?"

And that’s they key. "Where in the WORLD…" That is – the outward, secular Christmas world. But there is another world that begs attention and preparation.

Spiritual Preparation is not so obvious. It is so very easy to buy into the notion that if we have gone through the season, done all the "Christmas" things and attended church – especially on Christmas Eve – then we have celebrated Christmas and done our proper Christian duty.

Authentic spiritual preparation, however means much more. It begins with a call to attention – an "Achtung!" – from a strange man who lives out in the desert and preaches a stern message about preparing the way of the Lord.

He spoke his message almost 2000 years ago and we are familiar with his message because we hear it every year about this time. Yet, the man who wears camel’s hair and, locusts and lives in the desert is strange. As strange as someone who would suggest that when we have literally worn ourselves out with preparations for and celebration of Christmas – we have not really prepared a way for the Lord.

What is this man saying and why do people make the long trip from Jerusalem to listen to his harsh words and submit to his baptism?

First of all the people who went out to hear John the Baptizer’s words and respond to his call for a baptism of repentance were not all that different from us. Though the world was quite different from our contemporary world, the people were not so different. By and large, they would have considered themselves believers in God. Many would have said they attended worship and did their religious duties at the temple. Some were even members of the clergy.

The second point we need to understand is that in spite of the fact that many of the people who came to hear John considered themselves spiritual, something John said went struck at the core of their souls. "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Absolutely amazing words. "I am not worthy…" If John the baptizer was anything, he was religious. A truly holy man living like an ancient prophet. Maybe even a scary man. And here’s what would unnerve those who heard John’s words. "If this man is unworthy to even untie the sandal straps of the coming Holy One – where does that leave me!"

One of the essential elements in preparing for Christmas – that is in preparing for the coming of Christ – is in taking a serious inventory of my inner life.

A third major issue in John’s message is that he is a voice crying out in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the Lord!" Do you see? It isn’t prepare for Christmas Holidays… or prepare for company… or prepare your credit card limit… It’s prepare for the Lord!

This is a call to remember and reflect on the heart of the Christian message that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It is that slogan you’ve seen on buttons or bumper stickers that says, "Jesus is the reason for the season." (My discomfort with this slogan is the huge amount of money that has been spent on coffee mugs, pencils, T-shirts, bumper stickers, buttons and who knows what else. The slogan was great for a while, but it has been co-opted by commercial interests.)

The issue John raises, however, is that we are to examine our souls to prepare for the coming of the Holy One into our lives. It is the line from the hymn, Joy to the World, "Let every heart prepare him room."

A final point is the key to the response John received when he addressed the people of his generation has to do with the phrase that follows, "Prepare the way of the Lord.." namely, "…make his paths straight."

"Make his paths straight," would mean literally to make the road level. In other words, the way for God to come into our lives should be on a road that is clear of debris and easy to traverse. It should not be "an uphill battle" for Christ to gain entrance into our lives.

As I read this phrase from Isaiah and reflect on what it means, two things come to mind:

[1] There is so much debris and clutter that gathers on the roadway of my life during the season of Advent. (To say nothing of the debris and clutter of ordinary days!) I confess that I am too easily distracted from the central call of John the Baptizer to "Prepare the way of the Lord." It is as though the world calls me to prepare for everything but the Lord. Yet the Spirit calls me to make room for Christ in the midst of this.

[2] The issue of making a level road for the Lord to enter my life, instead of making it an uphill road speaks to me about priorities. The question might be a little disturbing, but it is necessary. If I write down a list of the real priorities on my agenda for the next few weeks – would it become painfully clear that I need to rearrange them?

John’s call to repentance is a call to turn away from everything that clutters the highway of my life and to raise the priority of my relationship with the Lord during this season.

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Advent comes to us each year as a call to renewal. It is a call for remember and renew the place Christ wants to hold in our lives. In the wilderness of the commercial season that is upon us, the voice of the wilderness preacher comes to us once again:

Leader:   Open our ears, O Lord, that we might hear your word for us today.
People:  Your word brings peace to those who seek you with all their hearts.
Leader:   Give us grace, O Lord, to place our lives in your hands,
People:  So that your glory may fill our hearts and this place.
Leader:   You alone are Lord of all and we praise you with all our being.
People:  Your steadfast love and faithfulness are the joy of life for us!   Amen!