Advent 2024: Meet You in the Middle!

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” What an appropriate opening for an Advent sermon, don’t you think? If you are anything like me, these 10 words actually transport you somewhere else. Maybe to a movie theatre in the 70s, or a family room (with a VCR) in the 80s. They are the opening words that crawl up the screen in yellow font at the start of the Star Wars movies, the epic stories created by George Lucas that have captivated our attention for nearly 50 years now.  

My spouse and I are both admittedly Star Wars nerds – owning the toys and merchandise when we were children and seeing all the new films as they are released. I was the nerd who read the Star Wars books in high school, while he is the nerd who gets into the spin-off television shows that are still being produced today. So, being a Star Wars nerd, I confess to you that every time we come around the Advent season in the annual cycle of the church, and we start talking about “hope” in the first week, my mind immediately goes to the title of the very first Star Wars film, Episode IV: A New Hope, because the arrival of Jesus was the birth of a new hope for humanity, and because with each annual celebration of expectant waiting, we are indeed summoning within ourselves a new hope.

Part of the appeal of Star Wars for me and for many others is that Lucas has based much of the story on prominent mythology found in the world’s major religions, including Christianity. Being a fan of the scholar Joseph Campbell, Lucas was drawn to the notion that all of humanity, including our religions, share commonalities in the stories we tell. Campbell’s books, including The Hero With A Thousand Faces, share how all of the world’s religions explore humanity’s fight against evil, and the patterns of creation and destruction. And so, when we watch the Star Wars films it is not uncommon to encounter themes and scenarios that sound and feel very similar to some of the themes and scenarios we find in Christianity. Our faith inspired the world George Lucas creates in Star Wars.

Perhaps one of the strangest aspects of the iconic Star Wars films is that they begin with Episode IV: A New Hope. The film starts as if there have already been three episodes, and we are dropped into the middle of a story already at play with only allusions to what has already transpired. There is a civil war underway. The Galactic Senate is losing power as the Galactic Empire has emerged. The Republic is losing to the evil Empire, which is taking over the galaxy through violence. But alas, a rebel alliance has formed and is fighting back against the Imperial Army. A whole lot is already in motion and has already taken place by the time we see the first shots in the film.

George Lucas has been questioned about this puzzling starting point a number of times. Why start in the middle of the story? He has several answers. The first is that he says he doesn’t like beginnings because he doesn’t like doing exposition work in his screenplays. He notes that he has to have that work somewhat written and understood in his mind for any of the stories to make sense, but that he didn’t want to do an introduction to everything and everyone involved in the story. The second, and probably most honest reason, is that the first three movies were the story he most wanted to tell, so he started there. He had no idea whether anyone would even watch the first one and whether there would be any money for the next two films, let alone episodes one through three. Also note that George Lucas has done a lot of interviews in the last 50 years and sometimes his answers for why he did things a certain way have changed over time – a fact that is annoying for many Star Wars devotees, but one that I find kind of fascinating because it signals to me that Lucas is still working out his own storylines.

The Star Wars saga begins in the middle. That’s where we start - with trying to figure out what has already happened, what’s happening in the present, and who all these people are running around on screen. Would the series have been better if it had started with Episode 1? Probably not. Would the Godfather films have been better if every scene had been shown chronologically, rather than bouncing around through time in the lives of the characters? Gasp, right? No! Part of the magic of some stories is that they are told in the order they are told – and that the work of figuring out what is going on in the middle of the story is part of the experience, part of the intrigue, part of what gets us invested.

So what does this have to do with Advent? Well, in our Christian faith, the story of Christ is what is central, even though Christ enters the scene very much in the middle of the Story of God that has been unfolding over time. The person of Jesus is not physically present when God creates the Heavens and the Earth in Genesis. He’s not there through the heroic exploits of Noah or Joseph or Moses. He’s not standing beside Samuel or David or in the crowds addressed by all of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Jesus arrives in the middle of the story. Our hero, our central character, arrives in the middle of the action. Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus makes references to elements of God’s story that have already taken place and allusions to what is to come in the future. But Jesus arrives to us right in the middle of the Story of God.

Whenever Advent comes around again, I frequently find myself caught off guard and feeling unprepared. The end of the calendar year is so busy for many of us, especially those of us with children or large families. The holidays are jammed packed together. Schools are wrapping up the semester. Students are taking finals. Organizations and businesses are wanting to close out the year on a high and productive note before they close up shop for a week or two. It’s a busy and hectic time of year, and so when I want to march into Advent cool, calm, collected and totally prepared to quietly engage in these weeks of hopeful and expectant waiting, I am often let down. I am more apt to arrive frenzied and frazzled, over-programmed under-rested, running behind and with too much on my plate for any reasonable person. This is how so many of us arrive at Advent.

But here’s the beauty… One of the many messages that we can pull from Advent is that Christ arrives in the middle of all the action. In the middle of the chaos. Christ does not need a slow and quiet entry ramp into our lives. That’s not even how he arrives in the story in the Bible. Jesus is not born to a woman who is comfortably resting at home and waiting for those contractions to begin with her friends and midwife at her side. Mary and Joseph are on the road, forced to travel by a decree of the Emperor, and forced to take shelter in a barn when labor begins – away from their community and surrounded by farm animals! Jesus Christ is literally born into the unplanned, unexpected and unprepared action in the lives of Mary and Joseph. This is the story of how God comes to us – in the middle of God’s story arc and in the middle of chaos in the lives of Mary and Joseph.

Thank God for that. For this reminder that Christ will come to all of us, in the middle of whatever action is happening in our lives. When John the Baptist proclaimed, “In the wilderness, prepare a way for the Lord,” I am grateful to know that preparing a way doesn’t mean we have to figure out a way to stop the world around us. Christ comes in the middle of all of it. Whatever chaos is at play in the world and in our own lives – Christ breaks through and arrives to us just the same.

In Paul’s letter to the church in Phillipi that I read this morning, Paul is writing from Prison. and knowing that context, I am struck by these words: “And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.”

“What really matters…” One of the things that really matters during this second week of Advent is that we may all have the realization that the Christ child will arrive. Our Emmanuel will be born this year, whether we are able to slow down and prepare our hearts in the ways we “should,” or whether we make it to Christmas morning on a wing and a prayer. Christ will arrive in the middle of it – whatever “it” ends up looking like for you this year. God has written and is writing a story in which the central figure was dropped into the middle of the action. Jesus doesn’t need perfect silence and calm stillness in order to break into this world, into our lives and into our hearts.

So, I’ll meet you in the middle of the action on Christmas Eve. And there we will encounter Emmanuel, “God with us,” together. Amen.