What Are *You* Giving Up for Advent?

Read: Philippians 2:1-18

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

It is with a sad sense of irony that it is often been observed that the weeks leading up to Christmas are characterized by a more concentrated emphasis on materialism and consumerism than we see at any other time of year. In the United States, the day set aside for Thanksgiving is immediately followed, and increasingly overshadowed, by Black Friday, a day dedicated fully to consumerism, a day when people often go without sleep so that they can line up early to buy more stuff. The throngs of people we see lining up in stores on Friday, not to mention the violence that we sometimes see breaking out in those store line-ups, raise justifiable questions about just how thankful people were for the stuff they already had on Thursday.

What a different perspective we find in the mind of Jesus during the first Advent leading up to his birth! In today’s Scripture readings, the Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death– 

        even death on a cross!  (Philippians 2:6-8)

It is impossible for us, with our finite and innately self-centered human minds, to truly and fully grasp the depth of utterly unselfish love that prompted Jesus, the Son of God, to give up his glorious home in heaven and his rightful place at the right hand of the Father in order to subject himself to the limitations and frailties of the body of a human infant. We can, however, gratefully acknowledge the unfathomableness of Jesus’ love for us, and allow our gratitude to inspire us to look for new opportunities to offer selfless acts of service to God and to our fellow human beings during this Advent season.

Loving and Compassionate Lord Jesus, during this Advent season, fill our hearts and minds with renewed wonder and gratitude for the love that compelled you to humble yourself to the point of taking on human form and ultimately dying to pay the penalty for our sins. Although we will never be able to fully grasp the depth of your love with our finite minds, may your love inspire and embolden us to greater acts of service, for Your glory and for the good of our fellow human beings. In Your Name. Amen.