Voices of Faith

When your Advent calendar is broken

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In just the four weeks before Christmas, the church season of Advent endeavors to prepare us for the tremendous changes God is bringing to us in the birth of Jesus. In his own day, Jesus flew under just about everyone’s radar because he defied expectations of how the Messiah would come, what he would look like, how he would act and talk, and what his priorities would be. Advent should be a time when we prepare to have our 21st-century expectations shattered, so that the Messiah doesn’t fly under our radar as well. It’s a task complicated by our sentimental, consumer-colored celebration of Christmas that has overshadowed Advent.