The "stuff" doesn't really matter.

I hope your Thanksgiving was a wonderful celebration of family for you, for the love of family is one of the greatest blessings in this life.

It is my fervent hope that at EDS we can sustain some of this attitude of gratitude as we enter the season of Advent.  Thanksgiving was not even over before the secular world had grabbed our attention way from gratitude and abundance and begun to turn our minds toward wanting and scarcity, away from giving and toward getting.

As Father Sawyer wrote to our faculty this week, Advent is “a season of hope, as prophesied long ago by Isaiah, who spoke of the coming of the Messiah, saying, ‘A people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.’  The focus of our Advent activities should be on God’s gift of Jesus to us and the light of God’s love that we can share with each other and the world.” 

In this context, it seems to me that Christmas flows naturally out of our Thanksgiving celebrations.  From All Saints Day to 8^th Grade Grandparents Day to Veterans Day to Thanksgiving, we have celebrated the abundant gift of others in our lives.  It is fitting to conclude this season and this calendar year (ironically the beginning of the church year) with anticipation and preparation for the greatest gift of all.

I invite you, the EDS community, to join us this year in being counter-cultural. Help us push back against the onslaught of secular distractions and mythology that have intruded upon this beautiful season of preparation.  Help us remind our children that the “stuff” doesn’t really matter.  Things will not make us whole, happy, successful or fulfilled.  Things are temporal and temporary; Christ’s love is eternal; and we are called in this season to reflect the light of God’s love to each other and the world – unconditionally.  While you are making lists and checking them twice, I hope you will join us by making a list of ways to tone down the commercial Christmas and upgrade your celebration of the religious holiday this year.  It doesn’t take much. A little bit of Christ’s love goes a long way (remember my October blog about how long it would take to transform the world).

Happy Advent. Prepare the way.