The Season of Advert
We have entered the season of Advert. It used to be called the season of Advent!
Advent was a time of waiting and reflection before Christmas. It was a time of preparation before the big celebration of the coming of Jesus, God's son, born as a human being.
But now there's no waiting - just a mad drive to encourage us to spend as much as possible on stuff that's largely unnecessary and useless. What's worse, we seem so eager to oblige! Parents will get themselves into a flap and even into debt because children must have whatever they demand. Children will demand whatever the advertisers tell them they need. Ridiculous behaviour! Wherever did they learn such attitudes?
Well, actually, we taught them. Mums and Dads, Aunts and Uncles, Politicians, Teachers, Ministers of Religion - we teach the children this behaviour. The child who, when asking for something, is reminded that there's a little word which they've forgotten is less likely these days to say 'please' and more likely to say 'now!'
Children imitate what they see and fairly faithfully copy how adults behave. So if it seems that the pressure to 'have' and to 'get', and to have it all 'now!' seems a bit ridiculous we adults have no-one to blame but ourselves.
Cars, homes, sex, food, fitness, you name it and you should be able to claim it almost at once. Best ever interest rates, fail-proof contraceptives, liposuction - if you've got the desire, we've got the means and you can have it now, say the advertisers.
Hang on a minute though. What kind of people are we becoming? What kind of society are we creating with this madness? We are becoming less understanding of one another, more impatient - that's why we sue each other so much. We are becoming 'users', using relationships and other people as a means to satisfy our needs - that's why more and more children live in broken homes. We are becoming more concerned about things than people - that's why lots of elderly folks die in neglect or get ripped off or mugged. We are becoming less content with the more we have.
Advent is actually a good idea. It’s a good idea to have a season in which we take time out to think through some important issues. It's good to have a time when the focus shifts from me and mine to God and his. It's about time we stopped worshipping our little tin and plastic gods and ourselves and gave God his place.
When we begin to take some time to think through the Christmas story we soon discover that, even if we don't, God knows how to wait.
God was prepared to work through the normal process of human development so that it took some thirty years before the man Jesus died on the cross.
God is prepared to wait and give us a lifetime to come to our senses and sort out our relationship with him and then forgive us for the mess we make while taking so long to get sorted. What patience!
What a crazy bunch we are. Over the next few weeks we'll want to get drunk - tonight! We will want to have a good time - now! We will take our custom elsewhere if we don't get served - immediately! We'll be queuing up at the returns counters come the 28th December to get instant refunds and meantime spend even more on instant lotteries. But we'll leave off the big issues, like giving the Creator his rightful place, until some other time. Big mistake.
When the baby whose birthday is the excuse for our crazy commercialism grew up Luke's gospel records him saying, "Real life is not measured by how much we own….. a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God."
If his birth is worth celebrating surely his teaching's worth heeding.
Have a happy Advert - I mean, Advent!