Advent Traditions III: Alms & Bearing Burdens

Second to shopping, giving to charities is the en vogue thing to do during the month of December. Giving to a wide range of good causes becomes extra easy and convenient.  There is even a day dedicated to it once the first few days of shopping come to a close on Giving Tuesday.  Where ever you look people can be found making donations this time of year, rather it be out of generosity, coercion, or the need for a tax deduction.  Supporting charities is something that is supported by the broad scope of our culture, it not unique to only Christians or Christian organizations.  So why then is giving alms an Advent tradition? No, the answer is not because Santa Clause or even that it makes us better Christians.

We Give Because We Are Free

Giving for the Christian is tied to the second table of the law which instructs us to love our neighbor.  We are to serve them in their physical needs and concern ourselves with helping our neighbor and their households prosper.  Yep, that includes our enemies.  Nope, we can't do this without our sin mucking it up.  Most often when we try to give we get an ego trip out of the whole ordeal. We feel we deserve more credit than we deserve.  In Christ, we are free to give.  Giving becomes a fruit of the Gospel, a work done in us through the Holy Spirit.  We come to love the law that shows us the blessing of loving our neighbor as ourselves.  Because Advent keeps our focus on Christ and away from ourselves, we find joy in giving.

Culturally it is convenient to give haphazardly and perhaps impersonally tossing your extra change into a red bucket.  Certainly causes like that are fine and benefit many.  However, it is a wonderful thing to take the time to seek out a special cause of which we can be personally connected to.  It teaches us humbleness and graciousness as we see how God has blessed us to be a blessing to someone else.   In our giving, we trust and look to the promises of God's Word from which flows our prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.

Yoked Together In Advent

As we go through the season of waiting we are reminded that as God's beloved we are yoked together to bear each others burdens.  The holiday season in all it's festivities has a way to tugging at the hurts and pains of many people.  Some suffer the grief of losing a loved one, some are depressed, poor and impoverished, some are just simply lonely, families may be separated or in the midst of conflict, and some struggle with doubt.  Our flesh causes lots of sorrow. Now bearing each others burdens is not a specific Advent tradition, yet it seems very appropriate for the season.  During Advent, as we wait, the scriptures focus us on Jesus, taking on human flesh.  The flesh of a baby shivering cold and lying in the mess of a feeding trough for animals.  It doesn't get much humbler than that.  Emmanuel took the burden of our sin and flesh from a humble manger to a humble tree.  Now as we eagerly await His return, bringing us into a restored heaven and earth, we know that life in the present isn't dandy and pleasant all the time.  Being a Christian doesn't mean that life will be a comfortable utopia.  No, we suffer, but we suffer at the foot of the cross.

We suffer with each other, yoked together, to walk along side of each other in love and harmony.  We bear one another's burdens when we point each other to Christ's free forgiveness, and forgiving each other.  Yes, even grumpy old relatives around the Christmas dinner table.  Again we are free. Free to act in mercy and empathy in response to complaints, grumbles, and discontentment.  We offer better than the world's words of "just get off your butt and be happy".   We speak the truth in love.  Advent truth that Jesus is present for us, despite our suffering and doubts, in Word and Sacrament. Burden bearing reminds us that God is caring and providing to support this body and life. Not just in Advent, but each and every day we can come to the outstretched arms of our Adonai who redeems us.