When I was in High School, my theatre group took a trip to New York City. In order to prepare for the trip we had a few meetings where we were given advice about what to pack, what not to pack, and how to behave. One piece of advice still rings in my ear. The leader of the trip said, "When we’re walking around downtown, try not to look like a tourist. Don’t look up at the buildings and gape. Don’t take your eyes off the street level."

As I heard that advice I began to think. How in the world was I going to get to see the beauty of the New York City skyline if I didn’t lift up my face and tilt back my head? If I just looked around at street level I could almost be in any big city in the world. How could I look at the Statue of Liberty if I kept my eyes rooted to the ground level? How could I look at the top of the Chrysler building if I kept my eyes just looking straight out in front?

Now I know that the advice was given so that we wouldn’t just walk around with our heads back and be an easy target for pickpockets or purse-snatchers. The trip leader didn’t want us to get robbed or harmed in any way. But if we never looked up because we were so worried about getting robbed of our stuff, then we would miss the experience of being in New York.

It might seem a little strange to hear this passage from Luke read during a time of preparing for Christmas. This passage, labeled by some as the "little apocalypse," seems jarring among the Christmas decorations and happy music. This description of distress and foreboding doesn’t seem to match with the coming of the Christ child as a baby in a manger. You might be thinking to yourself, "The whole rest of the world is busy happily preparing for Christmas, why can’t the church get on the Christmas bandwagon already?"

But here in the church we look to celebrate Christmas in two ways. We not only remember the amazing gift that was "God-with-us" in the manger, but we also look forward to Christ’s return. So as we begin our advent season – our season of preparation – in the church, we are looking for Christ’s return. In this passage from Luke, Jesus instructs his followers about how they are to act as they await his return.

Christ says the nations will be confused, the earth will be distressed, and people will faint. But Christ instructs his followers to stand up and raise their heads. Christ’s followers are not to be caught up in dissipation, drunkenness, or the worries of this life. Now I admit that I had to look up "dissipation" in the dictionary in order to be able to understand its meaning. My dictionary offered the definition of dissipation as the, "squandering of money, energy, or resources." So Christ doesn’t want his followers running around worrying, falling over with drunkenness, or wasting money, energy or other resources.

What better time to hear this message than the beginning of the advent season? As we prepare for Christmas what better time to hear this massage of not getting caught up in worries or wasting energy, money or resources?

I carried this passage around with me throughout the week. Can anyone tell me what Friday was? [Black Friday] Black Friday, a day when people still recovering from eating too much turkey and stuffing drag themselves out of bed before dawn to line up outside of stores, worrying about if they were close enough to the front to get the best deals they saw advertised. Black Friday, a day when people can get trampled all in the quest of a great price on whatever new electronic gadget is all the rage this year. Black Friday, a day when retailers depend upon shoppers to spend enough money to put them in the black. Black Friday, a day when stress levels are high as people worry about getting the perfect Christmas gift at a great price.

Is it me or does there seem to be a disconnect between Christ’s instructions to his disciples and the events of Black Friday – or for that matter much of the Christmas shopping season?

The news coverage on Friday inevitably showed footage of people weighed down by their packages as they come out of the stores. Some were excited about getting the best deal around but if you look at the faces of most of the people as they come out of the stores, their shoulders are hunched, their faces point to the ground and their feet shuffle under the weight they are carrying. That seems a far cry from "stand up and raise your heads."

In the last few years, a group of pastors have gotten together and formed a group called the "Advent Conspiracy." The movement has four parts: (1) worship fully, (2) spend less, (3) give more, and (4) love all. The hope of the movement is to focus on worshipping and preparing for Christ’s coming not through shopping but by giving of ourselves. They are not against exchanging gifts for Christmas or even getting a good price on the gifts you do choose to buy. But the gifts they are calling people to give are more about fostering relationships. Rather than giving someone a new toy or simply another do-dad or knick-knack, give something that will foster a relationship.

One example was when a father gave his daughter two blank journals the Christmas before she went off the college. The father explained that she would take one journal and he would take the other and over the next year as she transitioned from living at home to living at college, they would each write their thoughts to each other. Then the following Christmas they would exchange the journals as a way to nurture their relationship.

Another example was an adult daughter who gave her mother a set of mugs as some nice coffee. She also gave her mother the commitment that every Saturday morning she would come over to her mother’s house and they would share a cup of coffee together and visit.

The two journals and coffee mugs, probably cost a lot less than the latest greatest thing at the stores but the idea of the gift was more than just to have something to unwrap but giving more of your self. If we give gifts that are more focused on giving of your self, then there is the possibility that with the money we didn’t spend buying the latest greatest thing from the store is freed up to do more than support the bottom line of big corporations. Perhaps that money could be given to those who don’t even have the basic needs of life: clean water, shelter, food.

As I wrestled with and meditated upon this passage I realized how physically this passage is manifested throughout the Advent season. If we are weighed down by dissipation and the worries of this world, we can’t look up and see God’s gift of the star in the east. If we are weighed down with the worries of getting everything perfect, we might be too busy looking at the signs in the aisles to see the person holding out their hand to us. If our eyes are only caught up in the roaring of the waves of people around us, then we might miss the seemingly insignificant child born to poor parents in a seemingly insignificant town.

As we prepare for Christmas, it’s not about do we give gifts or not. This time of preparation is more about fostering and nurturing relationships: our relationship with God, our relationships with other people, and our relationship with our self.

So, stand up, raise your heads, lift off the weights of worry and dissipation, for your redemption is drawing near. May God’s presence be felt as we worship fully and prepare for the coming of Christ into our life.