Two simple words, but many interpretations.  Are we talking cooking, baking, or having your blood start to boil over?  To us Advent sojourners, it is talking about our hearts.  This “now”, this present coming of Christ. Guess what “stir up” comes from in Latin? The word excita.  So yes, get excited!  In Advent, we pray in church, beginning with the imperative “stir up”.  A call to action, it is.  Even though this preparation season is brief and flies by, we anticipate Jesus’ coming in power, blended with how our hearts and wills respond. In all times and in all places, we are surrounded and filled with the presence (and present) of Christ. Excitement indeed!

Ready or not, here it is.  Wouldn’t it be nice to place a moratorium on anything resembling normal routine until, maybe, after the new Year? I find myself regrettably “stirred up” by the silliest of details, even where to put our family’s nativity set.  I am too often either on the receiving OR giving end of “we’ve never done it that way” or “we’ve always done it this way.”  It happens at home, it happens in our church.  Sacred traditions (“moooo”) that are implacable. Give me a gourmet burger any time!   For me, part of the delight or charm of Advent-Christmas is the unpredictability. Knowing that things don’t HAVE to be the same year in and year out. Some things can and should remain constant. But the minor variations of “ingredients”, stirred up, serves notice that Christ comes to us every December no matter what kind of year we’ve had, who is or isn’t coming to visit, ready or not.

Is it too irreverent to think of it as a divine hide & seek?    “Ready or not, here Jesus comes.”   Where would he find you? Quarreling, ranting politically? Hip-deep in commercialism? Stirred up about plans falling apart? Facing unexpected medical maladies? I pray that wherever the Christ-child finds you, your heart is stirred up enough to keep the nastiness and bitterness of the daily gloom and doom at bay. I pray that your stirred-up hearts would be filled with all the messages, carols, and God-winks of this holy season of Advent.  Receive into your hearts the unconditional love of God in Jesus Christ, our soon-to-be-born-again Savior.

Pastor Art