I’m excited to be part of the Advent conspiracy.

…others have led us (Jo, Josh, Elizabeth, Marta). But I’m excited to reclaim Christmas, to focus on Jesus and his presence, not the tree and its presents.

In these four weeks of Advent, we will try to worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all. And it’s the first and the last that really capture the heart of this for me. Worship fully, love all; these bookends are really the two commandments Jesus said are the greatest, the two that we had as our theme at the church retreat a few weeks ago.

Worship fully! Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.

Love all! Love your neighbor as yourself.

A conspiracy against the consumerism of Christmas could run the risk of being Scrooge like.

We could end up being intense people, inflicting guilt as we try to miser each other into a simpler, but cheerless Christmas.

But these bookends of the journey keep us far away from that! Worshipping with joy and abandon, with all our heart, soul and mind is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Ebenezer Scrooge. We’re not JUST spending less and giving more…we’re doing all that as an act of worship, as a way to lavishly praise God for the gift of his Son

In fact, worship fully can’t just be THIS week’s theme. Worshipping heart, soul, mind, body and spirit is the focus and purpose of the entire Advent season.

So our beginning of the Advent season is a call to worship fully, to express our love and thanks to God for Jesus Christ.

Matthew gives the “why” of our worship. If you’ve read about the first Christmas, if you’ve heard someone tell the good news of Jesus…well, I don’t have anything new to tell you. You’ve heard it before.

Matthew’s why is my favorite Christmas word, and one of my favorite words, period.

The why of worship is Emmanuel, God with us. READ Matt.

How has God come near for you?

In the times in your life when you have been most aware of God’s presence, what has been your response?

Sometimes I wish my response came as easily, as beautifully, and as quickly as it does in Luke chapter 1.

Matthew’s version gives the “why” of our worship, the fact that God came near. Luke’s account gives us pictures, examples of what it looks like to respond and fully worship.

This baby Jesus in Mary’s womb changes people. They respond in spontaneous acts of heartfelt worship. Even unborn children respond: READ

This leads to Mary’s heartfelt response of worship, a beautiful and powerful song of praise. [READ]

Even Zechariah, the old man silenced by the presence of an angel in the holy of holies, finds his voice to sing praise to God.

What stood out to me reading this again is that Zechariah’s song might be mistaken by us or those around him as being about his son. But it’s clearly not. Zechariah, after a lifetime of waiting for his own son, clearly sees that God is at work with something much more powerful, something which his son is just going to point to. [READ]

Now, I know we like to take the bible seriously and practically.

We want the bible to guide our worship and our lives.

Some of you may do just what Mary and Zechariah did. Some of you may worship fully by writing your own song of praise to God!

Others of you just aren’t wired that way and can’t imagine writing a song and singing it at the top of your lungs, so you have to look elsewhere in this chapter for your clues to worship fully.

You’ll have to, I don’t know, follow the baby John’s example and go kick your mother in the stomach. J

That joke is really not very good, but I just couldn’t let it go this week.

Actually, Zechariah’s words get at the beauty of God and our worship of him.

Look at Luke 1:74-75

“to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.”

Because God came near to us, we can draw near to God!

We can serve and love him without fear!

How will you worship fully? What will it look like for you?

It doesn’t have to depend on our feelings or our circumstances. I wasn’t feeling very worshipful or joyful last night. I chose to remember what God has done for each of us, and to thank him for what he’s done in my life.

Think of these examples in Luke, worshipping beyond their experience, beyond their circumstance. Mary is an unwed mother in a culture where she would have no future or place or means of support, unless Joseph believed her angelic story and stuck with her. Zechariah is an old man who had been silenced by the Spirit, and when his voice returns, he gives praise to God with abandon.

Our journey in Advent is to discover and worship the God who drew near to us.

It’s not to muster up a feeling, or even to change the world with how we spend less and give more.

It’s to worship fully! Discovering how God is near, how God is active, is the best way to move us to worship and praise.

Advent is a season for waiting and anticipating and longing. But even in the middle of that, there is the sure knowledge that Jesus has ALREADY come, that God is ALREADY here, that we are free to serve God without fear because of the gift of his Son.