Christmas - Why Wait?

Sunday, November 30, 2025 - First Sunday of Advent

The Rev. Anna Guillozet (she/her)

Senior Pastor, Linworth United Methodist Church

Allied Christian

We read in Ecclesiastes chapter three that “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” What does that mean for us, however, when Christmas decorations seem to go up before all the trick-or-treat candy has even been consumed? I can hear Cindy Lou Who singing, “Where are you Christmas? Why can't I find you? Why have you gone away?” and that seems so comical in our culture in which Christmas lasts for two solid months. I think we cling to the notion of Christmas because we are desperate; for something bright, for something distracting, for something comforting. We are desperate and we need those feelings now. Delayed gratification is something that many of us as individuals and we as a culture on demand are not good at living into, and yet the season of Advent, by its very nature, calls us to wait.

For so many, this time of year is a crash into the darkness as we continue to prolong and further complicate our relationship with Daylight Saving Time. Not only do the nights get longer, they descend upon us earlier. Perhaps

the reason so many are drawn to the twinkly lights of Christmas is because they serve to distract us from the darkness. The challenge is that Advent is a season observed in many places within the Christian church as a time of expectant waiting while we simultaneously celebrate the birth of the infant Christ and wait for the return of Christ.

This strikes me as a problematic teaching on the verge of Advent, the church season of deepening darkness, when Christians are asked to remember that we measure time differently from the dominant culture in which we live.

We begin our year when the days are getting darker, not lighter. Many traditions and people count sunset as the beginning of a new day. However things appear to our naked eyes, we trust that the seeds of light are planted in darkness, where they sprout and grow, we cannot fathom. This darkness is necessary to new life, even when it is uncomfortable and feels like it goes on too long. Barbara Brown Taylor writes of this notion: “Here is a helpful reminder to all who fear the dark. Darkness does not come from a different place than light; it is not presided over by a different God. The long nights of Advent and the early mornings of Easter both point us toward the God for whom darkness and light are alike.”

During the season of Advent, I find myself drawn to the people and traditions who start a day at sunset. Instead of the night being the final thing that we are forced to face when we are exhausted, we can view a peaceful, gradual, intentional journey toward the darkness not as something to be feared, but a time in which our senses are heightened toward God’s presence. The darkness is not a separation from God. The darkness is not a place to avoid. The darkness is not full of terror.

What the darkness is, however, is an invitation to pause, breathe, and search. We need not rush toward Christmas, but instead wait with intention, sometimes in the darkness, for the light to appear.

For further study, take in Psalm 139 (especially verses 7- 12).